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How To Effectively Write Content for E-Commerce Sites

Focus On Your Audience First, Google Second

It’s easy to get caught up in the SEO chaos of keywords, links and other rules in order to drive up your search rankings . However, your potential customer should be your primary focus.

Write clear, yet thorough product descriptions for each item. Your customer needs to know as much pertinent information as possible in order to make an educated purchasing decision. Give visitors a word picture of your merchandise so they don’t jump off your page and move on to your competitor.

Not only does solid content help customers determine the product itself, it also builds trust with your online brand. Online shoppers don’t have the advantage of trying out the product or seeing it in real life, so many want to make sure that they are getting the best product rather than a lemon.

Accurate and thorough descriptions allow you to be an authority on the product, thus establishing trust for the shopper and increasing the potential for sales.

Include Customer Testimonials

One way to bolster your shoppers’ trust is by incorporating reviews into your content. Posting success stories and comments from happy customers adds positivity to your site, while also validating your product to viewers.

Word of mouth is a powerful tool. Online visitors are more likely to consider your brand if other customers are satisfied as well. This quells much of the skepticism associated with online business.

Pay Attention to Word Count

In addition to testimonials, make sure you take word count into consideration. Lengthier product descriptions serve two purposes:

To adequately inform readers about the specifics of your product
To show Google that you are dedicated to meeting your audience’s needs

Google knows that your audience should be your main priority and wants them to be satisfied with the result. However, one line of text is not enough to sufficiently portray your services to your reader.

It’s easy to get stuck in the trap of providing only the bare minimum when it comes to content. However, Google’s Panda algorithm update demerits thin web material and rewards more substantive web pages.

300 words is a reasonable word count for a product description as it provides enough space to give necessary details and other information that is useful for the reader, such as customer reviews. However, descriptions over 450 words may lose the reader’s attention, causing them to move on from your page.

Avoid Duplicate Content!

In the same way we should avoid low-quality material, we should also avert duplicate content as well. Duplicate content occurs when you copy text from another source for your product description.

While using previously published content is much easier than creating your own, Google places a hefty penalty on these web pages. As a result, Google ends up indexing the original content rather than yours, removing any benefit of the copied work.

Many e-commerce companies tend to use the manufacturer’s official product description. Even though this is an easy way of depicting your item, many other companies in your market will also use it, thus becoming duplicate content and subject to penalty.

Another problem occurs when your company’s motto or biographic snippet appears on several pages on your site. This is a problem with e-commerce sites because of the many pages involved with an online store. Since you have to write product descriptions for each item, it is easy to repeat phrasing due to the page quantity.

Let Your Content Sell

When working with e-commerce, quality content is critical to improving your search rankings and ultimately, generating more sales. Don’t slack when writing product descriptions, as they may be the only way to truly persuade your visitors to your brand.

Your customers need to know why your product is better than your competitor’s version, so swing their research in your favor by providing the right information to make the sale. As a result, you will pull more readers in, improving your rankings and conversion rates.

By: Blair Sanders

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How To Write Ecommerce Content That Makes Shoppers Want To Buy

An illustration of a woman holding a phone and a credit card: Ecommerce content marketing

An estimated 24 million ecommerce sites are vying for shoppers’ attention — and wallets. Here’s how to write ecommerce content that resonates and converts.

Lauren Wallace

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Can you imagine ecommerce without written content? Picture it: Product listings without descriptions. Photography without context. Landing pages without information. A brand without a heart. (Okay, okay… as a content writer, maybe I’m a little bit biased.)

But don’t take my word for it: Businesses in every industry see the value of quality ecommerce content, and they’re throwing their weight behind it. In fact, a majority of businesses (69%) plan to increase their content marketing budgets this year.

Why? Because ecommerce content marketing differentiates your brand, brings traffic to your digital storefront, and drives engagement on every channel. When done right, it’s memorable — and profitable. Check out our tips and exercises for writing content that resonates and converts.

The key to compelling content: Know your audience

We asked over 17,000 shoppers what makes them tick so you can wow them with the right words.

Focus on voice and tone

Your ecommerce content should have a cohesive, distinct, and identifiable voice and tone . This is true for everything you write across all channels and touchpoints, whether it’s a one-sentence social commerce caption or a detailed how-to guide.

Your voice expresses your brand’s personality and values; tone is the way you express your brand in different situations and for different audiences. For example, a healthcare company that sells diagnostic equipment will likely have a buttoned-up, professional voice and tone to convey gravitas. A retailer that sells trendy apparel might be more conversational, even a little cheeky.

Consider the voice and tone a clothing company might use for a social media caption. Any brand can sell a “festival dress.” But it takes a unique voice and tone to sell the feeling of rocking the perfect outfit in the presence of your closest friends — and your favorite pop star. Take a cue from Reformation :

A screenshot of a woman in a hot pink dress next to a Reformation social media posting

Your brand’s voice and tone should shine through in all moments in the customer experience — even the not-so-great ones. (And let’s face it, they happen.) For example, your 404 page doesn’t need to be a total downer with generic copy. You might use a different tone to address an error , but you can still make it effective — and dare I say, fun.

Try this: Put one of your content assets — say, a landing page, email, or digital ad — under the microscope. If you stripped your company’s name, logo, and all the design elements from the asset, would a reader still be able to tell it’s from your brand?

Get a quick lesson on voice and tone

Why (and how) do we write the way we do at Salesforce? Find out on Trailhead, our free online learning platform.

Brand Voice and Tone: Quick Look

Keep it simple

We have a saying around here at Salesforce: “Clarity is kindness.” Regardless of your industry, your ecommerce content writing should be clear, brief, and simple. That’s true even if you sell complex products like wind turbines or (ahem) CRM software. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. What information do they need? And what’s the most effective way to say it? Whether you sell to consumers or B2B buyers, their time and attention are fleeting, so don’t bog them down with clunky copy.

Content marketing guru Ann Handley puts it this way: “Simplicity comes primarily from approaching any writing with empathy and a reader-centric point of view — it’s the result of writing with clarity and brevity, and in human language.”

Here are a few strategies to help you write with empathy and create clear, simple ecommerce content.

Use fewer words. Assign character counts and word limits. You know those bumpers you can put up at bowling alleys to help you stay on course? It’s the same idea. Writing within these confines helps you make your point faster and avoid unnecessary fluff.
Cut the jargon. Finished your first draft? Good. Now read through it and remove any business jargon . (B2B brands, we’re lookin’ at you.) Avoid buzzwords and terminology that lacks real substance — phrases like ‘“move the needle” and “synergy” are high on our list.
Avoid complexity. Data shows that landing pages with easy-to-read language have a higher conversion rate , and copy written at a middle-school reading level tends to convert best. This doesn’t mean you should talk down to your audience. It means shorter sentences and shorter words. It means write to communicate, not to impress.

See if you’ve nailed these strategies by running your content through a Flesch-Kincaid calculator. This tool analyzes different aspects of your text (like total syllables, sentence length, and word count) and gives it a readability score. Pop your headlines, social captions, product descriptions, and email copy into the calculator, and see how you fare.

Try this: No matter what you’re writing, see if you can do it in just five words. Don’t freak: This is only a starting point, but it helps you boil down your main point into a short, succinct sentence. From there, you can add detail and color, tweak for voice and tone, and direct readers to the next step.

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Make it helpful.

While ecommerce content marketing can be captivating and entertaining for shoppers, it ultimately has one purpose: conversion. That’s why your writing needs to communicate brand and product information while telling a compelling story: Why did we make this product? Why do customers need it? And what makes it special? A helpful product description can be the difference between a shopper clicking “Add to Cart” or abandoning your site. Every word matters — so be helpful, fast.

Lululemon’s “Why We Made This” section on its product detail pages is a great example of this concept. A shopper can quickly scan the content for helpful tidbits about the product, including unique features and key selling points. (“Anti-stink technology”? Sign me up.)

A screenshot from the "why we made this" section of Lululemon's product pages.

Use metrics to measure success

So, you’ve written all this awesome ecommerce content. But … is it working? Only your metrics know. Data and success metrics are concrete numbers that shine a light on viewer behavior. Are customers hanging out on your site? Are they clicking ads? Cool, but are they buying? Tracking metrics makes you accountable for your content’s performance and gives you data to help you improve. Metrics can also help you advocate for budget, ad dollars, new initiatives, and new hires. But be sure to share the success of your content regularly, not just when you’re requesting resources.

Here are some of the most common metrics that ecommerce content marketers track, all available for free in Google Analytics . To determine the right key performance indicators (KPIs) for your content, take your business goals into account.

Page views. How many people visit each page. This number can help you determine what kinds of content your audience is interested in and how well each page is optimized for search.
Traffic source. How a shopper found a particular page on your site. Did they use a search engine or click a paid ad? Were they enticed by shoppable content on social media? Traffic source is a good way to find out how effective your content is on each channel.
Click-through-rate (CTR). The percentage of shoppers that click a link on any given page or ad. This shows how well your copy, imagery, and offer details resonate with customers. To learn which content assets are performing well and which might need improvement, compare your CTRs against industry averages.
Bounce rate. The flip-side of a CTR. This number tells you how many shoppers leave your site after visiting one page.
Conversion rate. The holy grail of ecommerce content metrics. This number tells you how many shoppers completed a page’s desired action — usually, a purchase. Which pages have high conversion rates, and what can you learn from them? Which are lower — and how can you improve them?

Try this: Using these metrics, determine which of your pages are top performers. Then, identify any content similarities across these assets. This will help you figure out what works so you can replicate it to build on your success.

Ecommerce content marketing is the voice of your brand — what do you want to say?

An estimated 24 million ecommerce sites are vying for shoppers’ attention — and wallets. Simple, helpful content with a unique point of view is one of the best ways to stand out in such a noisy, crowded space. In the words of Don Draper, “Make it simple, but significant.” And don’t forget to track your metrics.

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Lauren Wallace is an editorial lead for Commerce Cloud. She’s written for B2C and B2B companies in many different industries — most recently cybersecurity and healthcare. When she’s not writing about commerce, you can typically find her outside running or biking around San Diego.

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