Stop Confusing Your Consumer with Multiple Product Descriptions

Do you have issues writing the perfect product descriptions for your website? As a consultant for fitness and supplement brands, I was recently hired to rewrite the website copy for a large supplement company, a project that perfectly highlights a common and costly mistake.

While auditing their site, I found their product descriptions were completely inconsistent. The same product had different explanations and benefit lists depending on where you found it, whether on the product page, a category page, or in a blog post.

You must stop confusing your consumer. This isn’t just a minor error, having multiple, conflicting product descriptions is a direct path to lost trust and hurting your sales.

This guide will show you how to create a single source of truth for your products, ensuring every customer gets a clear, consistent message that builds confidence and drives them to purchase.

Key Takeaways

• Consistency is Crucial: Using different product descriptions for the same item across your website confuses customers and can lead to lost sales and decreased brand trust.
• Descriptions Drive Decisions: A 2022 Salsify report revealed that 87% of shoppers consider product content extremely important when making a purchase decision.
• Establish a Single Source of Truth: Use a central document or a Product Information Management (PIM) tool like Akeneo or Salsify to ensure all product information is consistent everywhere.
• Audit Regularly: Routinely scan your website for outdated information, old product names, or inconsistent benefit claims to maintain accuracy and customer confidence.

What Are Product Descriptions?

Product descriptions are the copy on your website that explains what a product is and why someone should buy it. For any ecommerce business, this content is your digital salesperson, providing customers with the features, benefits, and specifications they need to make a confident purchase.

The goal is to present your product in a way that both informs and persuades the consumer, ultimately leading to a sale. A Salsify report from 2022 found that 87% of shoppers rate product content as extremely or very important when deciding to buy, which shows how critical this copy truly is.

To be effective, your product descriptions must include several key elements.

1. Product Features: List the key technical details and attributes. This includes specifications like dimensions, ingredients, materials, and color options.
2. Customer Benefits: Clearly explain how the product solves a problem or improves the customer’s life. Always connect a feature to a benefit.
3. Unique Selling Points (USPs): What makes your product better than the competition? Highlight special features, a unique design, or superior quality.
4. Usage and Application: Describe how the product works in a real-world scenario. This helps customers visualize themselves using and benefiting from it.
5. Target Audience: Write directly to your ideal customer. This helps shoppers quickly determine if the product is the right fit for them.
6. High-Quality Imagery: Your text should always be supported by clear photos or videos that give customers a complete view of the product.
7. Call-to-Action (CTA): End with a clear instruction. Guide the customer to the next step, such as adding the item to their cart.

Well-written product descriptions do more than just provide facts, they build your brand’s voice and play a massive role in the customer’s decision-making process.

What Do They Do?

Product descriptions are a foundational element of ecommerce strategy, serving multiple critical functions that directly impact your bottom line. They are far more than simple filler text on a page.

Here are the key roles that great product descriptions play for your business.

1. Inform and Educate: At their core, descriptions give customers the detailed information they need to understand what they are buying, which reduces hesitation.
2. Create Interest and Desire: By focusing on benefits and unique selling points, persuasive copy can generate genuine excitement for a product.
3. Differentiate from Competitors: In a crowded market, your description is a chance to explain why your product is the superior choice over others.
4. Optimize for SEO: Including relevant keywords helps your products appear higher in search results, making it easier for new customers to find you. Consistent and accurate data is also vital for platforms like Google Merchant Center.
5. Build Customer Trust: Clear, honest, and consistent descriptions show that you are a trustworthy brand. When a customer receives exactly what they expected, their confidence in your business grows.
6. Lower Return Rates: Detailed descriptions that accurately set expectations are proven to reduce product returns, saving your business time and money.
7. Enhance User Experience: Well-crafted copy makes your website easier to use. It reduces confusion and helps customers find what they need quickly.
8. Support Brand Marketing: The tone and language used in your descriptions are a part of your brand identity. They help communicate your company’s values and personality.

Check Your Product Descriptions for Consistency

The modern consumer has an incredibly short attention span. If a shopper has to read different descriptions for the same item on various pages, they won’t try to piece the story together. They will simply click away and move on to a competitor.

You need to stop confusing your consumer with multiple product descriptions that use different terms and highlight different benefits. For new customers, this inconsistency can easily make them think they are looking at two different products.

A 2023 study by BrightLocal found that 57% of consumers are unlikely to use a business that has incorrect or inconsistent information online. This directly translates to lost sales due to confusion.

Let’s use a common example from my field: protein powder. Imagine your product page says the powder is great for building quality muscle mass. But in a “weight loss” product stack, the description says it is great for losing body fat while maintaining muscle. This will absolutely confuse the consumer.

A customer focused on cutting and weight loss who reads the “put on size” description will immediately assume the product is wrong for them and abandon the purchase. You lost a sale not because of the product, but because of your inconsistent messaging.

The solution is to establish a “single source of truth.” For larger businesses, this often involves using Product Information Management (PIM) software like Salsify or Akeneo. These platforms centralize all product data to ensure consistency everywhere. For a smaller business, this can be as simple as creating a master spreadsheet with the official, approved description for every product.

Scan Product Descriptions for Outdated Information

Another common mistake is leaving outdated information scattered across your website. If you recently rebranded a product from “YELL” to “SHOUT,” there should be no trace of the old name on your site. The same goes for old product images, formulas, or benefit claims.

These details are easy to overlook but can have a major impact on a customer’s decision to buy. Finding and fixing these inconsistencies is critical for maintaining brand credibility.

Here are two ways to tackle this:

• Use a Website Crawler: A tool like Screaming Frog can crawl your entire website and help you find every mention of an old product name or phrase. This allows you to hunt down and update every outdated reference efficiently.
• Implement Quarterly Audits: Make content audits a regular part of your business operations. Once every three months, have someone on your team review all product pages, blogs, and marketing materials to ensure every detail is current and accurate.

A consistent and up-to-date website signals professionalism and trustworthiness, encouraging customers to complete their purchase.

Stop Confusing Your Consumer! Does This Sound Like You?

Hopefully, this guide has highlighted the importance of maintaining accurate and consistent product descriptions across your entire business.

If you need an expert to audit your site, correct mistakes, and rewrite your copy to drive growth, please feel free to reach out to me.

I can take this project off your plate so you can focus on other areas of your business.

Stop confusing your customers and start increasing your sales today.

FAQs

How long should product descriptions be?
There’s no magic number, but a good rule is to be as detailed as necessary. For simple products, a few compelling sentences might be enough. For complex items, like electronics or specialized supplements, several paragraphs with bullet points for key features is often better. Focus on clarity and answering customer questions.

What is the difference between features and benefits?
A feature is a factual statement about the product (e.g., “This protein powder contains 25g of whey isolate”). A benefit translates that feature into value for the customer (e.g., “This helps you build lean muscle and recover faster after workouts”). Always connect features to benefits.

Can I just use the manufacturer’s description?
I strongly advise against it. Using the manufacturer’s generic copy creates duplicate content, which can hurt your SEO rankings. Writing your own unique product descriptions helps you stand out from competitors and allows you to speak directly to your specific audience in your brand’s voice.

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