How to Write an Amazon Product Description | soona

How to Write an Amazon Product Description

Learn how to effortlessly write an Amazon product description and understand what to include in your Amazon listings.

Claire Oswald

December 13, 2023

If you’re here, you’re interested in either launching a business on Amazon, or maybe you’re looking to optimize your Amazon Product Descriptions. Either way, we'll be your companions on the journey to mastering the art of crafting compelling Amazon product descriptions. Discover the best practices that will not only set your business apart in the vast online marketplace but also elevate your brand recognition to new heights. Let's dive in and make your online presence truly shine!

Want even more tips on how to increase sales on your Amazon listings? Check out our blog post here, on 10 Amazon Best Practices to Sell More in 2023

What is the Amazon Product Description?

First things first – what is an Amazon product description, and how can it be optimized to increase sales? Check out Amazon’s product description guidelines for key points to include in your product description. Amazon highlights that your description should be:

Concise, honest, and friendly – while you are selling your product, keep your audience in mind, and consider what they want to get from a product description. They’re looking for information about your product, so try to keep your description as honest and clear as possible!
Focus on your product’s unique properties – if you’re selling a common item, such as a mug, it’s difficult to stand out against so many competitors. So, drill down into what makes your product special.
Speaking of competitors, don’t mention them in your description. Keep the focus all on your brand, rather than list competitors that potential customers can jump to.
Include applications for your product – this demonstrates how the product can be used and can help the customer envision themselves using it.
Check spelling and grammar before submitting.
Choose your words carefully – the product description has a limited number of characters, so make sure you’re putting your best foot forward and choosing the highlight the right bits.

In addition to Amazon’s guidelines, we’ve outlined the product listing requirements in more detail.

Components and Structure of an Amazon Product Description

Title: Keep your title concise, without missing any vital details that could change the type of product you’re listing. This is especially important for SEO.
Key product features: For customers who just want to skim the main components, you can list features in bullet points. Choose the top highlights and benefits in these bullets, as they have a 500-character limit.
The main description: This is a small paragraph describing your product in more detail than the bullet points. For this, you can use up to 2,000 characters.

A bit nervous about launching your first product on Amazon? Read our Ultimate Guide to Launching Products on Amazon.

Writing an Effective Amazon Product Description

Now that we’ve gone over the basics and you have an understanding of what should be included in your product description, let’s get into how you can create them effectively and successfully.

Who is your product description for?

As any business owner knows, the audience plays a major role in both how we craft our message and position our product. So, keep your audience in mind when you’re choosing the features to highlight, and the language you use.

Pro Tip: create buyer personas to bring your target audience to life.

Think about your product description from the eyes of your buyer persona. What are they looking for? What are their needs? By answering these questions, you can include the solution in your product description.

Focus on the product features and benefits

While we might be talking a lot about the description, and keeping it concise and informative, we must also remember that you’re trying to sell! And to differentiate your product from competitors, you need to lean into your product’s key features. To write product descriptions that convert, head over to our separate article on How to Write Amazon Product Descriptions Buyers Can’t Resist.

With so many options to choose from, customers will gravitate toward products that are clear about why they stand apart from the rest. While your product might have multiple benefits and differentiators, it’s important to pick just one and lean into it. Be consistent and highlight this benefit throughout your title, key benefits bullet point list, and in your main paragraph description.

Let’s return to our mug example. Use your title to drive this home and speak directly to the audience of your choosing. In this case, let’s choose our title to be:

“Blue handcrafted mug”

Then, we can dive deeper into how this benefits the customer in our product description:

Our handcrafted mugs are created by our talented team of pottery artists, designed both for drinking from and as home décor to liven up your living space.

While you have 2,000 characters to work with for the detailed description, try to keep it as concise and scannable as possible.

Amazon A+ Content

For those of you who want to optimize your Amazon storefront and boost conversions, Amazon offers its A+ content tool. Available for brand-registered third-party sellers and all vendors, A+ Content (formerly Enhanced Brand Content) allows you to customize your product detail pages by adding rich text, imagery, HD videos, banners, and other features.

Some benefits of using A+ Content are:

You can go over the standard 2,000-character limit on your product descriptions.
You can use images, charts, and videos.
It’s free to use for any seller, with unlimited features.

If you want to know more about Amazon A+ Content and its uses and best practices, we know everything it takes to optimize your Amazon A+ content.

Amazon’s A9 Algorithm

While writing for your audience within Amazon guidelines is important, also keep the A9 algorithm in mind, to ensure your product description is SEO-friendly. There are criteria that influence the A9, such as:

Keywords – choose your keywords with the customer in mind.
Sales conversion rate and performance history – if your product sells often and sells well, Amazon will favor it in the search results.
Reviews – the more reviews on your product, the better.
Price of product – ensure that your product is appropriately priced.
Delivery – make sure to keep a prompt delivery time.

Imagery

With such a wide variety to choose from, sometimes it doesn’t matter how effective your keywords, or how well-crafted your descriptions are if your images aren’t also up to scratch. The typical user will scan the images and choose something that sparks their interest.

Technical Requirements

1,000 px on each side to allow for zoom.
500 px to 10,000 px on their longest side.
JPEG (.jpg or .jpeg), TIFF (.tif), PNG (.png), or non-animated GIF (.gif) file formats.

Main Product Images

This is the first image that appears on the product detail page.
Have a white background – this allows for consistency across all Amazon products.

Start Writing Amazon Product Descriptions

And now you’re ready to write your first Amazon product description! It can be overwhelming at first, especially with so many sellers to go up against, but if you follow Amazon’s guidelines, speak directly to your selected audience, and keep in mind SEO best practices to ensure the best ranking for your product, you’ll be selling in no time!

Let’s summarize the top-line tips we’ve run through:

Follow Amazon’s specs and guidelines.
Keep descriptions clear and concise.
Think about your audience and their needs.
Understand the A9 Algorithm.
Choose your keywords carefully.
Select high-quality, professional images.
Enhance your product detail page with Amazon A+ Content.