Common Product Description Mistakes Costing You Sales

You’ve done the hard work. You’ve designed an incredible product, sourced the best materials, and taken stunning photographs. Your online store looks fantastic, and you’re ready for the sales to roll in. But then… crickets. Clicks aren’t turning into conversions, and your add-to-cart rate is disappointingly low. What’s going wrong? More often than not, the silent saboteur is hiding in plain sight: your product description.

A product description is so much more than a simple paragraph of text. It’s your 24/7 virtual salesperson, working tirelessly to persuade, inform, and connect with potential customers. When it fails, your entire sales funnel breaks down. Many e-commerce entrepreneurs, Etsy sellers, and indie makers fall victim to the same common product description mistakes. The good news is that these errors are entirely fixable. In this guide, we’ll break down the most costly mistakes and show you how to transform your descriptions from bland placeholders into powerful sales-generating assets.

Focusing Only on Features, Not Benefits

This is perhaps the most common and damaging product description mistake of all. We get it; you’re proud of your product’s specifications. It’s made of 100% organic cotton, it has a 10,000 mAh battery, it’s crafted from solid oak. Those are the features—the “what.” But customers don’t buy features; they buy benefits—the “what’s in it for me?”

A benefit explains how a feature solves a customer’s problem or improves their life. It connects the technical aspects of your product to an emotional outcome. Instead of just listing what your product is, you need to translate that into why the customer should care.

• Feature: This candle is made with soy wax.
• Benefit: Enjoy a cleaner, longer-lasting burn that fills your home with beautiful fragrance for hours, without the soot and toxins of traditional paraffin wax.
• Feature: Our backpack has water-resistant nylon fabric.
• Benefit: Keep your laptop and valuables safe and dry, even if you get caught in an unexpected downpour on your daily commute.

Always ask yourself, "So what?" after listing a feature. The answer to that question is your benefit, and it’s what will ultimately convince a customer to click “buy.”

Using Generic and Uninspired Language

“Excellent quality.” “Great value.” “A must-have item.” Do these phrases sound familiar? They should, because they’re used everywhere—and they mean almost nothing. Generic, cliché language is the enemy of a great product description. It’s boring, unconvincing, and fails to differentiate your product from the hundreds of others just like it.

Your goal is to paint a picture in the customer’s mind. Use sensory words that appeal to touch, taste, smell, sound, and sight. Tell a mini-story about the experience of using your product. Instead of saying a blanket is “cozy,” describe it as “impossibly soft, plush fleece that feels like a warm hug on a chilly evening.” Instead of calling your coffee beans “high-quality,” talk about their “rich, chocolatey aroma with notes of cherry and a smooth, bold finish that will elevate your morning ritual.” Evocative language creates desire and makes your product feel tangible, even through a screen.

Forgetting Who You're Talking To

Are you selling to a tech-savvy minimalist in their 20s or a new mom looking for practical, baby-safe products? The way you speak to these two individuals should be completely different. One of the biggest product description mistakes is writing in a generic voice that tries to appeal to everyone and, as a result, connects with no one.

Before you write a single word, you must define your ideal customer or buyer persona. Think about their:

• Age and demographics
• Pain points and problems
• Values and aspirations
• Sense of humor and vocabulary

Once you know who you’re talking to, you can tailor your tone, language, and focus. A description for a gaming mouse can be filled with technical jargon and energetic, competitive language. A description for a handmade ceramic mug should be warm, artisanal, and focus on the feeling of comfort and craftsmanship. Speaking your customer’s language builds trust and makes them feel like you truly understand their needs.

Creating a Wall of Text

Online, people don’t read; they scan. If a potential customer lands on your product page and is met with a giant, intimidating block of unbroken text, their eyes will glaze over, and they’ll hit the back button. Poor formatting is a silent conversion killer.

Your product description must be easy to scan and digest. Break up your ideas and make the key information jump off the page. Here’s how:

1. Use Short Paragraphs: Keep paragraphs to 2-3 sentences max. This creates white space and makes the text feel more approachable.
2. Utilize Bullet Points: Bulleted lists are perfect for highlighting key features, benefits, specifications, or care instructions. They are incredibly easy for scanners to absorb.
3. Vary Sentence Structure: Mix short, punchy sentences with slightly longer, more descriptive ones to create a pleasing rhythm.
4. Use Headings: If your description is long, use small subheadings to break it into logical sections like “Why You’ll Love It,” “Materials,” or “Dimensions.”

Neglecting Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Your product description isn’t just for humans; it’s also for search engines like Google. SEO is crucial for helping customers discover your products in the first place. If you ignore keywords, you’re missing out on a massive source of free, organic traffic. A common mistake is either using no keywords at all or stuffing the description with so many that it becomes unreadable.

The key is to integrate relevant keywords naturally. Think about what terms a customer would type into a search bar to find your product. Use tools like Ahrefs or the free version of Google Keyword Planner to research primary and long-tail keywords. For example, instead of just “tote bag,” you might target “large canvas tote bag for work” or “eco-friendly reusable grocery bag.” Weave these phrases into your title, your descriptive paragraphs, and your bullet points in a way that feels natural and helpful to the reader.

How to Avoid These Mistakes and Write Descriptions That Sell

Fixing these product description mistakes is guaranteed to improve your conversion rate, but let’s be honest—it takes time, creativity, and a bit of marketing savvy. For busy entrepreneurs, makers, and store owners, staring at a blank page can be daunting. What if you could overcome writer’s block and generate compelling, benefit-driven, and SEO-friendly descriptions in a fraction of the time?

That’s where AI can be a game-changer, but only if you know how to guide it properly. This is why we created the ChatGPT Prompt Pack for Ecom, Etsy & Indie Makers. This isn’t just a list of generic questions; it’s a comprehensive toolkit of expertly crafted, copy-and-paste prompts designed specifically to solve the problems we’ve discussed. This prompt pack guides you and ChatGPT to define your brand voice, identify your target audience, translate features into irresistible benefits, and weave in SEO keywords seamlessly. It’s your secret weapon for crafting product descriptions that connect and convert, saving you hours of work and frustration.

Your Product Description is Your 24/7 Salesperson

Your products deserve descriptions that do them justice. By avoiding these common pitfalls—focusing on benefits, using vivid language, knowing your audience, formatting for readability, and optimizing for search—you empower your descriptions to do their most important job: turning browsers into loyal customers. Stop letting simple errors cost you sales. Invest in your copy, and watch your business grow.

Meta description: Are common product description mistakes costing you sales? Learn how to fix errors like focusing on features, using generic text, and ignoring SEO to boost conversions.