Here is a real description, lightly disguised, from a store we looked at last month:
Elegant Blue Mug — Add a touch of elegance to your morning routine with our premium handcrafted mug. Made with love. Perfect for tea, coffee and more!
Every word is true and none of it helps. It does not say how much tea fits, whether it survives a dishwasher, how heavy it is, or what happens if it arrives chipped. Those are the things a person deciding to spend ₹850 actually wants to know.
The seven questions
What is it, exactly?
One line, plain. "A 350 ml stoneware mug, thrown and glazed by hand in Jaipur." Not "a vessel for your daily ritual."
How big, how much, how heavy?
In numbers, always. Millilitres, centimetres, grams. "Medium", "large" and "one size" are not answers — they are a return waiting to happen.
What is it made of, and how is it made?
Material, finish, origin. This is where a handmade product earns its price difference, and where most sellers are strangely shy.
How do I care for it?
Dishwasher, microwave, machine wash, hand wash, dry clean. A single sentence prevents both a support message and a bad review.
When will it reach me, and what does delivery cost?
On the product page, not buried in a policy link. This is the most common reason people leave a page.
What if it's wrong, broken, or I change my mind?
Say it in your own words, on the page. "Arrived chipped? Send one photo and we'll replace it, no return needed." That sentence sells more than any adjective.
Has anyone else bought this?
One real line from a real buyer. Two is better. A page with zero social proof asks the customer to go first.
The structure that works
For most products, in this order:
| Block | Length | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| One-line identity | 8–15 words | Tells a scanner what it is |
| Three to five spec bullets | 4–8 words each | The numbers, scannable |
| The paragraph that adds meaning | 40–70 words | Origin, maker, why it exists |
| Care and use | 1–2 lines | Kills a support message |
| Delivery and returns | 1–2 lines | Kills the biggest hesitation |
| One review quote | 1 line | Permission to buy |
The order matters because of how people read on a phone: they scan, they decide whether to keep reading, and only then do they read prose. A beautiful opening paragraph that buries the size is a beautiful paragraph nobody reaches.
Before and after
Before
Elegant Blue Mug — Add a touch of elegance to your morning routine with our premium handcrafted mug. Made with love. Perfect for tea, coffee and more!
After
Blue glazed stoneware mug, 350 ml
- Holds a full mug of chai with room to stir
- 350 ml · 9 cm tall · 340 g · fits a standard cup holder
- Stoneware, glazed inside and out — no raw clay against your drink
- Dishwasher and microwave safe
Thrown and glazed by Rekha's studio in Jaipur, in batches of about forty. The blue comes out slightly differently every firing, so no two are quite identical — the one you receive will have its own pooling around the base.
Dispatched in 2 working days, delivered in 3–6. ₹59 flat shipping, free above ₹1,400. Arrives chipped? Send a photo and we replace it, no return needed.
"Heavier than I expected in a good way. Feels like a proper mug." — Anitha, Chennai
The second one is longer, and it converts better, because every extra line removes a reason to hesitate. Length is not the enemy; vagueness is.
Words that do nothing
These appear in roughly every second Indian product listing and carry no information:
Replace each with a fact. "Premium" becomes "1.2 mm thick brass, not plated". "Made with love" becomes "made by four people in a workshop in Sivakasi". Specificity is the only adjective that survives contact with a buyer.
SEO without ruining the writing
Product pages can rank, and the way to do it is boring and effective:
- Use the words people actually search in the title and first line: "blue stoneware mug 350 ml", not "azure vessel".
- Write a unique description for every product. Duplicated blocks across a catalogue are the most common self-inflicted SEO wound in small stores.
- Put the specifics in text, not only in an image. A size chart as a JPEG is invisible to search engines and to screen readers.
- Write real alt text on every image: "blue glazed stoneware mug, side view, held in a hand for scale".
- Answer the long questions somewhere. "Is stoneware microwave safe?" is a real search, and the page that answers it earns the visit.
Do not repeat the keyword six times. Modern search is much better at understanding a page that reads naturally than one that reads like it was optimised, and buyers bounce off the second kind.
A ten-minute template
Copy this, fill it in, delete what does not apply:
[Product name, material, key measurement]
- [Benefit in plain words]
- [Size · weight · capacity, in numbers]
- [Material and construction detail]
- [One thing that makes it different]
[40–70 words: who makes it, where, how, what varies between units.]
[Care instructions, one line.]
[Dispatch time, delivery window, shipping cost, damage policy.]
"[One real customer line]" — [Name, City]
Fifteen products, ten minutes each, is an afternoon. It is almost always the highest-return afternoon available to a store that already has traffic and is not converting.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a product description be?
Long enough to answer the seven questions — usually 120–250 words for a considered purchase, less for something simple and familiar. Test by asking whether a stranger could decide without messaging you.
Should I use bullet points or paragraphs?
Both. Bullets for the specifications, because people scan them. A short paragraph for the story, because that is what makes a handmade product worth more than a factory one.
Do product descriptions affect SEO?
Yes — unique, specific descriptions give search engines something to match against real queries. Duplicated manufacturer copy across many stores is the most common reason a product page never ranks.
Should I mention the price in the description?
No, the page already shows it. Do mention anything that affects total cost: shipping, minimum order, bulk discounts.
What if I have 200 products?
Write proper descriptions for the twenty that generate most of your revenue, and a consistent template for the rest. Perfect coverage matters less than depth on the pages people actually land on.