General
What Is Dropshipping & How Do You Get Started?
Understanding dropshipping and steps to launch your own online business
May 2, 2024
16 min read
A fully functional and amazingly crafted website is not enough to make sales. It is the product description that pushes a viewer to tap that add-to-cart button, not the web design.
Over the years, I realized that web design and functionality are merely basic expectations. What matters more in triggering a sale is the product description. If you want more add-to-carts, then this article is for you.
I will discuss:
The product description is what makes a customer decide to buy what you are selling. Even if you have great images and videos, it is your product description that helps potential buyers and customers make up their minds, especially if they are on the fence.
The purpose of the product description is not to tell the product details or the features but to convince the customer to choose your product over the competition.
That is why it is so important to do the product description the right way. Statistically, a high-level product description has no direct positive effect on purchase intention. Well, “That does not make sense,” you might say. “I thought product description makes consumers buy.”
A product description’s effect on the buyer is counterintuitive. It may not have any direct relationship with the purchase intent, but it certainly has a positive impact on product affective involvement.
Product affective involvement refers to the consumer’s degree of emotional state, which is what we sellers and marketers want to evoke.
All people make purchases because of an emotional trigger. It is only a matter of finding what these triggers are, and then capitalizing on them. In this section, I will share with you six of these triggers that will help you position your product description better.
All people have an emotional void that they must fill. It can be self-esteem, dignity, acceptance, belongingness, and many more. Some customers are feeling bored, and some want to feel “alive.”
It is this emotional need that you must address in your product description. Below are some examples of these needs and what products best fill these needs.
Here is a good example of addressing an emotional need: “Be the real you with our fashionable sports apparel! Show your friends what you got!”
Here is another one for bonding: “Our toys make it easier for parents like you to develop a long-lasting and memorable relationship and experience with your children!”
As you can see, these examples speak to the target consumer. A simple phrase can make a big difference in converting your reader into a customer.
Trends come and go, and from time to time, you must consider trends as your trigger point to convince a customer to buy.
The focus of your product description is to make your product appealing—that it is the new trend. Below are some examples:
One key trick here is to use FOMO or fear of missing out. It is a phenomenon first introduced in 2004 when people found out that consumers have a compulsive behavior to make purchases impulsively.
While many marketers use FOMO through website apps like countdown timers, limited discount offers, and other methods, you can use it in your product description to increase your conversion rate.
There is a reason McDonald’s and many other companies offer a value meal—it is cheaper than if the customer would buy each item separately.
Value does not merely refer to the price tag, but what the customer gets from the price he pays. There is an old saying that goes, “Price is what you pay, value is what you get.”
When you write your product description, you must focus on the value that you are giving to the target audience or consumer. Sometimes, it may be necessary to use prices in your product description to provide the consumer with a baseline.
When considering this, always use the “so what” principle. The copy or product description must answer this question: So what if I buy this?
Here are some examples:
As a seller, you have hundreds, if not thousands, of competitors. It is important to emphasize in your product description that your customer is either going to save a lot of money or get more value from you compared to if they purchased the same product from someone else.
People make purchases to solve a problem, and you have to use this psychological trigger if you want to increase your sales. For example, I bought power tools to solve my woodworking problem.
As a buyer, I knew what I was looking for—a power drill. It was only a matter of how the sellers positioned their product descriptions for me to decide which one to buy. I eventually bought a combo of a power drill and an impact driver, even if I only wanted a drill.
The problems that this offer solved were:
As you can see, I only wanted a power drill, but the seller was able to solve problems that I, the buyer, did not even anticipate at that time.
CAPTION: This drill bit from Amazon solves the one-handed problem of changing drill bits that construction workers face all the time
You can do the same for your dropshipping or e-commerce store. Here are some great examples of problems that you can address:
Every product solves a problem. Always remember that you are selling a solution, not a product. If this is your default marketing mindset, you will find it easier to craft compelling product descriptions that make sales.
Investopedia explains this very well: the scarcity principle. It is a theory that allows us to understand the relationship between price and demand. In relation to this, we know the Law of Supply and Demand, and we must use it to our advantage.
What is the law of supply and demand? Here it is in a nutshell:
As a seller, we do not have control over the demand, but we can do things to control the perception of supply.
People do not want to be left out. They beat themselves in the head for not buying stuff they could have bought when it was still available. Therefore, the scarcity of a product is a psychological trigger for buying.
My suggestion is to sell items and make it look like the offer is going away soon. You can do this by:
You can also use other tactics like locking in a price during a promotional stint, showing people that some customers just bought this item now, offering a massive discount to the first 50 people, and so much more.
When triggering this scarcity principle, you want your product description to answer the question: If I do not buy this now, what do I have to lose?
Life is hard, and any person who works wants some degree of comfort or convenience. Some want indulgence. The buyer’s psychological factor that you must think about this approach is this: “I deserve this.”
Here are some bullet points to consider:
Luxury is not the only thing you can attack in this marketing strategy. All people want comfort. Similar to solving a problem, you want to point out in your product description that your product can eliminate hardship.
There are various definitions of copywriting. To me, copywriting is a style of writing that convinces a person to take an action. What are these actions? Below are some examples:
As you can see, there are many things that we want our target consumers to do. Some online stores even ask their site visitors to participate in a quiz or spin a game wheel.
All marketing materials are copy—provided that these words incite the viewer or reader to do something. The goal here is to make a site visitor do something favorable to our product pages or online store.
In dropshipping and e-commerce, a copy is the text that drives conversions. If you do it right, I can guarantee you that you will see an increase in your sales performance.
In this section, I will discuss the four main parts of a product copy. I must tell you now that these are not negotiable. If you write a product description, you must have all of these four parts.
The headline is the title of your product. In the past, sellers merely used product titles and labeled their products in simple ways like “red rubber shoes.” This kind of approach will not work today anymore.
Take a look at the screenshot below:
Highlighted in red is the headline. As you can see, it uses several words like:
These words are what we call keywords. The headline or title of your product pages must have certain words, that customers are likely to type in the search boxes.
Why? Because it allows the search engines to match your product title with the user’s search intent. In addition, your product title is the first thing that a customer sees in the search results. What you want is a title that “speaks” to the target consumer.
In your product headline, use words that match what a customer is looking for, not just a generic description of what your product is.
In the world of business and entrepreneurship, the only reason a person hands over money to someone else is this: the product solves a problem.
Are you hungry? That is a problem. Here is a hamburger. It is a solution to your hunger. In exchange, you give your money to me.
In dropshipping and e-commerce, you must use the same principle when writing copy. You need to mention the problem and then position your product as a solution.
For example, let us say that you are selling a kitchen product that slices potatoes into French fry cuts like this one:
It is not enough to say that the product is made of high-grade plastic. You must mention the problem that it solves. If I were to write the marketing copy for this, it would be like this:
“Stop wasting time cutting potatoes in equal slices manually! Use our potato chopper to get evenly sliced potatoes in a single push!”
As you can see, the problems I am trying to address are:
Then, I presented the solution—a device that cuts even slices of potatoes in one push only. If you think about it, the copy I wrote can certainly boost my sales—it tells the product viewer what problem this product is going to solve!
Consumers have many objections, and below are the most common ones:
There are many possible consumer objections, and, unfortunately, we cannot possibly address all of them. However, your product description must at least give the consumer clarity on the four that I mentioned.
The last part of the copy is the call-to-action, or what is commonly referred to in marketing as the CTA. It is the invitation you tell the reader to take action.
Here are the most common ones:
A call to action is like your last battle cry. After reading your product description, you have to tell consumers what to do next. Think of it as a final nudge on their elbows to do something—and that something is to either convert them into a hot lead or a paying customer.
In this section, I will provide you with several examples of how we can apply what we have learned about writing product descriptions.
Do not sell your product. What you want to sell is the solution, as it gives the target buyer more reason to make a purchase now. Here is a great example of an RFID wallet.
One day, someone will hack into your credit card strip and use that information to make purchases with your credit card. It is not a matter of if, but a matter of when.
The problem of hacking is real, and you are likely to become a victim one day. Fix that problem now with our RFID Wallets.
Our RFID wallets block RFID signals that your credit card transmits. No signal, no hacking. Protect yourself and your financial data—no one else will do it for you.
In my experience, most marketers think it is enough to list down the features of their products. If you want to write a product description that sells, focus on the product benefits or what the feature can do for the buyer.
Let us say that you are selling a mobile phone. One feature of this phone is that it has 8GB RAM. If you leave your product description at that, the buyer may not even understand what 8GB RAM is for.
It is better to say:
This phone has 8GB of RAM, which means it is powerful enough to run the most resource-intensive games like Alien Isolation, Genshin Impact, and Grid Autosport!
Stop losing to your friends and opponents! The 8GB RAM of this mobile device ensures that the game processes run smoothly in the background while you pound your game enemies to dust!
People indeed look for products because they are already aware of the problem. However, as a marketer, you must address this problem and mention the pain points that you are trying to solve.
If you are selling drones, the most common pain points are:
In this case, you want to point out that your product can solve these problems. Here is how I would write the product description for this:
“Our drones last up to one hour of heavy use, unlike common drones that will only give you around 30 minutes of flight time.
“Get 4K ultra high-definition videos of up to 100 feet from the air! Our drones allow you to capture professional-grade videos—great for YouTubers and professional videographers!
You do not have to run and chase your drone to control it. Our drone has a range of over 200 yards, while our competition can only give you 100 yards of remote-control range!
The last tip we have for this section is to nudge the buyer’s emotions. Then, ensure that you give the buyer a chance to react to it. There are many types of emotions you can poke, such as greed, envy, fear, guilt, love, altruism, etc.
Here are some examples:
The key here is to first understand your target customer. List down your customer’s target characteristics, including how they feel about things and themselves. Once you have established this list, you can begin writing product descriptions that address these emotions.
You can find good product descriptions with examples in the various sections above. At best, your product description must identify a problem, nudge a customer’s emotion, and present a solution.
The step-by-step way to write a good product description is to start with a problem, agitate the problem, present your product as the solution, and then write a call-to-action.
You should write what your product can do and what problem it solves. While you must also write your product features, do it but put more emphasis on the benefits of buying your product.
The proper format of a product description is these four: headline, problem, solution, technical details, handling objection, and call-to-action.
People today indeed prefer videos and images—however, this in no way means that they do not read. They do. As such, your product description is key to improving your conversion rates in your dropshipping or e-commerce store.
Great copywriting skills come with experience. At the very least, I urge you to concentrate on the four aspects of a good copy. There are many resources you can use out there to improve your copy, so don’t worry if you do not get it right for now.
Do not be afraid to change or edit your product copy! I encourage you to keep re-writing your product descriptions until you hit that sweet spot where your copy begins to convert readers to buyers!
Understanding dropshipping and steps to launch your own online business
Learn about several proven methods to increase your store sales
Increase sales with proven tactics like free shipping, bundles, reviews, and more
Techniques for creating compelling product descriptions for your store
