Product descriptions aren’t appreciated enough. If you have an eCommerce site your product page really matters. Continue reading for a great example.
Google a term like “cell phone charger” and you’re likely going to see a top of page result like this. What you’re looking at is Google’s Product Listing Ads (definition) result:

This means that even though you’ve been obsessing over your homepage design for most new visitors their first impression of your will be on your product page. Your product page is the homepage, so you better make an impression.
You spent money to attract a new visitor. This visitor was different. Unlike 91% of new
Oh, they’re really getting into this.
They then went a few steps further and looked at a few product pages to finally zero in on THE product page.
Once the user is on the product page the only thing that matters is the product description. Sure, you have product reviews, but these are things other people are saying about you. Do you really want sales to be at the mercy of reviews of other people?
This is why how you write your product description really matters.
If we fail now everything else that’s been nailed till this point will be lost.
There are many best practices for product descriptions:
“Focus on Benefits”
“Tell a Story”
“Use Power Words That Sell”
“Know your Audience”
“Scannability”
These strategies are great but they aren’t exactly rare. Marketers already use them. Your competitors already use them, which means in order to have an impact you need to work extra hard on “Tell a story” if you decide to go with that tactic.
Ready to hear about a tactic that is most definitely rare and also most definitely effective?
What if we flipped the way the product description was written? Instead of treating your product as an inanimate object what if we brought it to life and let it tell its own story?
Great product description example!
That’s exactly what Ora.organic does on its organic probiotic product page:

This is a genius tactic. I study online retailers 8 hours a day. Have been for the last 9 years. This is probably only the second time I’ve seen this tactic used
Run an A/B test. Test this on your best selling product page and let me know how it did
Looking for more ideas to make your product pages sing?
Optimizing Your Best-Selling Product Pages
Comments 10
Love it! It shows so much character, it’s interesting and engaging. I will try this.
Author
Yes, test it. Also, what do you think about this idea? https://www.frictionless-commerce.com/blog/using-video-in-popup/
Wow, that is very cool! So mesmerizing. I think I should try this too!
That is fun! Love the life here!!
How about humanizing the product further as an illustration and storyboarding. You can achieve the same output with higher engagement at 1/10th the word length?
Author
I absolutely love this idea. You have taken the basic idea of this post and made it 10x better. I envy you 🙂
Great idea!
Perhaps they’re currently testing this, because it already appears different on their product page.
Author
I had noted this idea 6 months ago. And 3 months ago I noticed Ora removed it. They may have removed it because it didn’t fit their brand voice (even if the concept won) or because it creates a unique challenge for the marketing team: “if the idea wins do we rewrite ALL our product pages this way?” That’s a question I’ve had to deal with many times.
Yeah I’m in two minds about the idea.
It doesn’t meet the UX principle of familiarity. It feels kinda weird for a product to talk to you, especially when it’s actually a vegan product!
But, hey, it’s super different and engaging and fun to read 🙂
Author
I personally love this idea. I’m going to test the crap out of it 🙂