Is a description writer the missing ingredient in your product sales?
Hello, my lovely
You've built something beautiful. Your products are photographed to within an inch of their lives, your packaging is *chef's kiss*, and your brand aesthetic is the giving I ’m-making-my-dreams-a-reality. But your product pages? They're getting browsers and then…
Tumbleweeds…
If you've ever stared at a blank product description box and typed something a little like "handmade ceramic mug, perfect for coffee lovers," ~ hit publish ~ and hoped for the best, you're not alone. And you're definitely not hopeless.
This is where your friendly village description writer comes in (that’s me btw). Not a chatbot. Or batch of copy from a Fiverr gig. A real, actual product-buying person who knows how to make your buyer feel something and then click 'add to basket.'
Grab a brew, let’s get into it.
I started copywriting by writing product descriptions for Next
Before I brewed Just Custard Copy, I was the Home and Menswear Features Editor at Next. Not to brag, but y’know, one of the UK's biggest lifestyle retailers.
And do you know what a huge chunk of that job looked like? Writing and overseeing product descriptions at scale. And let me tell you, these descriptions did (and still do) a lot of heavy lifting. They had to sound on-brand, rank in search, tell a story, and convince someone scrolling at 11 pm that yes, they absolutely did need that linen duvet set.
People hate writing their descriptions. But I learned real quick that there is an art to them. A good description isn't just a list of features rattled off like a spec sheet. It's the digital equivalent of a brilliant shop assistant, y’know, the friendly face you’re always excited to see at your fave coffee spot, who convinces you that you’ve just got to try the new Biscoff cinnamon bun that’s just come out of the oven, because that’s exactly what you’re craving right now. And do it effortlessly.
I worked alongside creative teams, SEO leads, and buyers to understand what makes someone stop, read, and click checkout. I saw what worked and (just as importantly) what made people scroll straight past without a second glance.
That experience is baked into every description I write now. And when I work with independent brands, I bring all of that big-brand knowledge to your little nook of the internet ~ I just skip the corporate gloss.
Why product descriptions will help your products get found in 2026
Here's something that doesn't get talked about enough imo. Your product descriptions are delicious little SEO morsels that are going to get your products in front of the eyeballs of your dream buyer.
Every single product page on your website is an opportunity to show up in search results. When someone types "personalised leather wallet UK" or "luxury soy candle bergamot" into Google, the brands appearing at the top haven’t just stumbled there by accident. They've got copy that tells search engines exactly what they're selling and who it's for. Textbook. Love it.
In 2026, with more independent brands online than ever before and AI-generated content flooding every corner of the internet, search engines are increasingly rewarding copy that reads like it was written by a real person with genuine expertise. Thin, generic descriptions get buried as well as heavy feature lists. Immersive, picture-painting, specific words will get the top spots.
Your product descriptions need to include your keywords and resonate with the person reading them. That fine balance of SEO and story is where a lot of business owners get stuck. You either end up keyword-stuffing until it sounds like a robot wrote it, or you write something beautiful that Google simply doesn't know what to do with.
A professional description writer has you covered. Every description in The Content Cupboard's product description package is a minimum of 200 words and optimised for search, so your products have a real shot at being discovered by the people who are already out there looking for exactly what you make.
Why are high-end brands losing money from their product descriptions?
You've invested in your product. You've invested in your photography. You might have even invested in your website design. But if your descriptions are an afterthought. Which might look like being written in a rush, copy-pasted from a template, or outsourced to the cheapest option you could find, then all of that investment of time and energy is kinda pointless.
Here are the three things I hear the most from the brands that come to me:
"I just used ChatGPT"
Look, AI tools have their place ~I love it them for organising my thoughts ~ but if you’re using the same prompts as everyone else, it’s going to produce copy that sounds like every other AI-generated description on the internet. Your buyer can feel it, even if they can't name it. And as soon as they feel that flat same-iness to it, they’ll scroll on by.
And for a high-end product that deserves to feel special? That same-iness is costing you. Your brand voice is one of your biggest differentiators. Handing it to a language model trained on the whole internet doesn't exactly scream… bespoke.
"I got a batch done cheaply"
Cheap, fast, bulk-written descriptions tend to leave too much to the imagination. They don't know your brand. They don't know your buyer. They don't know that your candle isn't just a candle, it's the thing someone lights when they finally get five minutes to themselves on a Tuesday evening when the kids are in bed. It’s the context that’s everything in a product description ~ and it takes time, care, and craft to get right.
"I write them myself… but they're all a bit different"
Inconsistency in your product copy is gonna hammer your trust signals. When every description sounds slightly different ~ some long, some short, some conversational, some stiff ~ it creates a disconnect for your buyer. Premium brands feel cohesive, they’ve got it together. Every piece of content your voice touches, including your product pages, should sound like it came from the same place.
Here's what happens… a new buyer lands on a product page with a weak description, they’ll just... leave. They'll go and find the same (or similar) product elsewhere, from a brand whose copy convinced them it was worth it. You did all the hard work of getting them there. Let your descriptions close the deal.
What makes a good* product description in 2026?
*By good I mean one that reads like you wrote it and sells your product. Easy, right?
A great product description knows who it's talking to. It doesn't try to appeal to everyone. It speaks directly to the person most likely to buy, uses language that resonates with them to make them feel like ‘ah, finally, someone gets me!’.
It leads with the feeling, not just the feature. "Made from 100% linen" is a feature. "The kind of fabric that gets better with every wash and makes your bedroom feel like a boutique hotel" is a feeling. We’re not as logical as you might think, it’s feelings that make us buy. The identity shift it promises.
It answers the unspoken questions. What size is it really? Does it just look good on the model? How does it arrive? What does it feel like in your hands? What's the occasion for it? Is this going to disappoint me like the last one I bought? The more confident your buyer feels before they hit purchase, the less likely they are to abandon their basket.
Don’t forget to naturally weaves the right keywords so that search engines can do their bit.
This is what I do inside The Content Cupboard (my copywriting services). We look at your product descriptions with a strategy session so I can get under the skin of your products, your brand, and your buyer. Then I write descriptions that sound unmistakably like you, convert the browsers who keep visiting but not buying, and show up for the people searching for what you make.
Make your product descriptions your best salesperson, today
If you've made it this far, you already know that your product descriptions deserve more than a five-minute panic-write before a launch. But that doesn’t mean you want to write them…
The buyers ready to spend their hard-earned moolah, just need to be shown that it's your product they want need.
Pop over to The Content Cupboard to explore the Product Descriptions package (and feel free to have a nosey at everything else in there while you're at it). Or if you'd rather have a chat (no obligation, just a cuppa and a convo), book a free discovery call here.
Your products are worth the words.
