There are so many tees on the market. Why should a customer buy your tee? Do you have an answer? Put that into words and tell your customer why. If you don’t, someone else will, and your product may remain in the inventory.
With so many platforms to stay connected with customers, fashion retailers are now focusing on converting clicks to sales. Fashion retail listings now have to be both attractive and interesting, with an emphasis on the unique product benefits. And, that’s where copywriting for fashion comes into play. A well-described piece of clothing sells better than that which has nothing to say.
Often retailers neglect to write high-quality fashion descriptions, and the reasons for this are plenty—large inventory, low budget, time constraints, and so on. While the rest focus on harnessing search engines rather than putting customers at the center of their business.
Putting search engine rankings aside, your fashion copywriting needs to convey the value of your product to the customer.
So how can you write the best fashion product descriptions that sell? Follow these few simple rules.
1. Nothing is too plain
Always keep in mind that every product has a story to tell. You as a writer have the power to make a simple product sound interesting.
Let’s take the T-shirt image below as an example. It’s a solid, plain, round-neck tee with short sleeves. What can I say or what’s there to write about it other than what the product title already suggests, you may ask. Take a look at it and write down all the ideas that come to mind. You could talk about how it’s great for casual styling, lends an offbeat look, or how it’s ideal for lounging at home on a day off with friends. You can highlight a product feature such as pure cotton or you can talk about its comfortable short sleeves. Let loose the fashion copywriter within you.
2. Know your ideal buyer
You’re in the fashion business and you want to address all the shoppers. Don’t do that. When you generalize your shoppers, you end up talking to no one. Think of your ideal customer and talk directly to them. If you are selling formalwear, you may want to address an established businessman with a disposable income rather than a college student who may not have the need for it. Throw in words like the ones below to appeal to their aspirations.
But if you are writing for casual clothes or streetwear, you may use:
3. Avoid jargon
You may be well aware of the terms thrown around in the fashion industry, but the average customer may not relate to them as you do. So, keep the language simple and use easy-to-understand adjectives like timeless, beautiful, gorgeous, eye-catching, edgy, elegant, fabulous, modern, minimal, traditional, and so on. These words help you write a compelling product description that will help your potential buyer understand what you’re talking about.
4. Understand your products
Yes, study and really understand the product details. Make sure you know the type of material and how it feels. Learn to recognize the various styles of dresses, shirts, pants, skirts, and blouses and their design features. Did you know there are more than 100 different dress types? Here are at least 40 types of dresses that you should know to write better product descriptions.
Anatomy of a Shirt
Image via Researchgate
5. Focus on the benefits
Listing out the technical aspects of a product can help aid a customer‘s decision, but this alone is not going to drive up sales. Tell the customers what’s in it for them if they buy your product. They want to envision how the clothing will make them look or how comfortable it’ll make them feel. This fashion product copy from Modcloth does just that.
Image via Modcloth
6. Let the customer decide
Particularly when writing for luxury clothing, always exercise restraint. Don’t be overly descriptive. Let the fabric quality and craftsmanship do the talking. In this product description, MR PORTER does an excellent job of letting the potential customer judge the value of the product.
7. Be mobile-friendly
With most of the population shopping from their mobile phones and other digital devices, it is important to keep your product description writing short, crisp, and straight to the point. Avoid writing lengthy fashion product descriptions. Make sure the product title is catchy and the product description persuades and entices in as few words as possible.
8. Keep the length consistent
If you own an eCommerce store, maintain the length of your fashion product descriptions for all the products. It’s not visually appealing to see one product with a long product description and then another with barely 2-3 sentences. Decide how long your descriptions should be and keep them the same throughout using the brand voice. Taking a uniform approach will provide a good customer experience and project a sense of confidence in the fashion brand.
9. Be their personal shopper
Spark your shopper’s imagination by giving them styling advice. Tell them what to wear with the garment and how to style it—paint a picture with words. This will entice your ideal customer to actually make a purchase.
Net-a-Porter does an awesome job of acting as a personal shopper by offering their own styling advice. Their product description reads, “Style it with flat sandals and gold jewelry,” which helps customers better visualize the look.
Image via Net-a-Porter
10. Optimize for search engines
Use the right keywords to ensure every product appears at the top of the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). No one can buy your fashion products if they cannot find them. But make sure your product description does not get repetitive. And stay away from spam fashion product descriptions because Google is too smart for that. Copying can eventually hurt your ranking and your brand value. Use Google Analytics to understand your product page in detail.
Before you publish, make sure you proofread each product description. Use the help of popular grammar software checkers such as Grammarly and Hemingway. This Writer’s Cookbook article can help you decide which software is best for you.
As a fashion retailer, remember to take time and care with your fashion product descriptions. With so much competition, your product copy can make or break the deal. Use power words and sensory words to accurately describe product information, highlight the product feature, and use a long-tail keyword to write a great product description. The right wording, story, and emotion can convince the potential buyer your clothing is a must-have.
Regina Michael 
This is very insightful, Regina!
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Thank you so much, Mala!
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