Tips, examples, templates: best practices for a product sheet

In 2020, 17,400 e-commerce sites were launched, leading among other things to an 8.5% increase in the sector’s revenue. Product sheets play an essential role on these sites: 30% of consumers say they have abandoned a cart because of an incomplete product sheet. In this series of articles to learn all the steps to sell well online, we are now looking at product sheets. 

In this article, you will find: 

• examples
• best practices
• definitions
• templates

Definition 

A product sheet is a document listing all the characteristics of an item: 

• dimensions 
• weight
• price 
• technical specifications 
• etc.

Depending on the product, it must be more or less detailed and include other information. For example, a computer product sheet explains its power, processor, etc. On the other hand, a clothing technical sheet will contain its composition, its country of manufacture, and care instructions. 

The goal is to avoid surprises upon receipt, so you need to be as precise as possible. Increasingly, new practices are being used: photos, videos, 3D photos, interactive photos, for example. 

5 Tips 

Know your products and their uses 

Knowing your products is certainly the first step toward a successful product sheet! Indeed, the goal is to explain to your customers how to use the product, its strengths, complementary products, … You can therefore provide every possible detail and examples. 

Keywords and meta tags: think SEO 

Your product sheet is the ideal place to talk about your item using all the keywords from your semantic cluster. By working on your page’s SEO, you give yourself the opportunity to appear at the top of the results when a warm prospect searches for a product that you sell. Take the time to write a structured text with an h1, h2s, h3s, and that is long enough. Also take care with meta titles and meta descriptions, so that the user understands that you have exactly what they are looking for (and more).  

Optimize your high-quality images

Nothing is more telling than images or videos to showcase your items. This gives a faithful image of your products, which reassures the consumer. However, the quality of your images is very important. A poor-quality image, an amateurishly taken photo, or poor framing can do your product a disservice. So make sure to take care with your images to score points. Finally, this part of your product sheet is a sensitive point for your SEO: an image or video that is too large will cost you points in Google’s eyes.

Work on an attractive layout 

The visuals we mentioned are already a good start for an attractive product sheet. The points are quite similar here: an attractive, polished page in your brand colors reassures your prospect. To do this, be readable and organized. Perfect, that also meets the SEO requirement: use titles and subtitles. You can also highlight important words in bold. In a few seconds, the visitor will read your titles and bold words, and decide whether or not to stay on your product. 

Know your customers 

Knowing your products so you can talk about them well is tip number 1. To talk about them well, knowing your customers and their expectations is just as important. This will allow you to highlight the information your target audience is primarily looking for. For example, if you sell ethical products, information about the origin of the raw materials is a key element to highlight!

Bonus: the list of mistakes to avoid 

• Copying and pasting. It will not be precise and your SEO will not be good. 
• Not displaying reviews. It’s a mark of quality! 
• Using terms that are too technical. The goal of your product sheet is for it to be read and understood by everyone. 

Examples 

Make up Révolution 

This affordable makeup brand has rather sparse product sheets. Indeed, brands offering many references generally do not spend time on these descriptions. Here the customer has no visual of the product color, its composition, its size, or how to use it. This information is often useful and determines whether or not a purchase is made, especially when comparing several products from different brands. So it needs reworking! 

Décathlon 

Recently reworked, Décathlon product sheets are very comprehensive. The price is very easy to read, the different characteristics are accessible without scrolling, and the benefits are illustrated by icons. We can also see customer reviews and an overall rating. In the end, there is a lot of information, very well organized. 

Darty 

Darty offers very polished, comprehensive, and very well thought-out product sheets. 

As we can see in the example, several high-quality photos are added, as well as the different current offers and promotions, delivery options, additional services, and technical specifications. These characteristics are sorted to display the most relevant first, in the form of “strengths”. Thus, without even clicking on “see all characteristics,” the important information is visible. A masterclass. 

The 5 steps to creating a complete product sheet. 

Know your product and your customer 

By knowing your customers and your products, you write product sheets that contain all the information necessary to purchase your items while guaranteeing customer satisfaction! Your goal is to convey which item is right for which customer. If you are writing product sheets for computers, some will include more technical specifications, others will be more focused on use: it is up to you to match the right item to the right customer! 

Provide all the technical information

Now that you have captured your prospect’s attention, you need to give them all the technical information about your product. This section can be expandable, but it is necessary. For your customers’ trust and their satisfaction afterward, do not hesitate to provide all the information. For a decorative item, precise dimensions are mandatory, for example. 

Display your site’s details 

Next, specify to your customers how to order, payment terms, return options, or delivery times. Additional fees or unpleasant surprises (delivery times that are too long, no home delivery,…) lead customers to abandon their cart. 

Pay attention to SEO 

Now that all the information has been written, think SEO. Text length, keywords, and text organization: these are the 3 essential points to watch so that your product sheet ranks on the first page of Google! 

Suggest similar products

By suggesting similar products, you offer prospects who have made it this far but do not want to buy this product a product that is better suited to their expectations!  

Read also: up selling & cross selling: the e-commerce indicators to watch

Template for a product sheet that converts