Use ChatGPT to write your product descriptions

Developed by OpenAI, ChatGPT has known immediate success: 5 days after its launch the platform already had one million users¹.

For companies it represents a true business opportunity allowing them to write all types of text… including product descriptions, in record time².

Find out what ChatGPT really is and how best to use it to write your product descriptions.

ChatGPT: what is it?

ChatGPT is an example of generative AI considered to be « a technological disruption³ ». However, generative AI already existed long before the creation of ChatGPT.

So, what's new? The change comes from its accessibility³. Like an instant messaging service, anyone can send questions and/or give orders to ChatGPT to produce content. It's this ease of access that has made this type of AI so popular in various fields: marketing, eCommerce, SEO…

The change also comes from the high quality of the content generated. Trained by a huge volume of textual data⁴ (billions of sentences), ChatGPT's text generation capacities are impressive.

Our tips for generating product descriptions through ChatGPT

1. Optimize your « prompts »

To generate a compelling product description, it is important to optimize your « prompts » which are the instructions typed into the text bar and used by ChatGPT to generate texts.

For these prompts to be effective, they should be written clearly (short sentences, simple and accessible words, to the point…) and should include all the information necessary to write the product description.

Some information you could include in a prompt:

• Product name
• Adaptations
• Technical features: size, composition, origin
• Main benefits of the product
• Sales pitch
• Care instructions

It is essential to prepare you prompts well to generate accurate and detailed product descriptions. The quality of the « input⁴ » data you provide to ChatGPT will largely determine the quality of the « output » texts generated.

2. Provide format indications

To generate a product description meeting your expectations, you must provide ChatGPT with indications about the layout. ChatGPT will take these indications into consideration to generate a custom-made description.

Some of the indications that you can provide:

• Number of characters
• Structure
• Use of bold and/or italics
• Use of bullet points or numbers for lists
• Presentation in table format

For example, to successfully generate a price table, it is important to provide ChatGPT with indications on what information to include (prices, discount prices, flat rates…) and the required presentation format (number of columns, number of lines, data format…).

3. Generate ideas for keywords

The product description plays an important role in the SEO of a product page which means that it must include strategic keywords.

To identify these keywords, you can ask ChatGPT for keyword ideas⁵ and best practices to follow to integrate them correctly in the description.

You can also tell them how you feel about a specific keyword or provide them with a predefined list of keywords.

4. Indicate the tone to use

To generate an effective product description, it is important to indicate the tone that ChatGPT should use.

As ChatGPT is capable of using a wide variety of tones⁶: journalistic, humoristic, sarcastic… you can ask it to reformulate the text generated in a specific tone of voice.

You can also provide existing content to help it write your text in your preferred tone.

However, if you are not sure which tone would be best, you can ask ChatGPT to try out different versions to see which best suits your context.

5. Provide context

You must give ChatGPT as much context as possible as well as all the details it needs to produce the best description.

For example, you can provide details on the target audience: profile, communication preferences, age group… and explain « the issue⁷ » that the problem can resolve, its added value for the client, or details of how it works.

ChatGPT can use these details to customize the product description to your target audience and use the best vocabulary to persuade them to buy.

Understand the limits of ChatGPT to get the most from it

ChatGPT: a personal assistant

ChatGPT should not replace a professional writer with expert knowledge of their subject.

It should be used as « a personal assistant », there to save you time with tedious, repetitive, and time-consuming tasks.

The first draft of texts, generated by ChatGPT using the prompts you provide, are « rarely optimal ». They need to be proofread, and you should also add instructions or tweak the initial prompt to improve them.

Once the text has been optimized, you should consider it as « something to be improved⁸ ». You then need a human to rework it (add details, make corrections or adjustments…) until you achieve the result you want.

The limits of ChatGPT

Despite great improvements, ChatGPT still has many limits that you need to understand before using it.

Here are some of the limits of the platform:

• ChatGPT tends to write texts that are standardized⁹ or « emotionless⁹ » which can often be similar to each other. This standardization increases the risk of duplicate content which will be penalized by search engines.
• When ChatGPT generates a product description, it cannot use updated information. The descriptions generated may contain outdated information and/or may not consider the circumstances of today's market.
• ChatGPT was trained by textual information from protected works. A draft bill is under discussion to oblige generative AI services to declare « the use of these works¹⁰ ».
• ChatGPT is also capable of generating incorrect information which appears to be « real information¹¹ » but includes false quotes and/or made up sources. These are known as « hallucinations¹¹ ».

If you want to take writing your product descriptions further, you should use a Product Information Management (PIM) solution which integrates ChatGPT. This will enable you to capitalize on the product information in your PIM to prepare prompts efficiently and generate your descriptions in record time.

Once your descriptions have been generated, you can use your PIM's advanced features to inspect, enrich, and validate your descriptions before publication. This guarantees that they are detailed, accurate and up to date on all selling channels.

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² Alcaraz, M. (2023, May 3). Intelligence artificielle générative : la révolution ChatGPT en marche. Les Echos.
³ Marchand, L. (2022, December 12). ChatGPT : plongée dans les entrailles du chatbot qui bouleverse la tech. Les Echos.
⁴ Nguyen, N. (2023, May 22). Comment repousser les limites de ChatGPT pour créer des contenus SEO performants et de qualité ? www.journaldunet.com.
⁵ Billon, J. (2023, April 11). ChatGPT pour le SEO : 10 questions pour créer des contenus optimisés. Blog du modérateur.
⁶ Neveu, S. (2023, May 11). Comment rédiger les descriptions de produits e-commerce via ChatGPT ? Wizville.
⁷ Reger, B. (2023, September 1). Comment utiliser ChatGPT pour créer du contenu : exemples et conseils. blog.hubspot.fr
⁸ Delage, A. (2023, February 22). Peut-on utiliser ChatGPT pour rédiger une fiche produit e-commerce ? www.journaldunet.com
⁹ Billon, J. (2023, March 6). Limites de ChatGPT : 7 inconvénients à connaître. Blog du modérateur.
¹⁰ Marin, J. (2023, April 14). Les eurodéputés se rapprochent d'un accord sur la réglementation des IA génératives. www.usine-digitale.fr.
¹¹ Siladitya, S. (2023, June 12). OpenAI poursuivie pour diffamation après que ChatGPT a généré une fausse plainte accusant un homme de détournement de fonds. Forbes France.