Every catalog job has a batch like this. The supplier sends a spreadsheet with a part number, a size, maybe a color, and a photo that looks like it was taken in a parking garage. That is the whole product. Somebody still has to write product descriptions with little information, and on a catalog with thousands of SKUs that somebody was usually me.
Here is the process I use to get from almost nothing to a page that reads like a real product, without inventing claims I cannot back up.
Start by squeezing the data you do have
A thin spreadsheet usually holds more than it looks like. Before writing anything, I read across every column for the product and its neighbors. Part numbers often encode size or material. The category the supplier filed it under tells you what it is for. Sibling products in the same line may have a fuller row that applies to the whole family.
I build a small fact sheet per product line in Excel with columns for what I actually know:
- Product type and what it is used for
- Dimensions, size and weight
- Material or construction, if stated anywhere
- Color and pattern options
- Pack size or count
- Care or handling notes
Empty cells stay empty. That sheet becomes the boundary for the copy. If a fact is not on it, it does not go in the description.
How do you write a product description with no information?
You go find information, then you write only what you found. These are the places I look, roughly in order:
- The product itself. If there is a sample in the building, go look at it. Read the tag, measure it, check the packaging. Five minutes with the item beats an hour of guessing.
- The packaging and labels. Cartons and hang tags carry material content, country of origin and care instructions more often than suppliers put them in spreadsheets.
- The supplier’s other documents. Catalogs, spec sheets and line cards often have details the data feed dropped.
- Your own team. Sales and warehouse staff know what buyers ask about and what gets returned. That tells you what the description must answer.
- Search data. Search Console queries for similar products show you the words customers actually use for this kind of item.
What I do not do is fill gaps with confident guesses. Writing that a product is heavy duty or premium because it sounds good is how you get returns and angry emails. If I cannot confirm something, I leave it out or phrase it around what is known.
Use a template, but not a script
For large catalogs I use a consistent structure so every page answers the same questions in the same place. Mine usually looks like this:
- One or two sentences on what it is and who it is for.
- A short list of specs from the fact sheet.
- A line on use or care, if I have it.
- Pack size or ordering note for wholesale items.
I also keep the title format consistent across the line: product type first, then the detail that separates it from its siblings, then size or pack count. Buyers scanning a collection grid read titles before anything else, so a predictable pattern helps them find the right item fast. It also keeps search results tidy, since every title starts with the term people actually type.
The structure stays fixed. The opening sentences should not. If two hundred products open with the same sentence and a swapped noun, the pages look thin to readers and to search engines. I write the opener for each product line by hand, then vary it within the line based on what actually differs between items: size, color, use.
Turn specs into sentences people care about
A spec only matters when the buyer can picture what it means. Size becomes whether it fits the space or the use. Pack count becomes how long a case lasts or how many units a store gets per order. Material becomes how it feels or how it holds up, if you know that.
For example, a bare line that says 24×48, cotton, white, 12 pack turns into a sentence telling the buyer it is a full size cotton piece in plain white, sold twelve to a case, which is enough to stock a shelf without breaking the pack. Every word in that sentence is still traceable to the sheet. It just reads like someone thought about it.
Fix the photo problem separately
A blurry supplier photo hurts more than weak copy. If you can shoot the product yourself, even on a plain background with decent light, do it. If you cannot, at least crop, straighten and size the images consistently so the collection grid looks intentional. Write alt text that describes the item plainly, using the same terms as the title.
Keep it maintainable
On a catalog with 14,000 plus SKUs, nobody rewrites everything at once. I prioritize by traffic and sales, using GA4 and the store reports: the products people actually land on get the full treatment first. Everything else gets the template version with clean specs, which is still better than a part number and a blank box. The fact sheet stays in the shared drive, so when the supplier finally sends better data, updating is quick.
If you have a stack of empty product pages right now, pick one product line, build its fact sheet, and write the line’s opener by hand. Then roll the template across that line before touching the next one. One finished line teaches you more than a hundred half done pages.