Note: General information for shops in any country, current in October 2026. Where a rule is named, its official source is linked. Rules differ by country and change, so check the ones that apply to you.
TL;DR. A buyer opens a product page with a short list of questions: what is this, will it work for me, what will I pay in total, when will it come, and what if it's wrong. A page that answers all five, in that order, saves the buyer an email and saves you a return. Several of those answers are also legal duties in the EU, the UK and Türkiye.
Watch someone shop and the same questions come up in roughly the same order:
- What exactly is this?
- Will it fit, suit or work for me?
- What will I pay, all in?
- When will it arrive?
- What happens if it's wrong?
Reviews run across all five, because people read them to check your answers. The sections below take each question in turn.
What it is, in the buyer's words
Lead with the plain name of the thing, then the facts a buyer would ask a shop assistant for: material, size, weight, what's in the box, where and how it's made. Write the title the way people search ("Linen shirt, short sleeve, sand"), not the way your supplier labels it ("LS-204 SND").
The law puts this first too. Before a distance contract binds anyone in the EU, the trader has to give "the main characteristics of the goods" (Directive 2011/83/EU, article 6). Türkiye's distance selling regulation opens its list the same way (Mesafeli Sözleşmeler Yönetmeliği, article 5).
Photos carry most of it. Show the product beside something familiar so its size is obvious, show the back and the inside as well as the front, and shoot the colour in daylight. If the colour varies from batch to batch, say so.
Will it work for me?
Most returns start here. For clothing, give the garment's own measurements, not only S, M and L, and say how it fits ("cut loose, size down if you're between sizes"). For furniture, the dimensions and whether it arrives assembled. For skincare, the full ingredient list and who it isn't for. For anything electrical, the plug and the voltage.
Then add a short "good to know" line for the questions you keep answering by email. If three customers have asked whether the mug can go in the dishwasher, the answer belongs on the page.
The price they'll actually pay
Show the price a buyer will pay, with tax the way your market expects it, and say what delivery costs before the checkout does. In the EU the information duty covers the total price with taxes and "all additional freight, delivery or postal charges", and a buyer who wasn't told about such a charge doesn't have to pay it (articles 6(1)(e) and 6(6) of the same directive). Türkiye asks for the price with all taxes and every shipping and delivery cost, and a cost the buyer wasn't told about isn't owed (articles 5(1)(d) and 5(3) of the regulation).
Sales have rules of their own. An EU price reduction has to show the earlier price, which is "the lowest price applied by the trader during a period of time not shorter than 30 days" before it (Directive (EU) 2019/2161, adding article 6a to Directive 98/6/EC). Türkiye has used the lowest price of the ten days before the discount since 1 August 2026, and judges each sales channel on its own (Resmî Gazete, 1 July 2026). A "was" price you never charged costs you the buyer's trust, and in those markets it's a breach as well.
When it comes, and what a return costs
Put the delivery promise next to the buy button: when you dispatch, how long the carrier takes, and the cut-off for same-day dispatch. Put the returns summary there too, in one line, with a link to the full policy. Our guide to shipping and returns a small shop can keep covers what to promise and how to price it.
Reviews: real ones, all of them
Reviews are the buyer checking your answers against other buyers. They only work if they're real, and three large markets now say so in law.
- The EU. If you show reviews, how you make sure they come from people who used or bought the product is "material" information. Claiming they do without "reasonable and proportionate steps to check" is banned, and so is submitting or commissioning "false consumer reviews or endorsements" (Directive 2019/2161, applied from 28 May 2022).
- The US. The FTC's rule on consumer reviews and testimonials has been in force since 21 October 2024. It bans fake reviews, rewards offered for a positive review, and review suppression; sorting by helpfulness or rating is fine (FTC questions and answers).
- Türkiye. Since 1 August 2026 only people who bought a product may review it, positive and negative reviews stay up for at least a year, and the publishing rules are shown where the reviews are (Resmî Gazete, 1 July 2026).
Under all three sits the same habit. Ask every buyer for a review a few days after delivery, publish the bad ones with your reply, and never pay for praise. Twelve honest reviews with two answered complaints read better than forty identical five-star lines.
Readable by search engines and AI assistants
More and more buyers reach a product through a search result, a comparison or an AI assistant, and those read the same facts you wrote for people once you give them structure. Google's merchant listing markup needs a product name, an image and an offer with a price and a currency. It recommends shipping details, a return policy, a GTIN, the brand and availability, and suggests stating the return and shipping policies once for the whole business, with product-level policies only for the exceptions (Google Search Central). Our guide to getting a store ready for AI shopping agents goes further.
A last check before you publish
| The buyer asks | The page shows |
|---|---|
| What is it? | A plain title, the facts a shop assistant would give, photos front, back and to scale |
| Will it work for me? | Measurements, fit or compatibility, who it isn't for, answers to repeat emails |
| What will I pay? | The price with tax as your market expects, delivery before checkout, honest sales |
| When will it come? | Dispatch time, carrier time, the day's cut-off |
| What if it's wrong? | A one-line returns summary and a link to the policy |
| Can I trust it? | Real reviews, the bad ones answered |
FAQ
How long should a product description be? As long as it takes to answer the five questions for that product. A plain T-shirt needs a few lines and a size table; a sofa needs dimensions, materials, delivery and assembly.
Should I use the supplier's description? Write your own. The supplier's text is on every other shop selling the same item, and it rarely answers what your customers ask.
Can I take down negative reviews? Not because they're negative. The FTC's rule bans review suppression, and its guidance accepts a filtering policy only if it treats positive and negative reviews alike; Türkiye keeps both kinds up for at least a year. Removing a review that's about another product, or abusive, is a different matter.
Do I need structured data on a hosted platform? Check whether your platform already adds product markup. FaStart's product page shows what it includes and where each part stands.
