The bullet points in your listing on Amazon do more than just inform potential buyers about the product. They also function as a compelling medium to convince customers to consider doing business with your brand. 

The style, coherence, and effectiveness of your bullet points can give buyers the right impression and, as a result, drive sales. Sometimes it is the key feature that helps alleviate doubts and turn an audience of shoppers who are on the fence about your product into loyal customers.

In this lesson, we’ll walk you through the key tips to keep in mind when you begin crafting your bullet points. You can use them as guidelines to make sure your product description stays snappy, clear, and effective.

What are Amazon bullet points?

Amazon bullet points are short, bite-sized lines of text space where sellers can convey crucial information about the product by highlighting its main features or selling points that make it unique. 

Next to the title, they are the most heavily utilized spots on an Amazon listing page that hold immense marketing power. A single glance at the bullet points on your listing can influence a buyer’s decision to purchase your product or not.

This is why marketers often stress the importance of using the most effective and attractive bullet points in a persuasive and easy-to-understand manner.

Why are Amazon bullet points important?

Audiences on the internet have a very limited attention span when it comes to shopping. This is why bullet points are a great format for condensing your USPs into an easily skimmable pitch. 

The first step is getting audiences to click on your title. We’ve covered this in the previous lesson. Now focus on making sales, with the ideal propositions, delivered in a simple and succinct format. 

Bullet points are also dubbed key product features. Your goal is to briefly outline how the product benefits the customer. Look at each line as a question you need to answer. Take a look at the common questions your potential buyer might have about the product and try to answer them in the clearest manner possible. 

Amazon bullet points: formatting

The following are some of the general formatting principles you need to follow when you begin to formulate your bullet points:

• The word limit for each point is up to 15 words or a maximum of 500 characters. The text cannot exceed this, which is why we emphasize keeping your points brief and without filler. At best, you can make a five-line summary of the key features and benefits your product offers.

• Sellers aren’t allowed to indicate the product’s price, company details or shipping information in the bullet points space. This forces you to be creative in how you craft each line.

• Make sure the tone doesn’t come across as overly promotional. You should try to stay grounded and state facts, instead of making claims that can’t be tested. For instance, saying your brand is the best in the market is a very subjective statement, that rings hollow when you consider how many other brands are saying the same thing. 

• Try to arrange your list of bullet points in the order of their relevance. Prioritise the most important ones to appear on top.

• Start every bullet point with a capital letter. Follow a consistent format in general. Random capitalization and inconsistent formatting can be off-putting for shoppers.

You don’t have to adhere strictly to punctuation rules if the sentences are hard to follow. The goal is to make things easy for your audience to grasp.

• We talked about using title casing in the previous lesson for Amazon titles. This is where every first word in the sentence is capitalized. However, this isn’t an ideal practice for bullet points because it can be too distracting. 

Likewise, you should refrain from using special characters for abbreviations. It comes across as unprofessional.

 If you do need to separate a phrase within a sentence, use a comma of a semicolon. Most importantly, do not end your bullet points with punctuation. They count as characters and are also unnecessary in this context. 

How to write Amazon bullet points: 

Best practices

In the following section, we’ll cover some of the best practices you can adopt when crafting Amazon bullet points. Remember, there is no “one size fits all” rule here. 

You can get creative with how you approach a description instead of sticking to a formulaic recipe. However, there are certain guidelines that help make the product listing stand out and resonate with audiences, most of the time. The following tips are some of them:

Don’t overuse keywords

Keywords are a wonderful resource when it comes to making sure your listing stays relevant and appears on the right search results. You can’t do without them. However, be cautious enough to not overstep your bounds and overdo it.

While it is true that the keywords you use in your bullet points affect your product’s search ranking, be careful about keyword stuffing. The ones you do use should blend in naturally with the rest of the content. 

Your product description should be geared towards the customer, first and foremost. The search engine comes second. As a seller, you should learn how to strike a balance between optimization and clarity. 

Customers will be looking up your description for more details about the product. If the bullet points are stuffed with keywords, it defeats the purpose and will only end up confusing the buyer. Use them sparingly, on a priority basis. Don’t make it seem too obvious because customers will definitely pick up on that.

Make it accessible at a glance

A good way of making bullet points accessible is to avoid the passive voice. Write in a way that engages the customer directly. Also, if there is any jargon or technical terms that customers may have trouble with, it is best to simplify them.

Instead of using the limited space to elaborate on a technical term in brackets, just go for an alternative word that your customers can understand better. The more straightforward your tone and language is, the easier you are to follow.

Think of it this way: customers don’t want to spend any more than 15-20 seconds perusing your listing. So figure out how to convey the highlights of what you’re offering by being direct, brief, coherent and clear. There’s no need for fancy prose.

Focus on pain points

Every potential customer has a pain point. It doesn’t have to be tangible either. It could be something as trivial as wanting to look stylish or catch up on the latest trends. Think of your product in terms of a solution to an existing problem. Make your bullet points emphasize how what you’re selling can solve this particular problem, no matter what it is.

For instance, if you’re targeting an audience that loves to wear luxury watches, focus on the features that make your branded watches give a sense of class and elegance, as opposed to functionality.

On the other hand, if you’re selling winter wear to audiences who live in extremely cold regions, highlight how the fabric offers the perfect protection from harsh weather.

Depending on what you’re selling and who you’re selling it to, you’ll have to highlight different aspects of your product. Sometimes, this may be a certain aesthetic quality. Other times, it may be a special feature that makes it more convenient to use.

If you’re having trouble finding out what to highlight, take a detour through the reviews for a similar product. You’ll easily get a gauge on what customers are looking for, just by examining what the majority of complaints are about.

Don’t go over the top with marketing

There’s a plethora of options in the online market. Which is why you can’t approach advertising on Amazon the way you would at your local store. Audiences are very used to exaggerated claims on online shopping websites, which is why they value honesty above all else. Keep your highlights factual and make sure they are accurate. 

Don’t resort to ambiguous statements just to drive sales. Customers can see right through it and in the long term, this will only lead to returns, refunds and bad reviews. In short, if there’s anything your customers need to know, make sure you inform them. 

Keep your customers updated

If you’re an established seller on Amazon, you might be somewhat familiar with negative reviews regarding certain features. Whenever you do make an upgrade to the product or fix a persistent problem, make sure you mention that in bullet points. 

Not only does it give you a competitive edge over other brands, it also inspires confidence in your customers when they see you’re responsive to feedback. 

Write for your target audience

This is more of a general guideline for how to approach writing your bullet points. Every seller has a buyer persona in mind when they begin to sell their product. This is a customer profile that fits the majority of your target customer base. So when you do begin writing bullet points, you’ll be addressing this target segment. Instead of adopting a generic, vague tone, you can alter your description so that it appeals to your target audiences. 

Focus on quality over quantity

The good thing about bullet points is you get to notice and get rid of filler content. You’re essentially trying to capture everything noteworthy about the product in five super short lines. This helps you refine your sales pitch for ideal customers. So, even though it may be challenging, it is also rewarding. 

When you’re trying to decide what details to include in your bullet points, look for what’s relevant to the customer. Think in terms of what the customer needs to know, or might like to know.

For example, a customer would be interested in knowing that the sneakers you’re selling are highly durable. Or that a household flashlight comes with a charging port. Such details are a big selling point precisely because they are relevant to the buyers. 

Another good indicator to keep yourself in check is going by what the customer cares about the most. 

For example, you don’t have to emphasize the color of a flashlight when you could focus on the light’s intensity. 

In other words, some features are a bigger priority than others. Since the space you have is very limited, mention what matters to your customer the most. 

Lay off the jargon and keep things simple

It is important to assume that your customers know everything about your product, right off the bat. A lot of sellers become totally involved with the minutiae of their products down to every last detail, that they often forget how a customer might see them. This is what leads to brands confusing their own customers with jargon-heavy content or irrelevant details. 

You need to be able to break things down to the bare essentials and focus on the benefits. Customers care about the product more than they care about the brand. Simply put: Benefits first. Features second. 

Focus on the benefits

A common mistake that a lot of sellers make is mentioning the make of a product when they should be emphasizing the benefits. You don’t have to assume that all your potential customers are knowledgeable about a certain type of feature or how it helps make it better. It’s your job to convey that information. 

For example, instead of mentioning that a certain lotion has aloe vera in it and leaving it at that, mention how it has anti-inflammatory properties and is great for the skin.

Match content with context

Don’t state something that’s already dealt with elsewhere. For example, you don’t need to mention your return policy or shipping policy here. There’s a different section for that on Amazon, which your customers are most likely aware of. Furthermore, this isn’t something you have to highlight because it doesn’t say anything about the product. 

Customers will often be more concerned about what they’re buying than about how you’ll manage to deliver it to them. If they end up disappointed with the product, they’ll certainly not be pleased about having to go through the hassle of returning it and demanding a refund. This translates into a bad rating and a negative review. Too many of those can hurt your business. So focus on what you’re offering in terms of product, at least in your product description. 

Don’t look for an instant buy

Make sure you don’t push forward any promotions on your product’s listing page as a bullet point. This can actually confuse customers who assume the offer applies to all sellers who share the same product listing page. It is best to stay clear of using instant buy marketing tricks when you’re selling online. The average buyer is way more experienced and discerning and won’t appreciate anything manipulative.

Final thoughts

The goal of Amazon’s bullet point section is to give customers a space where they can discern everything they need to know about the product at a glance. As long as you focus on the benefits and keep it short, your bullet points should be fine. As a seller, you’ll be trying to give shoppers just enough information that encourages them to buy the product. So as usual, don’t be afraid of trying something different if your initial attempts aren’t successful. There’s plenty of ways to improve and there’s nothing intimidating about it, not even for first-time sellers.