Shopify Product Description Writers

Test across tiers, not on your best product. Pay for a trial on one top seller, one mid-range product and one long-tail item. Anyone can polish a hero product. The trial reveals whether the writer can scale effort down sensibly without the cheaper copy turning vague or wrong.

Look for samples in your category and price bracket. Copy for premium skincare and copy for replacement parts use different vocabulary, different levels of detail and a different idea of what the shopper doubts. A product description copywriter with strong samples in an adjacent category is a safer hire than a generalist with a famous client list.

Ask how facts get checked. Materials, dimensions, compatibility and care instructions have to be right, and a confident mistake can come back as a return. Ask who verifies each claim against the spec sheet, and how the writer marks wording you must approve, such as ingredient or safety statements in regulated categories.

Settle the fields per product. Description only, or size notes, bullet specs and image alt text as well? Per-product quotes only compare when every writer is pricing the same set of fields.

Ask for honesty about AI. A writer using AI for first drafts is normal. One who won't say which descriptions started as drafts, or who charges researched rates for lightly edited AI copy, is not someone to trust with a catalogue.

Price the thinking, not the word count. Word count says little about what a description is worth. A writer who quotes before asking about your customers, your catalogue size or how the tiers split has priced the typing and skipped the research.

Very few catalogues need every product written from scratch. Split yours by revenue before asking for quotes, because each tier calls for a different method and a different rate.

- Top sellers get individual descriptions. Give the writer spec sheets, your voice guide, and the support questions, reviews and return reasons behind each product.

- The mid-tier runs on a structured template per product type, filled with real specifics such as materials, fit, dimensions and compatibility. The writer builds the template once; each product still needs its own facts.

- The long tail needs an accurate baseline. This is where AI drafting, whether Shopify Magic in the admin or another tool, earns its place, with a human edit on every draft before it goes live.

Agree the delivery format before any writing starts. For bulk work, ask for a CSV that imports straight into Shopify, with specs that belong in metafields kept in their own columns rather than folded into the description. Product metafield columns only import into definitions that already exist, and variant metafields can't be imported by CSV.

Have the writer work in a full export of your products and change only the description, SEO and spec columns. Handles are how Shopify pairs each row with a live product, so they stay exactly as exported, and a file stripped of the variant option columns can replace your existing variants with a single default one.

Updates only apply when the import runs with the "Overwrite products with matching handles" box ticked, and a blank cell in any included column wipes the live value. Load five products first and check them in the admin before the rest.

Per-product pricing is the norm, and the tier sets the rate. Researched and baseline rates below are typical US market ranges; the directory figure comes from claimed shopexperts profiles in September 2026.

Jobs range from a single flagship product to the far end of a large catalogue: