At SingleFeed, we try to follow the shopping engine data feed specifications as closely as possible. We have tons of automated rules that help keep our merchants’ feeds clean so they are accepted by the shopping engines.

One rule that we’ve followed since close to inception is no promotional text in the product name or product description field. This is almost a universal rule on the shopping engines so implementing this rule was a no-brainer.

Shopzilla’s data feed specification states: “Do not misrepresent, include promotional or extraneous information in the Descriptions.” We understand ‘promotional’ information to mean no phrases like ‘Free Shipping’. Well, it seems that Zappos is getting away with breaking this rule:

I’m not exactly picking on Zappos with this post, although they should play by the same rules as everyone else. Rather, I want to point out that while Shopzilla allows up to 1000 characters in its description field, it only displays around 60 in the first example and around 300 in the second example.

In other words, for data feed optimization purposes, merchants should be selling as much as possible (within the rules of the shopping engines) in the first 50 or so characters of the product description field. Without a proper sell, a consumer will have to click on a ‘more’ button (in the examples above) and the merchant will be charged a click fee as that ‘more’ button is a click to the merchant’s site, not to a longer product description.

Some engines display a little more of the description, some engines display a little less. Make sure to view how your product descriptions are being displayed and then change your product descriptions accordingly.