Product Descriptions: Overview – AB Commerce Online Help

As outlined in the Product Content: Overview, there are a number of types of product descriptions available in AB Commerce. Details of each of the following can be found below:

Product Descriptions

Short description
Accordion tab descriptions - product specific
Accordion tab descriptions - sitewide
Accordion tab descriptions - downloads
Long descriptions
Further reading

Note on editing

All these fields are editable by browsing to the Product Detail page for the product you wish to update and clicking on the Edit Product Content link in the blue admin box at the top of the page content.

Note on Copy & Paste

Whether you are writing content separately, have content to copy in from suppliers, or are using a tool like ChatGPT to help with these descriptions, please do not copy/paste directly from Word, ChatGPT, etc. as this will try to bring across formatting from these sources meaning it will not match your website.

Where possible, paste into Notepad and then copy as plain text from there into AB Commerce. You can apply any required formating directly in AB Commerce then and it will pick up the styles assigned to your site automatically.

Short description

This description appears just above the Add to Basket so very important for mobile shoppers. Use the short description to give a quick summary of the product and reiterate the selling point.

Maximum number of characters is 250.

This description is not required and there are certain times when it can be useful. Please discuss with your implementation team or contact helpdesk@magico.com prior to using this field.

Accordion tab descriptions - product specific

There is an option to add up to four description fields, each of which can have a custom title for the site and only appear for a specific product when populated with content.

Content in these sections is unique to each product. The first, usually called Product Details or Product Information, would be considered a necessary as it is the description which provides core product information and is the only one included in product feeds from AB Commerce.

This tab is open by default when your customer arrives on the product detail page.

Maximum number of characters for each is 2500.

Your Implementation Lead will discuss your options in more detail with you or once you are live, please contact helpdesk@magico.com if you have questions around these fields.

Accordion tab descriptions - sitewide

The product specific descriptions are followed immediately by Sitewide accordion tab descriptions - there are 5 fields available if required. These are added once, appear on all product detail pages, and can be edited from any product detail page on the site. Typically, these would include the following:

Delivery Information - a brief intro to delivery/collection services and a link to the main information page
Returns Policy - a brief intro to the returns information with a link to the full policy page

The implemention team will work with you to select and add content for Delivery, Returns and any other sitewide descriptions which may be required, or once you are live, please contact helpdesk@magico.com if you have questions around these fields.

Accordion tab descriptions - downloads

Files can be added to a specific product via the Upload Files link in the blue admin box. If you already have files added to a product and wish to edit/remove these, you can do this via the Edit Files link.

The Downloads tab appears after the other product description tabs and sitewide tabs on the product detail page. If a file, e.g. an instruction manual PDF, is uploaded to a product, it will trigger the appearance of this tab.

The content here cannot be edited and the link title is automatically generated by the file name as uploaded, and size calculated upon upload.

We recommend giving files an intuitive name like Product title - technical specification.pdf, Product title - safety sheet.pdf, as opposed to simply code.pdf, spec.pdf or similar.

Long descriptions

The long description fields appears below the core product content and gallery and is ideal if you need to display long technical or instructional content. Generally speaking, this is not required, and your Implementation team will discuss this option with you or you can contact helpdesk@magico.com if you require more information.

If you do need to add content here, there are two methods:

Via the Edit Product content link in the blue admin box
Via Settings > Edit Site Content

The first option will allow you to add text, list, links, tables, etc. the same way as the accordion tab descriptions facilitate. The second option will allow you to add richer content including images, and gives more layout flexibility.