ChatGPT prompts for Amazon and Etsy listings (and where they go wrong)

You paste "write an Amazon listing for my water bottle" into ChatGPT and get back something that sounds impressive. Then you look closer. The title is 180 characters. The bullets promise "24-hour cold" when your bottle does 12. There's a "BPA-free" claim you never mentioned, and the phrase "must-have" twice.

General AI chat tools like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini can save a lot of typing. But they only know what you tell them, they fill gaps with guesses, and they're bad at counting characters. The prompt is where you control that. This guide gives you prompts that work, then the checks to run before anything goes live.

The one rule: give it facts, not a product name

The biggest mistake is asking the AI to write about a product it can't see. It will invent specs that sound right for that kind of product. Instead, paste in a fact sheet:

• What it is, the brand and the model
• Size, weight, capacity, count, materials and colours
• What it's for and who it's for
• What's in the box
• Test results or numbers you can back up
• Claims you can't make (like certifications you don't hold)
• Keywords you've already researched, most important first

If you've done keyword research, include it. Our guides to finding Amazon keywords and Etsy keywords cover free ways to get them.

Then tell it plainly: "Only use the facts below. If something isn't listed, leave it out."

Prompt: Amazon title

You're writing an Amazon product title. Use only the facts below.

Rules: 75 characters or fewer, including spaces. Start with the brand, then the product type, then the one or two details a shopper filters by (size, count, colour). No promotional words like "best" or "premium". No special characters like ! $ ? or ~. Don't repeat a word more than twice.

Give me five options, and after each one write its character count.

Facts: [paste your fact sheet]

Amazon's title requirements cap most titles at 75 characters, with extra detail going into Item Highlights. Our 75-character title guide explains the rule. Asking for five options gives you something to choose from. Asking for the count makes it try, but don't trust the number it gives you (see below).

Prompt: Amazon bullet points

Write five Amazon bullet points from the facts below.

Rules: start each with a short header in capitals followed by a colon. One benefit per bullet, most important first. Each benefit must be backed by a fact from the list. Don't mention price, shipping, guarantees or other brands. Plain words, no hype. Keep each bullet under 200 characters.

Facts: [paste your fact sheet]

The structure here follows Amazon's bullet point requirements. Our bullet point guide covers what's allowed.

Prompt: Etsy title and 13 tags

You're writing an Etsy listing. Use only the facts below.

Title: start with what the item is in plain words, then two or three key details. Keep it under 15 words and readable, not a list of keywords.

Tags: give me exactly 13 tags. Each tag must be 20 characters or fewer, including spaces. Use multi-word phrases a shopper would type. Don't repeat the exact title. Include a mix: item type, style, material, occasion and who it's for.

After the tags, list each one with its character count.

Facts: [paste your fact sheet]

Etsy allows 140 characters in a title but recommends short, readable ones, and gives you 13 tags of up to 20 characters each. Our Etsy titles and tags guide has the details.

Prompt: product description

Write a product description for [platform] from the facts below.

Start with one or two sentences on what it is and the main problem it solves. Then cover how it's used, size and materials, care, and what's included. Write like a helpful shop assistant, not an ad. No words like "must-have", "revolutionary", "ultimate" or "next level". Don't add any fact that isn't below.

Facts: [paste your fact sheet]

For what makes a description good on any platform, see our guide to writing product descriptions.

Where AI listings go wrong

It invents facts

If you leave out the battery life, it may add one. If you don't say what the bottle is made of, it may say "BPA-free stainless steel". These invented details are the most dangerous problem, because they look right. On Amazon, Amazon's own guidance for its AI listing tools says you're responsible for checking that AI content is accurate and compliant with its policies (Sell on Amazon: using Amazon AI to create listings). The same goes for anything a third-party tool writes.

Check: read every claim and ask "can I prove this?" Delete anything you can't.

It can't count characters reliably

AI chat tools work with chunks of text, not individual letters, so their character counts are often wrong. A title it says is 72 characters may be 81.

Check: paste every title and tag into a character counter, or into the platform's own field, which shows the count. Never rely on the number the AI gives you.

It writes like an ad

Without instructions, AI defaults to phrases like "take your style to the next level", "revolutionary" and "perfect for any occasion". Shoppers skim past them, and marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart restrict promotional language in titles.

Check: search the draft for hype words and replace them with a fact.

It stuffs keywords

Ask for "SEO" and you may get the same keyword five times. That reads badly, and both Amazon and eBay have rules against keyword repetition or unrelated keywords.

Check: read it out loud. If it sounds odd, a shopper will think so too.

It forgets your platform's rules

A chatbot won't reliably stick to eBay's 80-character title limit or Etsy's 20-character tag limit unless you tell it. Put the rules in the prompt, every time.

A simple workflow

1. 1Write the fact sheet once per product.
2. 2Use the prompt for the field you need, with the platform's rules in it.
3. 3Ask for several options and pick the best.
4. 4Check facts, count characters and remove hype.
5. 5Paste it in, and check the preview on the platform.

Where YelloShelf fits

General chat tools are free or cheap and work well if you're willing to write good prompts and check every draft. YelloShelf is a paid tool built for this one job: it drafts titles, descriptions and tags from your product photos with each platform's limits built in. It doesn't have a free plan or trial. You buy a credit pack, starting at $10, and your first purchase comes with a money-back guarantee. We're helping you remove the manual, tedious, time-consuming work. You still read it, edit it and paste it in yourself, and the checks above apply to us too.

Quick checklist

• Give the AI a fact sheet, not just a product name.
• Tell it to use only those facts.
• Put the platform's limits and rules in every prompt.
• Ask for several options.
• Check every claim against what you can prove.
• Count characters yourself, not with the AI.
• Remove hype words and repeated keywords.