Adding an Excerpt to Shop Product controls

Site URL: http://www.norcalmachinery.com

Has anyone had any luck building Summary Blocks that show store products? 

Summary Blocks grab the Description for the Product when you toggle "Exerpt".  If the description of the product is long (to make the product page look good), it destroys the Summary Block look. 

Is there a plug-in that adds an EXERPT to store item product controls?  An Excerpt should be such a basic part of the product set up........

10 hours ago, SteveHumphries said:

Summary Blocks grab the Description for the Product when you toggle "Excerpt".  If the description of the product is long...it destroys the Summary Block look. An Excerpt should be such a basic part of the product set up.

Perhaps it may help to understand the design principles behind the Product Detail Page (PDP)?

It may not be obvious but the description field is the excerpt. The designer's intention is that this area should contain a short summary of the most important details or unique selling points that make this product stand out from the others.

Attention span is generally quite limited so keeping this short will not only help with Summary Blocks, it will also benefit customers who prefer to skim through products, and those who know what they want and hope to find it at a glance.

It also helps to ensure that there is space for variant options "above-the-fold" (the part of the page that can be seen without scrolling). This is important so that customers can see the choice of colour, size or model.

Of course when you are selling expensive and/or technical items, customers will require much more detail to help them to make a purchase decision. The Additional Info section is the perfect area to add longer more descriptive copy as well as technical details. Squarespace Blocks can be added to this section too, allowing you to add videos, images, tables and so on.

Here's an example of a PDP that follows these user experience principles: