P.A.S.S. e-commerce: a modern copywriting system

<p>You’ve been told to use the Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS) formula for your e-commerce copy. It is clean. It is logical. It is also incomplete. Builders like systems, and PAS looks like a system, but it only gets you halfway to a sale.</p> <p>You can describe the customer’s pain perfectly, then present your solution, and still see abandonment rates north of 70%. The problem isn't your product; it's the formula. PAS works beautifully in a vacuum, but e-commerce does not exist in a vacuum. It exists in an infinite aisle of options.</p> <p>Your customer is not solving a pain point. They are solving a selection problem. They need to choose you, not just accept your existence.</p> <p>Most copywriting advice assumes the customer is on your page and ready to buy. This is a comfort lie. Your audience is distracted, skeptical, and comparing your offering against four others right now. The old model fails because it misses the final, critical stage of the modern buyer journey: the moment of decision.</p> <p>We need to upgrade the system. We need P.A.S.S.: Problem, Agitate, Solution, and Selection.</p> <p>TL;DR: The traditional PAS formula is obsolete for e-commerce because it fails to address the customer's final decision-making criteria, which is solved by adding a crucial fourth step: Selection.</p> <p><em>If you are short on time, scroll down to The E-commerce Copy Builder section for an immediate action.</em></p> <h2>Apply the P.A.S.S. framework for e-commerce copy, guiding customers from problem awareness to product selection.</h2> <p>The P.A.S.S. framework retains the brutal clarity of its predecessor, but it adds a necessary mechanism for builders who need deterministic outcomes. It recognizes that in e-commerce, a good solution is only 25% of the battle.</p> <h3>P: The Pinpoint Problem (The First Draft of Pain)</h3> <p>Start with the specific, undeniable problem your product solves. Make it tangible. Don't use vague aspirational language. If you sell a specialized coffee bean subscription, the problem is not "bad morning." It is "running out of the specific Rwandan bean you love on Tuesday morning."</p> <p>The specificity of the problem makes the reader feel seen. It gives you permission to proceed. If you cannot describe the pain better than the customer, they won't believe you can solve it better.</p> <p><strong>Actionable Step:</strong> Look at your last three customer support tickets. What is the single, concrete friction point mentioned most often? That is your Problem statement for your highest-traffic product page.</p> <p>Conventional advice says to just list features. Ignore it. You are selling escape from a bad situation, not a specification sheet.</p> <h3>A: Amplified Agitation (The Cost of Inaction)</h3> <p>Agitation is often misunderstood. It’s not about fear-mongering. It’s about quantifying the cost of doing nothing. For e-commerce, this means showing the reader what they lose—time, money, opportunity, or mental energy—by sticking with the status quo.</p> <p>For a new kitchen gadget, the agitation isn't that current cooking is hard. It’s that the current method adds 15 frustrating minutes to your dinner prep, consistently stealing time from your evening. That’s 75 minutes a week you lose. That is a system inefficiency.</p> <p>This is where you show the customer the difference between their current state and their desired state. It is a psychological gap, and your product is the bridge. <a href="https://learn.getliftkit.com/learn/psychology-of-persuasion-in-marketing">Understanding the psychology of persuasion</a> helps here; people are motivated by avoiding loss more than gaining benefit.</p> <p><h3>The Loss Multiplier</h3></p> <p>Agitation for e-commerce needs to multiply the loss. If your product prevents a single headache, the real agitation is the cumulative impact of 100 headaches over a year. Frame the small pain as a major systemic flaw.</p> <p><h3>S: Strategic Solution (The Product as a System Upgrade)</h3> <p>The Solution step is where most e-commerce copy gets lazy. They jump to "Buy Now." You must position your product as a strategic upgrade that replaces the whole old, inefficient system. It must be more than just a purchase.</p> <p>A solution for a sustainable clothing brand isn’t just a new shirt. It’s the cessation of guilt, the simplified morning routine, and the end of fast-fashion anxiety. It delivers <a href="https://learn.getliftkit.com/learn/value-proposition-examples">value</a> beyond the transaction.</p> <p>Reframing your solution makes your customer feel competent and capable again. They aren't buying a widget; they are installing an upgrade to their life system. They are acting like a builder.</p> <p><strong>Small Win:</strong> Go to your product page right now. Replace every instance of "We offer" or "Features include" with "You get" or "This eliminates." You just shifted the focus from effort to outcome.</p> <h3>S: Selection (The Constraint Filter)</h3> <p>This is the necessary evolution for modern e-commerce copywriting. After Problem, Agitate, and Solution, the customer still faces the paralyzing question: “Why this one, right now, for me?”</p> <p>Selection is the art of giving the customer a filter that makes you the only logical choice. You must define a constraint that only your product meets. This is not a simple Unique Selling Proposition (USP); it is a context-dependent selection criterion that actively filters out competitors.</p> <p><h3>Isolation, Comparison, and Commitment</h3></p> <p>Use comparison to your advantage. If you sell a high-end, artisan coffee maker, your Selection step isn't just "better coffee." It's "the only machine designed for zero plastic waste and 100-year repairability." This isolates your target customer—the long-term-focused builder—and commits them to a constraint that other cheap options fail to meet. This is a critical extension of your <a href="https://learn.getliftkit.com/learn/unique-selling-proposition">unique selling proposition</a>.</p> <p>For a founder who needs quick results, <a href="https://learn.getliftkit.com/learn/landing-page-optimization-strategy">optimizing the landing page</a> to focus on this final 'Selection' decision is crucial for conversion.</p> <p><strong>Actionable Step:</strong> Identify one trade-off your product uniquely solves (e.g., speed *plus* ethical sourcing). Build a 3-point bullet list under your product description titled: "Why Choose the [Product Name] Now." This is your Selection criteria.</p> <h2>The E-commerce Copy Builder</h2> <p>Traditional copywriting formulas are fine for practice, but systems demand predictable output. Use this prompt to generate P.A.S.S. copy that adheres to the constraints of real-world e-commerce.</p> <p><h3>P.A.S.S. Conversion Prompt</h3></p> <p>Copy and paste this entire block into your prompt interface:</p> <p><code>CONTEXT: I am an e-commerce builder selling [YOUR PRODUCT] to [YOUR TARGET CUSTOMER]. The primary problem is [THE CONCRETE PAIN POINT]. The competitive landscape is [LIST 2-3 PRIMARY COMPETITOR ALTERNATIVES]. GOAL: Generate P.A.S.S. copy (Problem, Agitate, Solution, Selection) focused on driving a purchase conversion. DELIVERABLE 1 (P+A): A 3-sentence lead paragraph defining the problem and amplifying the cost of inaction. DELIVERABLE 2 (S): A 4-point bullet list positioning the product as a Strategic Solution, focusing on system upgrade and elimination of old friction. DELIVERABLE 3 (S): Three concise Selection criteria (max 10 words each) framed as decision rules that eliminate the named competitors.</code></p> <p><strong>Example Output (Selection Criteria):</strong></p> <ol> <li>Lifetime warranty (Competitor A has 1 year).</li> <li>Ships carbon-neutral (Competitor B uses standard logistics).</li> <li>One-minute installation (Competitor C requires professional setup).</li> </ol> <p>This builder is one of countless interconnected prompts within a strategy-first marketing system built for founders.</p> <h2>FAQ</h2> <p><h2>FAQ</h2></p> <h3>Q: How is P.A.S.S. different from AIDA or other funnels?</h3> <p>A: Most legacy frameworks stop at Desire or Solution, assuming the customer will naturally choose you. P.A.S.S. adds the "Selection" step to handle modern choice paralysis and market density. It forces you to define a constraint—a reason to eliminate every other option—which is essential for <a href="https://learn.getliftkit.com/learn/marketing-funnels-explained">conversion in a modern marketing funnel</a>.</p> <h3>Q: How can I use P.A.S.S. for low-cost impulse buys versus high-cost items?</h3> <p>A: The Agitate step changes based on price. For low-cost impulse buys, Agitation focuses on immediate, minor friction (annoyance, inefficiency). Selection focuses on speed, social proof, and low-friction returns. For high-cost items, Agitation focuses on long-term systemic failure (cost, reliability, time) and Selection focuses on warranties, build quality, and evidence of expertise. You must adjust your <a href="https://learn.getliftkit.com/learn/how-to-write-better-marketing-copy">copywriting style</a> accordingly.</p> <h3>Q: Can P.A.S.S. be applied to my overall brand messaging, or only specific products?</h3> <p>A: P.A.S.S. is most effective on individual product pages or campaign-specific landing pages, where the goal is a singular conversion. However, the core principles of Problem and Agitate inform your <a href="https://learn.getliftkit.com/learn/brand-storytelling-framework">brand storytelling framework</a>, and the Selection criteria become a pillar of your positioning and competitive defense.</p> <hr> <h2>Start running operator-grade marketing in under an hour.</h2> <p>LiftKit is the only strategy-first AI marketing system built for founders. It distills the same Fortune-500 frameworks used at Apple, Stripe, and McKinsey into a simple, actionable playbook you can run in under an hour.</p> <p>Stop tinkering with tactics. Start operating with strategy.</p> <p><strong><a href="https://getliftkit.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Get LiftKit</a></strong></p> <h2>Keep learning</h2> <p><a href="https://learn.getliftkit.com/frameworks" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Frameworks</strong></a>: Learn proven mental models to diagnose, prioritise, and scale marketing outcomes.</p> <p><a href="https://learn.getliftkit.com/channels" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Channels</strong></a>: Understand which acquisition paths actually work and how to deploy them strategically.</p> <p><a href="https://learn.getliftkit.com/messaging" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Messaging</strong></a>: Build positioning, angle, and copy that converts without guesswork.</p> <p><a href="https://learn.getliftkit.com/strategy" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Strategy</strong></a>: Make smarter decisions using operator-grade prompts and structured thinking.</p> <p><a href="https://learn.getliftkit.com/tools" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Tools</strong></a>: Use AI, automation, and practical templates to move faster.</p> <p><a href="https://learn.getliftkit.com/research" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Research</strong></a>: Tap into market insights, psychology, and patterns that drive effective marketing.</p> <script type='application/ld+json'> { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Article", "headline": "P.a.s.s. e-commerce: a modern copywriting system", "description": "Apply the P.A.S.S. framework for e-commerce copy, guiding customers from problem awareness to product selection.", "articleSection": "frameworks", "keywords": "pas ecommerce, pas,ecommerce,copywriting", "author": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "LiftKit" }, "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "LiftKit" }, "url": "https://learn.getliftkit.com/frameworks/pas-ecommerce", "mainEntityOfPage": "https://learn.getliftkit.com/frameworks/pas-ecommerce" } </script>