Websites for Egyptian exporters: catalogue and enquiries

If you export from Egypt, your website is often the first thing a foreign buyer checks after finding your name in a directory, at a trade fair or in an email. It should show what you sell in the buyer's language, prove you can meet their standards, and make it easy to ask for a quote. In practice that means a product catalogue, a request-for-quotation flow, pages for certificates and logistics, and separate language versions that search engines can find.

This guide walks through each part, drawing on what we learned building the Alkhameesi platform for an Egyptian fresh-produce exporter.

What a foreign buyer checks first

An importer who lands on your site is usually asking three questions:

• Do they have what I need? Products, varieties, sizes, packing and seasons.
• Can I trust them? Company details, certificates, photos of the real facility and a physical address.
• How do I get a price? A clear way to ask for a quote, and what details to send.

A site that answers these in the first minute gets the enquiry. A site that opens with a slideshow and a mission statement often does not.

A catalogue built for buyers, not a brochure

An export catalogue is not an online shop. Buyers rarely pay on the site. They compare specifications, then ask for a price based on quantity, destination and delivery terms. Each product page should carry the facts a purchasing team asks for:

For manufactured goods, swap in technical specifications and packaging options. Manage the catalogue from a dashboard, so your team can add a product or hide one that is out of stock without calling a developer.

The request-for-quotation flow

For an exporter, the enquiry is the sale on the website. Design it as carefully as a shop designs its checkout:

1. A "Request a quote" button on every product page, opening the form with that product already selected.
2. A short form with what you need to price: product, quantity, destination country or port, preferred delivery terms and contact details.
3. A quote list for buyers who want several products in one request.
4. An instant confirmation email telling the buyer when to expect a reply.
5. A notification to your sales team, with the enquiry saved in the dashboard so it never sits unread in one person's inbox.

Many buyers state delivery terms using the Incoterms rules published by the International Chamber of Commerce, such as FOB or CIF. A drop-down with the terms you actually offer saves an email round trip. Keep a WhatsApp button as well, because some buyers prefer a quick chat before a formal request.

The form collects names, emails and phone numbers, so treat it as personal data: say what you collect and why, and store it securely. Our guide to Egypt's data protection law for apps covers the basics.

Certificate, quality and logistics pages

Trust is what separates you from the next exporter on the buyer's list. Give these topics their own pages instead of burying them in the About text:

• Certificates. Show only the certificates you actually hold, with the issuing body, scope and expiry date. Never display a logo for a scheme you do not belong to.
• Quality and process. Farms or factory, sorting and packing lines, cold storage and testing, shown with real photos and short videos.
• Logistics. The ports you ship from, the packing formats you offer and the documents that travel with each shipment.
• Company facts. Legal name, address, year founded, the markets you export to and a named contact person.

Languages and international SEO

Translate for the markets you sell to, not for every language you can. English is the base for most export sites. Add Arabic, German, French or others where you have buyers and someone who can answer enquiries in that language.

Google's documentation sets out clear rules for multilingual sites:

• Use a separate URL for each language version, such as /en/ and /de/, instead of switching language with cookies or browser settings.
• Translate the content, not just the menus. Google works out a page's language from its visible content, not from code such as the lang attribute.
• Do not redirect visitors automatically based on a guess about their language. Offer a clear language switcher instead.
• Add hreflang annotations in which each version lists itself and every other version. Google ignores them if two pages do not point to each other.
• Set an x-default version for visitors whose language you do not cover.

Beyond that, write product pages around the phrases buyers search for, add structured data and keep the pages fast. Our guide on getting found on Google, ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude goes further into search and AI visibility.

Speed and the small details that win replies

Buyers often open your site on a phone, between meetings. Compress photos, avoid heavy video on the home page and test on a real phone. Show your time zone and working days beside the contact details, use an email address on your own domain rather than a free mailbox, and reply quickly: a good catalogue still loses to a competitor who answers first.

What KF Tech Solutions does here

We design and build export websites with a multilingual catalogue, a request-for-quotation flow, a dashboard where your team manages products and enquiries, and the technical SEO set-up for each language. The Alkhameesi platform is one example. See our web development service for how projects run, and what a company website costs in Egypt for budgeting. If you also sell to consumers online, read about payment gateways in Egypt.

Common questions

Do I need an online shop to sell abroad?

Usually not. Most B2B export orders are priced on quantity, destination and delivery terms, so a catalogue with a quote request fits better than a cart with fixed prices. A shop makes sense only if you also sell small orders online.

Should I show prices on the site?

Most exporters do not, because the price depends on volume, season, packing and freight. You can show a minimum order quantity and let the quote form handle the rest.

Which languages should the site start with?

English plus the language of your largest target market is a sensible start. Add a language when you have buyers there and someone who can reply in it.

Can my team update the catalogue without a developer?

Yes, if the site is built with a dashboard. Adding products, changing seasons, uploading certificates and reading enquiries should all work without code.

How long does an export website take to build?

It depends on the number of products and languages and on how much content is ready. Translations and product photos are usually the slowest part, so start gathering them early.

Tell us what you export and which markets you are targeting, and we will suggest a site structure that fits. Contact us or book a free call.

Sources

• Google Search Central: Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites
• Google Search Central: Tell Google about localized versions of your page
• International Chamber of Commerce: Incoterms rules