84 manufacturer websites through a buyer's eyes: what we found and what to fix in a week
We didn't audit design or SEO. We did what a European buyer does: opened the website, looked for the product, the minimum order, the delivery terms and the codes, and tried to write to someone.
What we checked
84 manufacturers from one country, selected from public registers and trade fair lists: food and drinks, cosmetics, textiles, furniture, building materials and more. For each we recorded whether the website opens, whether it has an English version, whether the product range is visible, and whether the five commercial data points an importer needs are published: minimum order, delivery terms, packaging, product codes, certificates.
What we found
41 of 84 websites worked. The rest did not open, showed an expired domain or a page under construction.
Of the working sites, most had an English version, but it was often a shorter translation of the local one, without the wholesale section.
Not one site listed a minimum order, delivery terms or product codes. 4 showed packaging data.
Contact forms often led nowhere: no reply within a week to a test enquiry in English was the norm, not the exception.
Why it matters now
EU buyers are asking suppliers for more data every year, not less. Traceability of raw materials, proof behind environmental claims, product codes for customs. A supplier who cannot publish a minimum order will not be able to answer the traceability question either, and the buyer asks both in the same e-mail.
What to fix in a week
Make sure the website opens, on a phone too, and that the domain is paid for a year ahead.
Add one page in English, 'For importers', with the five numbers: minimum order, delivery terms, packaging, product codes, certificates. A table is enough.
Put a named person with a direct e-mail on that page and answer test enquiries within a day.
Export the product range to a PDF catalogue with the same data, so it can be attached to the first e-mail.
A redesign can wait. The data cannot.