What Overseas Buyers Check on an Exporter's Website

The question that moved to the first email

Consider a sourcing manager in Rotterdam looking for a new supplier of solid wood dining tables. She has three names from a trade directory: two in Jodhpur, one in Saharanpur. Before writing to anyone she opens their websites. She is not looking for adjectives about craftsmanship. She is looking for the wood species, where it was grown, whether the packing meets the standard her customs broker expects, which certifications are real, what the minimum order is and how fast a container can ship.

The scene is an illustration, not a client. What it describes is real enough. The question that used to come in the third email now comes before the first: which wood is this, and where did it grow? Two sets of rules explain why.

The rules your buyers now follow

Europe: the deforestation regulation

The EU’s deforestation regulation covers wood and products made from it, including furniture. Anyone placing these products on the EU market must show they do not come from recently deforested land. After two postponements, Regulation (EU) 2025/2650 sets the main obligations from 30 December 2026 for large and medium operators, and from 30 June 2027 for micro and small ones. That later date does not help a small importer of wooden furniture, which was already covered by the EU Timber Regulation and so also faces 30 December 2026.

A delegated act of 2026 keeps wooden furniture in scope and keeps wooden handicrafts such as marquetry, jewellery boxes, statuettes and ornaments in scope too. It clarifies that products of bamboo, rattan and similar materials are outside the regulation, as are used goods.

What it means for you: the regulation requires the importer’s due diligence to include the geolocation of the plots where the wood was produced, and the wood must not come from land degraded after 31 December 2020. Your buyer cannot get that information from anyone but you. India is on the Commission’s low-risk country list of May 2025, which allows simplified due diligence. Simplified is not none.

United States: the Lacey Act declaration

Under the US Lacey Act, importing illegally harvested plant products is illegal, and some products need a declaration. Wooden furniture has needed one since 1 December 2024. The declaration names the genus and species of every plant in the shipment and the country where it was harvested; if the exact species is not known, every species that may have been used must be listed. The US importer files it, electronically only since January 2026, but the data comes from you.

Packing: ISPM 15

Pallets, crates and dunnage of raw wood must meet ISPM 15: debarked, treated, and marked with the IPPC symbol, the country code (IN), the producer’s code and the treatment code. Heat treatment means at least 56 °C for 30 continuous minutes through the core of the wood. Processed wood such as plywood is outside the standard. Say on your website which packing standard you ship to, and who treats your packing wood.

Certifications: show only what a buyer can verify

FSC. FSC chain-of-custody certification tracks certified forest material from the forest to the finished product, and is granted only after an independent audit. Only certified companies may use the FSC label, and FSC publishes tools that buyers use to check FSC claims, including claims made on websites. If you hold a certificate, show its code beside the products it covers. If you do not, do not use the letters.

GI names. Under the Geographical Indications Act, only registered authorised users have the right to use a registered GI name for the goods, and using one in a way that misleads about origin is infringement. Registered handicraft GIs include Saharanpur Wood Craft, Blue Pottery of Jaipur, Sanganeri Hand Block Printing, Bagru Hand Block Print and Jodhpur Bandhej Craft. A producer of the genuine goods can apply to become an authorised user; until then, describe the craft and its origin without the GI name.

The basics a buyer expects you to have

• IEC. Under the Foreign Trade Policy, no goods may be exported without an Importer-Exporter Code unless specifically exempted. It is applied for online on the DGFT portal and needs a PAN, a bank account in the firm’s name and a valid address. One IEC is issued per PAN and it is valid permanently, but it must be updated online every April to June or it is de-activated.
• RCMC. An export promotion council issues the Registration-cum-Membership Certificate. It is needed to apply for authorisations or for benefits and concessions under the Foreign Trade Policy, not merely to export, and is valid for five years. EPCH asks for your IEC first and renews membership yearly.
• Payment terms. From 1 October 2026, export proceeds must be realised within nine months of shipment, or twelve months if invoiced or settled in rupees, and your bank can extend the period. A September 2026 amendment restored nine months; the fifteen months that applied from November 2025 no longer does.

Quote in terms the buyer already uses

State which Incoterms 2020 you quote. Under FOB, you deliver the goods loaded on the buyer’s vessel at the port of shipment, and the risk passes there; for container cargo, the ICC’s own academy says FCA is usually the better term. Under CIF, you also pay freight to the destination port and insure the goods, by default with minimum cover, though risk still passes on board at the port of shipment. A product page that names the term and the place, such as FOB at your port of shipment or FCA at your nearest inland container depot, answers a question the buyer would otherwise have to ask.

Who you are selling to

India’s handicraft exports, excluding handmade carpets, were ₹15,855.1 crore in 2025-26, up 6.1% on the year before. A December 2025 government note puts the United States at about 37% of the trade. Write for these buyers in plain English, with metric and imperial sizes side by side.

What an exporter’s website must carry

If you add a European language, Google’s guidance applies: a separate URL for each language, with each version listing the others through hreflang, one language per page, and no automatic redirects based on a visitor’s location. Google works out a page’s language from its visible text, so a translated menu around English product copy does not make a German page.

What Dwize builds for an exporter

Most exporters sell through enquiries and samples, not a checkout. Dwize Site is ₹49,900 a year, GST inclusive: up to nine pages, a search and analytics foundation with Search Console set up, and twelve content updates through the year, each live within two business days, so a new collection or a revised compliance note goes up without a developer queue. It is built in English plus one Indian language. If you need a European language, ask before you buy.

Dwize Store is built around Indian payments (UPI, cards, netbanking and cash on delivery through your own accounts) and GST invoices. It suits exporters who also sell to Indian retail customers. For retail sales abroad, ask first.

No website can give you an EUDR geolocation or a Lacey species list; only your sourcing records can. What the website does is show a buyer, before the first email, that you know what they need and can supply it. See Dwize for handicraft businesses, or the district pages for Jodhpur and Jaipur.