Essential trust pages for Egyptian online stores

An Egyptian shopper deciding whether to place a cash-on-delivery order with a store they have never heard of is, in that moment, asking one quiet question: is anyone real on the other side of this page? Before they hand over an address and a phone number and agree to pay 600 EGP at the door, they go looking for reassurance, and on most new stores they find a checkout button and very little else. The pages that answer that question are your trust pages, and publishing them is the cheapest conversion work you will ever do.

Trust pages are the static, plain-language pages that tell a buyer who you are, how to reach you, what happens to their data, when their parcel arrives, and what they can do if something goes wrong. They are not the place for the full word-for-word shipping or refund policy text, each of which has its own dedicated lesson; this lesson is about the set you should have live before you spend a single pound driving traffic, and why each one earns its place. Treat them as a launch gate, not a someday task.

The minimum set of trust pages to publish before launch

Six pages cover the trust questions an Egyptian buyer actually asks. Publish all of them before your first ad goes live.

• About / Who we are. A few honest paragraphs about the people and the story behind the store. Egyptian buyers are wary of faceless pages; naming the founder, the city you operate from, and why you started turns an anonymous storefront into a business someone stands behind.
• Contact. A working WhatsApp number, the Instagram handle buyers already DM, and a response-time promise such as "we reply within a few hours." A reachable human is the single strongest trust signal in a market where most pre-purchase questions arrive over chat, not email.
• Shipping information. A short page telling buyers which governorates you serve, rough delivery windows, and the fee structure, so there are no surprises at checkout. Keep the full policy detail in its own document and link to it.
• Refund and exchange. A clear summary of whether returns are accepted, the window, and the condition rules. Buyers paying COD still want to know they are not stuck if the item is wrong; the detailed terms live in the dedicated refund lesson.
• Privacy / data. A plain statement of what personal data you collect (name, phone, address), why, and that you do not sell it. Under Egypt's data-protection expectations this is no longer optional, and it reassures buyers handing over a phone number.
• Terms of service. The ground rules: pricing accuracy, order acceptance, COD confirmation, and cancellation. It protects you in a dispute and signals that the store is run properly.

Why each page actually moves the needle

These pages do three jobs at once, which is why skipping them is expensive.

1. They close the trust gap at checkout. A first-time COD buyer who can see your face, your WhatsApp, and your return rule is far likelier to complete the order and far likelier to accept the parcel at the door rather than refuse it.
2. They cut your support load. Most repetitive pre-sale questions are "do you ship to my governorate," "how do I pay," and "can I return it." Answer them once on a page and your WhatsApp inbox quietens.
3. They protect you and help you get found. Clear terms and a privacy page reduce disputes and chargebacks, and well-written, keyword-relevant trust pages give search engines real text to index, which feeds your organic discovery.

Make them easy to find and easy to read

Pages no one can find do not build trust. Link all six from your site footer so they appear on every page, keep them in both Arabic and English to match how Egyptian shoppers actually browse and search, and write them in short, scannable sections rather than dense legal blocks. Add a contact link near the checkout button itself, where hesitation peaks. Revisit the pages whenever your couriers, fees, or return window change so the promise on the page always matches reality.

Related lessons

• Write a simple shipping policy for your store — the full shipping page this set links to.
• Build a refund and exchange policy buyers understand — the detailed return terms behind your summary.
• Make your homepage build trust quickly — the trust signals that work before a buyer ever reaches a policy page.

This Storix Academy lesson is published as "Essential trust pages for Egyptian online stores". Every step below is written for merchants selling online in Egypt, so apply one change at a time and measure the result before moving on.