What We Learned Building a Coffee Brand Website for International Buyers

Adhe Putra — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 17:35:05 +0000

Recently, we worked on a website project for an Indonesian specialty coffee brand called Dayati Coffee.

At first glance, it looked like a fairly standard business website project. The goal was simple: create a professional website that could showcase products and help the business reach customers beyond social media.

What we discovered during the project was much more interesting.

The biggest challenge was not design, performance, or even SEO.

It was trust.

The Assumption We Started With

When planning the website, we initially focused on the same elements most businesses ask for:

Homepage
Product catalog
Contact page
About page

The assumption was that visitors would mainly want to browse products and learn about the company.

That assumption turned out to be incomplete.

What Visitors Actually Wanted

As we researched specialty coffee buyers, especially international buyers, we noticed a recurring pattern.

People were asking questions such as:

Where is the coffee grown?
Who produces it?
How is it processed?
Can the origin be verified?
Is the coffee traceable?

These questions appeared repeatedly across coffee marketplaces, importer discussions, and specialty coffee communities.

The product itself was important.

But buyers wanted proof behind the product.

The Traceability Problem

For many coffee businesses, traceability is difficult to communicate.

A product page can describe flavor notes and processing methods, but that does not necessarily build confidence.

Someone buying coffee internationally often wants additional context.

They want to see:

Farms
Farmers
Harvesting processes
Drying processes
Roasting activities
Production environments

Without this information, the business risks looking similar to hundreds of other coffee sellers online.

Why We Added a Dedicated Coffee Origin Section

This observation eventually led us to create a dedicated Coffee Origin section.

Instead of placing origin information across multiple pages, we consolidated it into a dedicated area where visitors could explore:

Coffee growing regions
Farm environments
Production workflows
Processing methods
Coffee stories

The goal was not simply to add more content.

The goal was to make the business more transparent.

You can see the implementation here:

https://dayaticoffee.com/coffee-origin/

Something We Learned About Business Websites

One lesson from this project is that businesses often focus on what they want to say, while customers focus on what they want to know.

Those are not always the same thing.

The company wanted to talk about products.

Buyers wanted evidence.

The company wanted to highlight coffee quality.

Buyers wanted transparency.

Once we started viewing the website through the buyer's perspective, many content decisions became easier.

Design Was Not the Most Important Part

As web developers, it is easy to spend a lot of time discussing:

Layouts
Typography
Color palettes
Animations

Those things matter.

But for this project, trust-related content had a greater impact on the overall direction of the website than visual design decisions.

The website did not need more animations.

It needed more proof.

What We Would Do Differently Next Time

If we started the project again today, we would probably focus on origin documentation even earlier.

We would collect:

More farm photography
More production documentation
More process images
More behind-the-scenes content

before beginning the website structure.

That content would make planning significantly easier.

Final Takeaway

Building websites for businesses often reveals problems that are not immediately visible.

In this case, the challenge was not technical.

It was communication.

The project reminded us that a website is not simply a collection of pages. It is a tool for building trust.

For specialty coffee businesses, that trust often comes from showing people where the product comes from and how it is produced.

Sometimes the most important feature is not a new technology, a fancy design element, or a complex system.

Sometimes it is simply helping visitors understand the story behind the product.

Project:
https://dayaticoffee.com/

Built by:
https://aksatria.com/

DEV Community: Adhe Putra

What We Learned Building a Coffee Brand Website for International Buyers