Guides Index > Public Viewer Guide

Public Viewer (Anonymous Visitor) Guide

A comprehensive reference for the capabilities and constraints of anonymous visitors on the MC B2B Portal public-facing website.

1. Overview

Welcome to the Public Viewer documentation for the MC B2B Portal. The public-facing website at mc.com.kw serves as the digital storefront and initial touchpoint for potential clients, partners, and anonymous visitors. The fundamental philosophy behind the public view is to showcase the breadth and depth of our product catalog and capabilities without revealing commercially sensitive information such as pricing.

Any visitor navigating to the site without logging in is considered a "Public Viewer." This role does not require an account. The architecture is intentionally designed to index well on search engines and provide comprehensive information to drive business registrations.

Important Principle

PRICES ARE NEVER SHOWN to anonymous visitors. A public viewer will never see pricing, discounts, quote carts, or Request for Quote (RFQ) capabilities. These are strictly reserved for approved business clients.

Available and Unavailable Routes

Route Path Accessibility Purpose for Public Viewer
/ (Home) Available Landing page, featured products, brand introduction.
/products Available Searchable and filterable complete product catalog (no prices).
/categories Available Hierarchical exploration of product categories.
/brands Available Exploration of products by manufacturer or brand.
/news Available Company announcements, industry news, published articles.
/about & /contact Available Corporate information and contact forms.
/catalog & /account Blocked Client portal routes; redirects to login.
/admin Blocked Administrative routes; strictly forbidden.

2. Home Page

The Home Page is the primary landing destination. It is designed to capture attention, communicate the MC brand value proposition, and funnel visitors toward either catalog browsing or account registration.

Public Home Page layout
Figure 1: The standard home page showcasing featured categories and bilingual navigation.

Key components visible to a public viewer on the Home Page include:

3. Product Browsing

The most interactive part of the public experience is product browsing. We want potential clients to know exactly what we stock, encouraging them to register to get a quote.

The Product Listing Page

Navigating to /products reveals the full catalog. Visitors can perform full-text searches, filter by category, brand, size, and type. They can toggle between grid and list views, and adjust the number of items per page (12, 24, 48, or 96 items).

Product Grid View
Figure 2: The product grid view. Notice the absence of pricing and "Add to Cart" buttons.

Visibility Rules on Product Cards

Each product card displays the Product Name, Primary Image, Category, and Brand. In place of a price, a persistent message reads: "Prices available to registered business customers." The "Add to Quote" button is completely removed from the DOM for anonymous users.

The Product Detail Page

Clicking on a product opens its detailed view. This page is critical for SEO and provides extensive technical details.

Product Detail View
Figure 3: Product Detail Page showing specifications but no pricing.

4. Categories

The /categories section provides a structured, hierarchical way to browse the catalog. For a B2B portal with thousands of parts, a logical category tree is essential.

Visitors can view a two-level category tree (Parent Categories and Sub-categories). Each category card displays a representative image and the total count of products within that category. Clicking a category navigates to the /products page automatically filtered by the selected category.

5. Brands

Many industrial and corporate clients look for specific manufacturers. The /brands route displays a directory of all partnered manufacturers and brands MC distributes.

Visitors see brand logos arranged in an alphabetical grid. Selecting a brand filters the entire product catalog to show only items manufactured by that specific brand, facilitating targeted discovery.

6. News

The News section keeps the public informed about company milestones, new product line introductions, and industry events. It functions as a standard blog.

News Portal
Figure 4: The public news feed.

7. About Page

The About Page (/about) is static content dedicated to building trust. It contains the company's history, mission, vision, and leadership profiles. Like all public pages, the content is fully bilingual and SEO-optimized.

8. Contact Page

The Contact route (/contact) provides essential communication channels. It displays physical addresses, Google Maps embeddings, phone numbers, and direct email addresses.

Contact Form
Figure 5: The Contact page and inquiry form.

A web form is available allowing anonymous visitors to send messages directly to the MC sales and support teams. The form requires:

Submitting this form triggers a backend process that emails the configured sales team inbox.

9. Language Switching

The entire portal is engineered for a bilingual audience (English and Arabic). The language switcher in the header is available to all public viewers at all times.

1

URL Structure

The language state is reflected in the URL routing (e.g., /en/products vs /ar/products). This ensures that specific language pages can be bookmarked and indexed by search engines separately.

2

RTL Rendering

Switching to Arabic automatically applies a Right-To-Left (RTL) CSS direction. Layouts, grids, sidebars, and text alignment mirror seamlessly to accommodate Arabic reading standards.

3

Dynamic Content Translation

Product names, category names, and news articles will display in Arabic if the translated text has been provided in the admin database. If a translation is missing, the system gracefully falls back to the English content.

10. Mobile Experience

A significant portion of web traffic originates from mobile devices. The public view is strictly responsive.

Mobile View
Figure 6: The responsive mobile interface.

Key mobile adaptations for public viewers include:

11. Registration & Getting Started

The ultimate goal for a public viewer is to convert them into a registered business client. The Registration portal is accessible to anyone.

Registration Form
Figure 7: Business Account Registration Form.

How Registration Works

  1. The visitor navigates to the "Register" page.
  2. They must provide standard user details (Email, Password, Name).
  3. Crucially, they must provide Company Details (Company Name, Commercial Registration Number, Industry, Phone).
  4. Upon submission, they are NOT instantly granted access. Their account is placed in a "Pending Approval" state.

Why Manual Approval?

Because pricing is sensitive and customized for B2B, MC administrators manually vet every registration to ensure they are legitimate businesses before granting them access to the client portal and pricing tiers.

12. Signing In

For existing clients, the Login page is accessible from the public navigation bar. The login form requires simply an Email and Password. A "Forgot Password" flow is available, which sends a secure reset link to the user's email if they possess an active account.

Login Page
Figure 8: Secure Login Portal.

13. What Public Viewers Cannot See

To explicitly clarify the boundaries of the Public Viewer role, the following elements are strictly hidden and protected via backend API middleware and frontend route guards:

14. FAQ for Visitors

Public viewers often have common questions regarding how the portal operates. Here is the standard FAQ tailored for anonymous traffic:

Q: How can I see product pricing?

A: Pricing is exclusively available to registered business partners. Please register for a business account. Once our team approves your account, you will have full access to pricing.

Q: How do I place an order?

A: The MC Portal operates on an RFQ (Request for Quotation) model. You must register, get approved, build a quote cart, and submit it. Our sales team will then return a formal quotation for your approval.

Q: Can I see prices without creating an account?

A: No. As a B2B distributor, our pricing varies based on volume, contracts, and commercial agreements. It is never displayed publicly.

Q: How long does account approval take?

A: Account registrations are reviewed manually by the MC administrative team during standard business hours. Typically, accounts are vetted and approved within 1 to 2 business days.

Q: What is an RFQ?

A: RFQ stands for Request for Quotation. Instead of checking out with a credit card like a standard retail store, you submit a list of items you need, and we provide a customized commercial proposal.

Q: Is this an online retail store?

A: No. This is a Business-to-Business (B2B) portal designed for wholesale, industrial, and corporate procurement. We do not facilitate direct-to-consumer retail transactions.

15. SEO and Public Accessibility

Because the public view serves as a marketing tool, it is heavily optimized for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and web accessibility.