Business Acquisition Marketplace

NewOwner is a UK platform for buying and selling businesses. Owners can sell directly to NewOwner's private investor with no broker fees, list on the marketplace for other buyers to find, or browse selected real estate investments.

We built two things for them as a web design and development studio. The landing page, which explains what NewOwner does and points visitors toward selling, buying, or investing. And the marketplace app itself, where buyers search listings, read financials, message sellers, and manage their subscriptions.

Business sales are high stakes. A launderette in Manchester going for £275,000 and a guest house in Bristol listed at £1.8 million are both real transactions on the platform. The site has to match that seriousness.

The hard part: NewOwner talks to three completely different people. Sellers want confidentiality and a quick exit. Buyers want numbers and filters to sort through 190+ listings. Investors want property deals with clear returns. One landing page, three audiences, zero confusion between them.

Then there's the competitive angle. NewOwner goes up against traditional business brokers who charge commissions. The entire pitch is "no broker fees, no middlemen." That has to come through in the design without making the platform look bargain-bin.

See our pricing plans for how we scope marketplace projects.

The landing page splits right away. The hero gives you two paths: sell your business or browse businesses for sale. Below that, proof that this is real: 6 businesses already acquired by the private investor, 12+ years of market experience, 190+ active listings.

Sellers see two options. Sell directly to NewOwner's investor (confidential, no brokers, he buys it himself) or list on the marketplace for other buyers to find. The investor has a visible profile with his photo and LinkedIn link. This turned out to matter more than we expected. Sellers want to know who they're dealing with before they share anything about their business.

Buyers get three handpicked listings right on the homepage with real numbers: asking price, location, business type. The marketplace has filters for industry, location, price range, revenue, cash flow, and business type. Every listing card shows the financials up front. Buyers look at the numbers first, everything else second.

The investment section follows the same logic: property listings with prices, locations, and returns all visible without an extra click.

Further down, five client testimonials. Named people with their business type and city. Priya M. from Manchester, Daniel T. from Birmingham, Claire H. from Kent. Named sources from real places beat anonymous quotes every time.

Pricing has three tiers. Explorer is free: browse listings, see basics. Buyer is £29/month: full financials, seller contacts, messaging. Seller is £49/month: create listings, upload documents. No contracts, cancel anytime. The free tier gets people looking around. The paid tiers convert once someone finds a business worth pursuing.

We kept the design restrained on purpose. These are six and seven figure transactions. The site can't look scrappy. Whitespace, real photography, card layouts that give the listings room.

Screens from the live site: homepage, marketplace, listing detail, investments, pricing, and the seller flow.

The platform launched with 190+ business listings and 18+ investment opportunities already loaded. Buyers land on a marketplace that already has things to look at, which solves the biggest problem most marketplaces have on day one.

The two-path homepage structure did what we needed. Sellers and buyers sort themselves within seconds instead of scrolling past content meant for the other group. One surprise: the investor profile section gets more views than almost anything else on the page. Sellers want to see who they'd be selling to before they do anything.

The freemium model started converting at the rate the client expected. Free users browse, find something worth looking into, and hit the paywall when they try to contact a seller or see full financials. That friction is intentional. It only kicks in when someone already cares about a specific listing.

The named testimonials made a real difference. Business owners from specific UK cities, with their industry and location attached. In a market where most platforms show anonymous five-star reviews, that specificity builds trust fast.

Lighthouse scores and analytics from the production site.