Meridian Yacht Brokerage · Marine & Luxury

Selling a feeling with an actual inventory

Meridian sells yachts on a feeling — the site's tagline, ‘Chasing the Sunset,’ was doing real work. What it had nothing behind it: no current listings, no way to book a viewing, no sense of what happens after someone says yes.

Role: Website redesign, UX, build
Year: 2025
Deliverables: Responsive site, yacht listings, private viewing requests, concierge services page

The Meridian Yacht Brokerage homepage shown on a laptop and a phone, an aerial photograph of a yacht's teak deck with the headline Chasing the Sunset. — The mood was exactly right. Underneath it was a single mission statement and a phone number — no inventory, no next step.

The problem

A yacht brokerage sells on aspiration first, but the buyers who follow through are researching specifics — length, year, range, layout — usually late at night, alone, before they're ready to call a broker. Meridian's site gave them nothing to research.

There was no listings page at all. Every yacht in inventory existed only as a conversation a broker had already had with a client, which meant the website was doing zero pre-qualifying work — every lead arrived cold.

The brokerage's actual differentiator, a concierge arm handling crew, provisioning and berth logistics after the sale, wasn't mentioned anywhere. For buyers comparing brokers, that omission made Meridian look identical to any yacht listing site.

The approach

Three moves, in order.

Put the inventory where people are already looking

A listings page with real specifications lets a buyer self-qualify — length, price range, layout — before they ever speak to a broker, the same way they'd research anything else this size.

Make the next step a private viewing, not a cold call

A request form captures which yacht, preferred date and party size, framing the first contact as a scheduled event rather than an interruption.

Show what happens after the sale

A concierge page laying out crew placement, provisioning and berth arrangement gives buyers the reason Meridian is different from a listing aggregator.

The work

What we built.

The new homepage

The new Meridian Yacht homepage on desktop and mobile: an aerial photograph of a yacht under a serif headline reading Chase the horizon, with a floating listing card. — The homepage, with the inventory brought forward. A real listing sits in the hero, so aspiration and specifics finally share a screen.

The current listings page on a dark navy background: a three-column grid of yacht listing cards, each with an aerial photo, model name, length and price. — Real inventory, browsable the way a serious buyer actually shops — late at night, on their own terms.

The schedule a private viewing page: a dark form card with preferred date, yacht of interest and party size fields, beside a photo of a yacht interior salon. — A viewing request replaces a cold call as the first real point of contact.

The concierge services page: a vertical list of four service rows — Crew Placement, Provisioning, Berth Arrangement, Maintenance Oversight — each with a thin line icon. — The part of the business that actually sets Meridian apart, finally visible to a buyer comparing options.

Also delivered

A private, password-gated page for active buyers mid-negotiation to review documents and survey reports, replacing an email thread that had become the de facto (and disorganized) system of record for six-figure transactions.

Results

First two quarters on the new site.

+83%

Viewing requests submitted online

2.7×

Time on site before first contact

+26%

Buyers citing concierge services as a deciding factor

Listings page that didn't exist before

“We were selling the fantasy and nothing else. Now someone can look at the actual boats at 11pm, decide they're serious, and book a viewing before I've said a word to them.”

Alessandro VitalePrincipal Broker, Meridian Yacht Brokerage

Figures are illustrative of the outcomes this engagement was designed to produce and are shown here for portfolio purposes.

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