Alaska Boat Brokers
It started with one tricky search page for a fellow Wix Partner. It grew into a full rebuild: a Wix CLI app that runs the brokerage’s listings and a brand-new section where private sellers list their own boats.
Visit the live site ↗The Brief
One search page that grew into a marketplace.
Alaska Boat Brokers’ brokers cover all of Alaska, from Kodiak to Ketchikan. The first job came through Urban Umbrella, a fellow Wix Partner, in October 2025: a custom search page on the brokerage’s Wix Studio site that dug through every listing’s details, so buyers could find the right type of boat at the right price.
Stage two was a full rebuild as a Wix CLI app, serving the brokers and a brand-new private-seller marketplace, with the tools the team needs to run it all.
The Journey
Two stages, one marketplace.
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Stage one: the search page
Velo code on their Wix Studio site, built with Urban Umbrella: search and filters across every listing’s details, load-more, and two card layouts visitors can switch between. The first working version was ready the morning after the brief.
- 02
Stage two: the CLI app
In 2026 the whole boat-sales app moved off the Studio site into a Wix CLI app, built around the brokers and a brand-new private-seller section.
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Untangled the data
Inventory still arrives as exports from the brokerage’s own system, with most specs written out as free text. The app turns it into real fields (year, make, model, length, price, hull, engine and fuel) that the search and filters can use, without changing how the brokerage exports it.
- 04
Opened the doors to private sellers
Members list their own boats through a paid plan, and the brokerage approves each one before it goes live.
The tricky bits
Two kinds of listing, one search.
The brokerage’s boats and private sellers’ boats are stored separately, with different rules about who can see and change them. Private listings stay locked away, and the public only ever sees approved ones, served through the app’s backend. Buyers don’t see any of that. The search can show both sources in one All boats view, with the filters and counts working across them, while the site keeps its separate Brokered Boats and Private Seller Boats pages.
The Build
A closer look at how it works.
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▸ For buyers
Search that knows boats
A full filter sidebar (type, size, price, year, hull, engine, fuel and more), port chips and all-boats, broker and private-seller tabs, with listing pages that carry galleries, full specs and 3-D tours, plus saved boats.
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▸ For sellers
List your own boat
Private sellers pick a plan, list their boat with photos and specs, and manage it from their own account once the brokerage approves it.
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▸ For the team
Dashboards that do the busywork
Staff approve listings, work through an inquiry inbox, import inventory from CSV and draft descriptions with AI, all from custom Wix dashboards.
The Outcome
Where it landed.
The app is live on alaskaboatbrokers.com, with the brokerage’s inventory and the private-seller section side by side. What began as one search page now runs every listing on the site.
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Listing sources,one search
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Built-insearch filters
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Gallery layoutsper listing
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