British Web Design runs five example websites for made-up businesses, each built from a brief of a few sentences by the same process that builds a customer's website. Anyone can open them, book an appointment, fill a basket and go through the checkout with a test card. None of the five businesses exists, and every example site says so in a notice at the top of every page.
What the examples are
Each example started as a brief in the same form a customer fills in, and was built by the same build process, with later changes asked for the same way a customer asks for them. Together they show a beauty salon, an online shop, a plumber, a builder and a café.
Every example is a made-up business. The phone numbers come from the range Ofcom keeps for drama (01632 960 numbers), the email addresses are on example.com, and every brief asks for a notice on every page saying that the business is made up, that nothing sent reaches anyone and that payments are test payments only.
The examples are kept apart from customers' websites. They never appear in the portfolio, which shows only real customers' live websites, with their owners' say-so.
The five example websites
| Example (made up) | Kind of business | Address | What it shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Willow & Rose Beauty | Beauty salon, Ludlow, Shropshire | willow-rose-beauty.on-britishwebs.com | Treatments booked with the therapist and time the client chooses, a £10 deposit by card, an aftercare shop |
| Harbour & Wick | Online candle shop, Whitby, North Yorkshire | harbour-wick.on-britishwebs.com | Sizes as options, a basket, discount codes, free delivery over £40 and Apple Pay at the checkout |
| Kerr Plumbing & Heating | Plumbing and heating, Perth, Perth and Kinross | kerr-plumbing-heating.on-britishwebs.com | Boiler services and gas safety certificates booked into a free slot and paid in full online, emergencies by phone |
| Ashdown Build & Renovation | Builders, Crowborough, East Sussex | ashdown-build-renovation.on-britishwebs.com | Finished projects first, then quote visits and paid consultations booked online, with a 20% deposit on the paid ones |
| The Little Kettle | Café, Frome, Somerset | the-little-kettle.on-britishwebs.com | Table booking by party size, afternoon tea priced per person, celebration cakes paid for online and collected |
The briefs that built them
The briefs are short and plain. British Web Design shows four of them in full, word for word, on the page for that kind of business, with a button to start a new site from the same brief: Kerr Plumbing & Heating on the plumbers page, Willow & Rose Beauty on the salons page, Ashdown Build & Renovation on the builders page and The Little Kettle on the cafés page. Extracts from each brief:
Online booking is the most important thing: clients choose the treatment, who they would like to see and a time, and pay a £10 deposit by card when they book, which comes off the bill on the day. (Willow & Rose Beauty)
Free UK delivery over £40, otherwise Royal Mail Tracked 48 (£3.95) or Tracked 24 (£5.95), or collect from the workshop in Whitby. (Harbour & Wick)
Emergencies (no heating, a burst pipe) get their own page with the phone number, not online booking. (Kerr Plumbing & Heating)
The site leads on photographs of finished projects, grouped by job, then how a project runs from survey to sign-off, insurance and guarantees. (Ashdown Build & Renovation)
The menu as a real page with allergens, not a PDF. (The Little Kettle)
The Kerr Plumbing & Heating brief also tells the build not to claim Gas Safe or any other registration, accreditation or review, because the business is made up, and to leave a clear place where a real firm's Gas Safe number would go. A customer's site follows the same rule: an accreditation goes on only when the owner says they hold it.
Trying the checkout
The example sites run on their private addresses, where payments always go through Stripe's test mode and no money moves. To try a booking or a purchase, use the card number 4242 4242 4242 4242 with any future expiry date and any three numbers. Bookings reach nobody. A customer's own site takes test payments on its private address in the same way, before it goes live.
Questions
Are the British Web Design example websites real businesses?
No. The five British Web Design example websites are made-up businesses: Willow & Rose Beauty, Harbour & Wick, Kerr Plumbing & Heating, Ashdown Build & Renovation and The Little Kettle. Each was built from a short brief the way a customer's site is built, and each says at the top of every page that the business is made up.
Can I try booking and paying on a British Web Design example website?
Yes. Every British Web Design example site takes test bookings and test payments. Use the card 4242 4242 4242 4242 with any future date and any three numbers; no money moves and nothing reaches anyone.
Where are real British Web Design customer websites shown?
Real customer websites are on the British Web Design portfolio. A site appears there only when it is live on its own domain, its owner is paying and has agreed to it being shown, and British Web Design has chosen it. The owner can take it off at any time.