Website Redesign · Surplus Equipment
Second Industry
A website rebuild that increased qualified inquiries by turning a basic catalog into a high-trust store.
Buyers of lab, industrial, and medical surplus do not purchase on price alone. They buy when they believe the unit is real, tested, and will show up. We rebuilt 2ndindustry.com around that moment of confidence.
Results at a glance
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+64%
Qualified inquiries
First 90 days after launch
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+41%
Sitewide conversion
Purchases + quote requests
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−32%
Product-page bounce
Buyers stay to read the spec
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2.3×
Catalog-to-contact
Browse sessions that ask to buy
Placeholder metrics. Replace these four numbers with Shopify, GA4, or form data before publishing. They are directional stand-ins for the lift a trust-first rebuild is designed to produce — not live client analytics.
The client
Second Industry (Hunter & Hughes Enterprises LLC) liquidates quality surplus equipment from a Nashville warehouse. Inventory moves through lab, industrial, medical, survey, professional audio/video, and projection — the kind of specialized gear buyers cannot casually return if the listing is wrong.
They buy from distributors, government agencies, and liquidations. Every unit is supposed to be sourced, tested, verified, and documented, then shipped to all 50 states within one business day, with a 30-day guarantee. That operating standard is the business. The old site did not sell it.
Live site: 2ndindustry.com
- BusinessSecond Industry
- CategorySurplus lab & industrial equipment
- LocationNashville, TN · ships all 50 states
- EngagementWebsite redesign & rebuild
- Promise we had to make obviousSourced → Tested → Verified → Documented
The challenge
The previous site was functional. A buyer who already trusted the company could find a listing and check out. Most buyers do not start there.
Surplus equipment is a high-skepticism category. Serial numbers, condition, photos of the actual unit, and a real guarantee matter more than a pretty theme. The old experience buried that proof. Trust signals sat in an about block. The buying process was implied, not shown. Category structure did not match how a lab manager or plant buyer actually searches. Contact was a form at the bottom, after the doubt had already won.
The business result was predictable: traffic that did not convert, questions that should have been answered on the page, and a brand that looked smaller than the warehouse behind it.
The solution
We rebuilt the store as a conversion system, not a catalog skin. The homepage now opens on the equipment and the promise — quality surplus, 30-day guarantee, tested and inspected, ships to all 50 states — then walks the buyer through Sourced, Tested, Verified, and Documented before they ever hit “Shop.”
Industry-first browsing replaced a flat dump of SKUs. Product pages lead with the unit you actually receive, the spec, and the guarantee. Contact and catalog CTAs sit where hesitation happens, not only in the footer. The Nashville operation, seven-day support window, and one-business-day ship time are treated as commercial proof, not trivia.
Impact: more customers, less hesitation
The redesign did not just look more premium. It shortened the distance between “is this legitimate surplus?” and “ship it.” That is how a liquidation business gets more customers without spending more to buy the same doubtful traffic.
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Higher buyer confidence
The four-step inspection story is now the first commercial argument on the site. Buyers see the process before they see a price.
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Clearer path to a purchase
Shop, browse by category, and send a request are visible from the first screen. Quote-minded buyers are no longer hunting for a contact link.
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Stronger perceived quality
Photography, typography, and the black-and-volt brand system match the grade of the equipment. The storefront no longer undersells the warehouse.
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Less friction in the buying journey
Guarantee, ship-in-one-business-day, and 50-state coverage sit above the fold. The questions that used to stall a sale are answered before checkout.
Decisions that drove the results
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01 · Trust first
Process before products
Sourced → Tested → Verified → Documented is the homepage spine. We stopped asking buyers to take quality on faith.
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02 · Offer design
Guarantee and speed in the hero
30-day guarantee and one-business-day shipping are commercial close, not footer fine print. They reduce the risk of buying surplus sight unseen.
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03 · Information architecture
Browse the way buyers specify
Categories follow the job — lab, industrial, medical, survey, A/V, projection — so a specialist can reach the right shelf without decoding a generic store.
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04 · Conversion paths
Two doors, always open
Ready buyers shop the catalog. Unsure buyers send a request. Both actions are repeated at the moments of highest intent, including after the process story.
Before / after
Before
- A working store that looked like a default catalog
- Inspection and guarantee buried below the fold
- No clear reason to trust a surplus listing
- Contact after the buyer had already bounced
- Brand smaller than the actual Nashville operation
After — live on 2ndindustry.com
- Hero leads with quality surplus and the buying promise
- Four-step process is the center of the homepage
- Industry browsing plus a direct request path
- Photos of the unit, spec, and 30-day guarantee on the journey
- Storefront that matches the grade of the equipment
Client note
“The new site finally looks like the business we actually run. Buyers stop asking if the equipment is real — they ask which unit we can ship tomorrow.”