Secondhand Alley

Secondhand Alley is a well-established Bedfordshire-based company with a long trading history and loyal customer base. They specialise in house clearances and have a fabulous store in Maulden – full of unique antiques and bric-a-brac. If you haven’t been, we recommend you pop by. Check out the Secondhand Alley website for the latest opening times and directions.

Early in 2021, Ken Masters, the owner of Secondhand Alley, approached Nifty Bear for a quote for a new website. Before this project went live, the Secondhand Alley website was hosted on Yell. As a result, the website was extremely limited regarding content and design. A Yell listing can also be pretty pricey. The site was tired, and 2021 was the perfect year to give the company’s online profile a facelift.

After being given the green light, the first task as part of this project was to transfer the secondhand-alley.co.uk domain from Yell to the Nifty Bear domain account (123 Reg). In honesty, this can sometimes be frustrating if the original host is tricky to get in contact with. However, to Yell’s credit, they were accommodating, and the domain was transferred in under 48 hours.

Next – a website placeholder. We put a “Coming Soon” banner as the placeholder for the Secondhand Alley website, giving eager customers an indication of the exciting event ahead! With the placeholder in place, the Nifty Bear team could get to work on building the new website.

If you follow Secondhand Alley on social media – you know how entertaining they are. Our favourite is Ken having a cheeky dance on a Friday (and who could blame him). If you don’t follow them – you’re missing out! Ken provides exceptional service to his customers and always has a smile on his face. Social media is a great insight into the business, and we wanted to make sure the website followed the same theme – professional, friendly, personal, informative.

To help Ken achieve his perfect site, Nifty Bear ensured the following applied:

• Home Page – Incorporated on the home page is a modern and informative home page slider that explains what Secondhand Alley does. The banner is responsive on all devices.
• Imagery – Multiple photographs are used throughout the site to give a real representation of a day in the life of Secondhand Alley.
• Dedicated Gallery – A dedicated gallery is navigational from the main menu and it features plenty of photographs taken at the shop and of Ken, Katy and Darren on the road. The photographs are exceptional, and we’d like to say a big thank you to the Photography Mill.
• Social Media – Multiple links to social media accounts and a live Instagram feed of the Secondhand Alley profile.
• Easy to Understand Opening Hours – The site includes a page dedicated to the Secondhand Alley store. On this page is helpful information including opening dates and hours, directions, and a dedicated gallery (store only photographs).
• Get in Contact – As you would expect, the site had an easy to use contact form for interested customers looking to send Ken a message. We have also added a separate form for people who want to sign up for the Secondhand Alley newsletter.

Working with Secondhand Alley has been a joy and the Nifty Bear team sincerely hopes that Ken, Katy and the whole team like the finished website.

If you are based in Bedfordshire or surrounding counties and you’re interested in Secondhand Alley’s specialist house clearance service, please visit the website or email secondhandalley@hotmail.co.uk. If you would prefer, you can call Ken direct on 07885 731 725.