The other day I shared some pointers on how to make your first online sale. Today I'll be sharing about making that second sale and beyond. 

The key to making online sales is trust. You can get a million visitors to your website and have great products with clear pricing and an easy checkout but you're not likely to make any sales if you don't have the customer's trust.

So the question then becomes how you can win a customer's trust. The best way to win it is to create a low risk transaction for them. One that gives you an opportunity to show you're trustworthy. What I mean by this is take a product or service you're selling and offer it to your customer for a reduced price or for free. Once they see you followed through with your delivery and the quality of product they'll be way more likely to re-order.

When selling it's important you remember the most valuable asset you have is your customer data. If you're selling a physical product and you make even one sale. You're going to get the customers name, email address, physical address, and probably their phone number. Does it make sense to sell them an item for no profit or give them a free sample in return for that data? I think it does. 

Once you have that information and you've followed through with product quality and delivery it's eay to send that person an email, text, or even postcard promoting another product or sale. The customer is way more likely to respond, having done previous business with your company. 

So think about a product you have that you can sell for cheaper than your competitors, don't worry about whether you make a profit. Just try to gain as many paying, happy customers as possible. Those happy customers won't be as picky or concerned about the price of your items on the second and sale and beyond. Those follow up sales will provide plenty of opportunity to make a profit. 

After you've sold plenty of products and made happy customers you'll be surprised to find out how much people love to talk about their experience when their expectations have been exceeded.  After the sale don't forget to ask your customers to leave some positive feedback or reviews online. Those can help give new customers the confidence to make their first purchase.