Join Matt Edmundson on the eCommerce Podcast as he delves into the world of online retail with Aman Amandeep Singh from Cronix, a full-service eCommerce agency. Discover insights on choosing the right eCommerce platform, from Shopify to BigCommerce, and learn about the latest trends in omnichannel strategies and content optimisation. Don't miss this engaging discussion on how to enhance your online store's performance and reach

---

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro

9:17 Choosing the Right eCommerce Platform

10:39 BigCommerce's B2B Advancements

13:03 Shopify's Restrictions on High-Risk Products

17:56 Challenges with Wix for E-commerce

20:40 Shopline's Rise in the UK

25:18 Emerging Trends in eCommerce

27:12 Custom Content and Landing Pages

28:53 Enhancing Product Pages for Better Conversion

35:51 Evolving Omnichannel Strategies

41:57 Effective Website Migration Strategies

---

Key Takeaways:

1. Choosing the Right eCommerce Platform: Amandeep highlights the importance of selecting an eCommerce platform based on specific business needs. For those starting out with straightforward requirements, platforms like Shopify are recommended for their ease of use and community support. However, for businesses with more complex needs, such as B2B functionalities or custom payment integrations, platforms like BigCommerce or self-hosted solutions like WooCommerce and Magento might be more suitable. This advice underscores the necessity of aligning platform capabilities with business objectives.

2. Enhancing Product Pages with Rich Content: Amandeep advises investing in rich content for product pages, especially for best-selling items. This includes detailed descriptions, use cases, benefits, FAQs, and high-quality images or videos. Such enhancements can improve customer understanding and potentially increase conversion rates. He also mentions the importance of maintaining unique and engaging content to stand out from competitors who might use generic manufacturer descriptions.

3. Omnichannel Strategy and Social Commerce: Amandeep discusses the growing importance of an omnichannel strategy, which involves selling across multiple platforms like Amazon, TikTok, and Walmart, in addition to one's own website. He notes the increasing trend of social commerce, particularly on platforms like TikTok, where users are more inclined to make purchases directly. This advice highlights the need for businesses to diversify their sales channels to reach a broader audience and adapt to changing consumer behaviours.

---

If this episode of the eCommerce Podcast piqued your interest make sure to check out everything that gets done over here on the eCommerce Podcast, a space dedicated to eCommerce Wow!

Matt Edmundson [0:05 - 3:20]: Welcome to the eCommerce podcast. My name is Matt Edmundson and it is great to be with you today, chatting about all things eCommerce. That's what we're doing. How do we do eCommerce? How do we do this whole online thing? How do we get our stores to be bigger, better, and more awesome than they are today? That's the big question. And to help me do that, I'm speaking with Aman Amandeep Singh all the way from California, which at the time of recording, he's in a very sunny climate and I'm in quite a dark climate, just with time zone differences. We're going to be chatting about eCommerce and what he's learned over the last few years. So don't go anywhere. It's going to be great. I'm looking forward to this conversation. A very warm welcome to you. If this is your first time with us here on the eCommerce podcast, I'm just always amazed at the stats getting new listeners every week. If I'm honest with you, it strikes my ego slightly that more and more people are listening to the show. I'm not going to lie, I do enjoy looking at the numbers going, yes, yeah, it's fine, right? People are obviously listening. And you know, it's great that we get new folks along as well. And part of me is also amazed that actually people want to come and listen to me talk about eCommerce. But that's another story. It's great that you're here. A very warm welcome to you. Make sure you do all that like and subscribe and all that sort of good stuff to stay connected with what's going on. If you head over to the website, if you've not seen it already, ecommercepodcast.net comma, you can sign up to the newsletter and every week we will send you all the links, notes and everything from the show straight to your inbox, all for free. So make sure you get that as well. And of course, if you're an avid listener to the podcast, thanks for coming back. And for those who have reached out to me recently on LinkedIn and through Instagram, genuinely love it and even email, I've had so many people reach out to me the last couple weeks, which has been great from all over the world, including Australia, the Philippines, the states, the UK, I mean, everywhere around the world. So it's been great to connect with some new people. If you'd like to find me on social mediatedmonson, connect with me on LinkedIn or social media, would love to connect with you. Just let me know what you're doing. Send me a link to your store. I would love to see it. Anyway, shall we talk to today's guest? I think we should. Amandeep Singh from Cronix, which I think is quite an interesting name. I'm gonna ask you in a minute, Aman, about the name of your company, which is a full service eCommerce agency. You yourself has been involved in eCommerce for 13 years. And as we were talking before, the record button, if anyone's looking at this on YouTube and wondering what that is behind you, that is in fact a cricket jersey. And for our american cousins, cricket is a sport that we play well, basically in England, India, Pakistan, Australia. The Kiwis like to play it as well, don't they? There's a few countries left that like to play cricket and we all like to think we're pretty good at it. Except for I'm british and occasionally we do. Well, that's about it. But Aman, welcome to the show, man. Great to have you here. Thanks for joining me. How are we doing? You look. It's very sunny looking where you are.

Amandeep Singh [3:20 - 4:01]: Yes, good. It's good. So I'm in northern California here. The weather is pretty good. It's not hot, not cold, so it's pretty, pretty chill weather over there. And so my wife gifted me this, by the way, this is Jersey India team. I love cricket. And this time World cup was happening in the US. You know, like, it's US and West Indies. So it was a quite a bit of a craze. And, you know, in the India versus Pakistan match. And I can. I also saw, like, the US team basically beaten Pakistan and they qualified for the, you know, the super eight. So that was a big deal. Like a us cricket team also qualified for the World cup and then they reached to the supra over there. So that was interesting.

Matt Edmundson [4:01 - 4:25]: Yeah, yeah, no doubt, no doubt. I mean, I. I have to be honest, I don't really follow cricket that much. Yeah, I do watch the World cup every now and again. And ironically, I live opposite a cricket field. So I stand at the front of my house and I look out and there's a cricket field in front of me. An old cricket club. It's been there hundreds of years, which is a beautiful thing in the middle of a city. It means no one can build on it. You know, it's part of the reason why I got the house. No one's gonna build a house.

Amandeep Singh [4:26 - 4:27]: That's nice.

Matt Edmundson [4:27 - 4:39]: Yeah. But I, you know, watch cricket and going to see the neighbors over there and sit down. We enjoy a glass of wine watching. I still don't really know what's going on, to be fair. What I do know is there is a bit of a rivalry between India and Pakistan.

Amandeep Singh [4:40 - 4:46]: Pretty strong, actually. Like ashes in England versus the UK. Right, Australia. Sorry.

Matt Edmundson [4:46 - 5:18]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The English, Liverpool, Manchester United, if you go to football or soccer, big rivalry there, but, yeah, India, Pakistan, always a big rivalry. And Stadaf, who is the producer of this show, who you have met, is from Pakistan via Canada and now lives in Liverpool. I mean, talk about international. And the only time I ever really hear her talk about sport is when Pakistan and India are playing in the cricket, which is really quite funny. So, yeah. And I've met her brother, who's also a big cricket fan as well, so, yeah, yeah. Do you play?

Amandeep Singh [5:18 - 5:35]: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I will not prevent anybody else just for the entertainment kind of thing. But here, you know, it's not like too many people out there who might, you know, with whom I can play. But I used to play a lot. I used to play football and cricket. Yeah. And in the US, we call it soccer, so, yeah, I think, yeah, yeah.

Matt Edmundson [5:36 - 5:38]: They're just wrong, aren't they?

Amandeep Singh [5:39 - 5:40]: Yeah.

Matt Edmundson [5:40 - 6:28]: I mean, I don't like to often criticize my american cousins. You know, I've lived in the states for a while myself. There are a few things I think, you know, they've got wrong. And it's not soccer, it is football. We do play it with our feet. I just want to point that out and say, I've just offended half the listeners. They're all like, rubbish. Terribly sorry. Do come back. But let's talk about eCommerce. Maybe let's get to safer grounds where I don't offend anybody. You were saying before we hit the record button that you were in an agency for a while, and more recently you've sort of taken the plunge and you setting up. That's not even a word. You set up chronic, your own agency. What made you take the plunge? But why? I mean, I. Why?

Amandeep Singh [6:29 - 7:56]: Yeah, I think there were a few different reasons. Like, I was working at the previous company for around eleven years, so it was a long time, you know, like starting a company from scratch over there, like, you know, 13 people, and then, you know, growing the department to around, you know, 300 people over there. But, yeah, I was managing around 100 people. I was so busy, you know, wasn't getting time to learn anything new. And I feel like, you know, I come from a development background, so, you know, there's always feeling that, man, you're gonna get behind if you're not keeping yourself up to date. Right. So the idea was to basically, basically start something on my own where I can have better control on my time and can basically learn more platforms, new technologies and experiment few things and it will be on my own risk. I am not really putting anyone else risk or anyone else job or anything risk. So that was kind of the idea that just to get a bit of a time for myself. And I also believe in educational art. So I, apart from Cronix, I basically do two batches of developers every year where I train them on development, programming and web standards and all the stuff. So that's also very close to my heart. I'm trying to work with the universities and the colleges close to my areas to see how we can empower the college students and have them with more practical knowledge as well. So yeah, so just a bit more freedom, you know.

Matt Edmundson [7:56 - 8:17]: Yeah, I love this. I'm listening to you talk and I know we're not talking here about setting up a business, but I'm intrigued by something you said. You sort of left the agency because you wanted to be more in control of your time. And I'm thinking, yeah, but when you start up a business, the last thing you have is control of your time, right? I mean, yeah, yeah. So I'm curious, how did you find it?

Amandeep Singh [8:17 - 9:17]: Yeah, I mean the thing is, maybe more decision making was also the reason as well, because, you know, for example, I always, there was always, you know, some kind of, in a developer's mind like, you know, you always want to go to some kind of a product development, you know, plugin development, things like that. But you know there is, there are so many boundages over there like, you know, you have to figure out, okay, what's the current structure looks like and everything. And then you know, on our side now my side, you know, I can put the money, risk it whether it works or not, it is my own money. Right. So it's that kind of a decision making. But, but yeah, you know, now in the previous agency there was some kind of, you know, time tracking, you have to be there for all the stuff, but now I have better control. Okay, well you know, if I need to take a vacation for something, I can do it, you know, I don't need to take a permission from someone. Right. So, so yeah, that was, you know, a few of the things kind of stuff, but yeah, yeah, decision making, you know, and the time control kind of stuff is definitely helpful.