Every single minute your team spends answering "Where is my order?" is money leaking out of your business.
You have built a successful brand with a real team, but your phone lines have become a bottleneck that drains your budget.
It feels like you are paying high salaries for your best people to act like human tape recorders for the same three questions.
This guide will go over how you can route eCommerce support calls with VoIP.
First, we will compare traditional VoIP setups to AI agents.
Then, we will show you how to give your customers 24/7 answers without hiring a single new person.
Editor’s note: Want to hear some sample support calls made for your Shopify store?
- Just paste your store URL
- Get sample calls in under 20 seconds (no email required)
- Listen to demo calls for my store
What are ecommerce call routing and VoIP?
Let's quickly cover the basics, without any of the tech jargon. Just think of these two things as the foundation for a smarter phone support system for your store.
First, you have VoIP. It stands for Voice over Internet Protocol, which is just a way of saying you make phone calls over the internet instead of a traditional phone line.
The big wins here are lower costs, more flexibility (your team can be anywhere), and the ability to connect with other digital tools, which is a huge plus for ecommerce.
Then there's call routing.
This is just the process of automatically sending incoming calls to the right person or department. In the past, this meant sending a customer to sales or putting them in the support queue.
When you put them together, VoIP provides the digital highway that makes modern, intelligent call routing possible for any online business.
It’s the engine that powers everything from a basic phone menu to a fully independent AI agent.
Traditional call routing with IVR
For years, the standard for automated call routing was a system called Interactive Voice Response, or IVR.
You’ve definitely used one. It’s that recorded voice that says, "Press 1 for sales, Press 2 for support..." and makes you navigate a menu with your keypad.
How IVR systems work (and their limits)
The typical IVR experience is pretty rigid. A customer calls, listens to a menu of options, and presses a number to get to the right department.
Once they're there, they usually land in a queue, listening to hold music until an agent is free.
Many popular VoIP providers, like Aircall, offer IVR as a core feature.
And it’s effective for what it was made to do: get a caller to the right human. But its main job is to direct traffic, not actually solve the customer’s problem.
Aircall's plans, which include these IVR features, are built on a per-user model. This means as your call volume grows, your costs scale right along with your headcount. If you want to handle more calls, you have to hire more agents, which can become a bottleneck during busy seasons.
While these systems are good for organizing calls within a team, they have some big limitations for a modern ecommerce store.
- It only directs traffic: An IVR can't answer "Where is my order?". It can only send the caller to someone who can. This means a human agent still has to be there to handle even the simplest questions.
- Frustrating customer experience: Navigating phone menus can sometimes be a point of friction for customers. If the options are confusing or don't fit a specific issue, it can lead to frustration.
- No 24/7 resolution: Sure, the IVR is always on, but if your team only works 9-to-5, your customers can only get their problems solved during those hours. For a business that sells online around the clock, that’s a big disconnect.
The modern approach: AI-powered call routing for issue resolution
This brings us to the next major step in phone support: using artificial intelligence not just to route calls, but to handle the entire conversation and resolve the issue on its own.
AI to assist vs. AI that acts
It's important to know that not all "AI" in customer support is the same. Most tools fall into one of two buckets: AI that helps your human agents, and AI that can act as the agent.
The AI assistant model is what you'll find with platforms like Dialpad. Their AI is designed to make human conversations better. It does things like provide real-time transcriptions, analyze customer sentiment, and pop up "live coach cards" with suggestions for your agents.
This is great for training, but it still requires a person on every single call. Dialpad's pricing reflects this, starting at $15 per user per month.
The other approach is the autonomous AI agent, which is where specialized platforms like Ringly.io come into play.
Instead of just helping a human, its AI agent, Seth, acts as the first line of support. He picks up the phone, understands what the customer needs, and resolves the issue right then and there.
This is a complete shift from assisting agents to automating entire conversations for common ecommerce questions.
Here’s why that’s such a big deal for Shopify stores:
- High resolution rate: Seth isn't just a fancy phone menu. Across thousands of stores, he successfully resolves around 73% of calls without any human help. This frees up your team to focus on the tricky, high-value conversations that need a human touch.
- True 24/7 support: Your customers shop at all hours, and now they can get support at all hours. Seth can provide instant answers, look up orders, and process returns anytime, day or night, in over 40 languages.
- Deep ecommerce integration: This is a key differentiator. Unlike generic VoIP systems, Seth was built specifically for Shopify. He can securely look up live order data, check on return statuses, and answer product questions by tapping directly into your store's information.
How to choose the right call routing solution
So, how do you decide what's right for your store?
It really comes down to asking the right questions and focusing on what will actually make a difference for your business and your customers.
Focus on resolution, not just routing
The single most important question you can ask when looking at a tool is this: "Does this actually solve my customers' common problems, or does it just send them to a human who has to solve it?"
For common "Where is my order?" (WISMO) calls, a traditional IVR cannot provide a direct answer.
An AI agent like Seth from Ringly.io, however, can give an instant, accurate answer by integrating with your Shopify data. For some stores, this one feature has reduced overall call volume by as much as 62%.
Compare cost models for scalability
Think about how you'll grow. Traditional per-user pricing, like with Aircall and Dialpad, means your support costs go up with every new person you hire.
When a busy season like Black Friday hits, you're forced to bring on expensive temp staff just to keep up.
An AI-based model scales much more efficiently. Ringly.io's pricing is built for growth, giving you a flat monthly fee that includes a big bucket of call minutes.
For instance, our Grow plan can handle roughly 500 calls a month for just $349.
That's a tiny fraction of what it would cost to hire a full-time agent and can lead to an 85% decrease in your support costs.
Prioritize brand safety
One of the biggest worries people have with AI is brand safety. What if the AI says something wrong or makes up an answer?
It's a valid concern, and it's why a purpose-built agent is so important.
Seth is trained to be safe. If he doesn't know the answer to a question or senses a caller is getting frustrated, he's programmed to immediately and smoothly escalate the call to a human on your team.
There's no awkward dead end or frustrating loop.
This creates a seamless handoff that protects your brand and provides a much better experience than getting stuck in a phone menu.
When it comes down to it, the best phone support strategy for a growing store is one that prioritizes instant resolution.
While traditional IVR systems are effective for organizing calls within a team, they are primarily designed to direct callers to a human agent rather than resolving issues autonomously.
This can be a limitation for brands that require 24/7 issue resolution.
An emerging approach involves AI-powered agents that can act on their own.
They can dramatically cut your costs, give your customers round-the-clock service, and let your team focus on the conversations that build real loyalty.
The goal isn't just to connect people faster; it's to give them answers right away.
Take the next step in automating your phone support
Stop letting the same repetitive calls slow your team down and eat up your budget. An AI phone agent built for ecommerce is the key to scaling your support and keeping customers happy.
See for yourself how Seth can automate your support calls. Start your free trial of Ringly.io today and pay nothing until it's resolving over 60% of your calls.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main benefit of using ecommerce call routing VoIP with an AI agent?
The main benefit is automated resolution. Instead of just sending callers to a human, an AI-powered system can answer common questions like "Where is my order?" on the spot, 24/7, which frees up your team and cuts support costs.
How does ecommerce call routing VoIP improve the customer experience?
It provides instant answers anytime, day or night. Customers don't have to wait on hold or navigate confusing phone menus for simple issues, leading to a much less frustrating experience.
Is setting up an ecommerce call routing VoIP system difficult for a Shopify store?
It can be straightforward, especially with tools built for ecommerce. For instance, solutions like Ringly.io can integrate with your Shopify store and go live in just a few minutes with no coding required.
How does the cost of AI-powered ecommerce call routing VoIP compare to traditional phone support?
It's significantly more cost-effective. Instead of paying per agent, you typically pay a flat fee for a large volume of calls. This can reduce overall support costs by up to 85% compared to hiring more staff, especially during peak seasons.
Can an ecommerce call routing VoIP system handle languages other than English?
Yes, modern AI agents can. For example, Ringly.io's AI agent, Seth, can handle conversations in over 40 languages, making it a great solution for stores with an international customer base.
What happens if an AI ecommerce call routing VoIP system can't answer a customer's question?
A well-designed system will have a seamless escalation process. If the AI doesn't know the answer or senses the caller is frustrated, it will smoothly transfer the call to a human agent on your team, ensuring the customer always gets the help they need.
