Send phone calls to Seth. He answers instantly 24/7, sees Shopify orders on the call, and escalates to your team when needed.
When your team cannot keep up with calls, every ring pulls someone away from orders, returns and live tickets. A customer calls at 3am about a late order and no one is there. During Black Friday, the queue grows while customers ask the same WISMO and return questions. The usual ecommerce customer service outsourcing fix is an agency or answering service that asks for scripts, learns your policies, and routes exceptions back to you. In the first weeks, your team explains edge cases, corrects answers, and checks whether the vendor understood Shopify status, subscription rules and return policy details. Human vendors often price by hour, minute or plan, so a store owner sees every long policy call as cost. A CX lead worries that outsourced customer support for ecommerce will answer without order context, promise the wrong return, or take a message that creates another ticket. That can cover the phone, but it does not automatically resolve the call while the customer is on it. If you are comparing providers, start with the customer service outsourcing company checklist and then decide whether your phone needs people learning scripts or an AI agent that starts with Shopify context.
Seth does not take orders or payments on the call, cancel subscriptions natively, provide real-time inventory except on custom setups, operate as a human answering service, provide message-taking by people, or act as a chat product. When a call needs one of those paths, Seth escalates by the rule you choose, such as transfer to a human, email the issue, or create a helpdesk ticket. If you are comparing this with a call center model, read the AI phone agent versus outsourced call center comparison.
Connect Shopify and your helpdesk. The AI Coach sets up integrations, so no engineer is needed. Seth can read your website, help docs and policies, then use Shopify order data during the call.
Keep your own number by forwarding calls to Seth, or use a number that comes with Seth. You choose what happens during business hours and after hours, including transfer, email or helpdesk ticket.
Seth answers instantly 24/7 with no hold queue. He starts with caller context, Shopify orders and what the customer said last time, then resolves the call or escalates by your rules.
ShopifyGorgiasSethMany outsourcing quotes depend on minutes, staffing or a plan tier. Seth uses one public call price for Shopify brands. For a deeper view of line items, read the ecommerce customer service outsourcing cost guide. You can also review Ringly.io pricing before you switch calls on.
| Option | Price as published | What a store gets | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ringly.io (Seth) | $99/mo for the first 50 phone conversations, then $1.99 per conversation | First 50 included, then $1.99 per conversation. Only pay when Seth talks to a customer. A two-minute call and a nine-minute call cost the same. | ringly.io |
| Smith.ai human receptionists | Starter $300/month for 30 calls, $11.50 per extra call. Basic $810/month for 90 calls, $10.50 per extra call. Pro $2,100/month for 300 calls, $8.50 per extra call. | Human receptionist plans with included call counts and extra-call pricing. | smith.ai |
| PATLive human answering service | $189/month for 100 minutes, About 40 calls, $2.09 per additional minute. | Human answering service priced by included minutes and additional minutes. | patlive.com |
| Bureau of Labor Statistics, hiring a US customer service representative | Median pay $21.53 per hour, $44,770 per year, about $3,731 a month before taxes and benefits. | One customer service representative covers one shift, not 24/7. | bls.gov |
Prices read on September 30, 2026 from each vendor's own pricing page.
At 100 calls a month, the rule of thumb is that about 80% of calls end up billed, so 100 calls a month is about 80 billable, about $159/mo all in for Seth. At 100 calls a month on Smith.ai Basic, that is $810 + 10 x $10.50 = $915. Calls that are not billed for Seth include spam, wrong numbers, hang-ups, silent calls, callers who only want a human and get passed straight on, and your own team testing. Seth resolves 65% of your support calls, or you don't pay for that month. Try for free, no credit card required.
Choose by the work you need resolved, vendor fit and pricing model. For phone overflow, compare order context, escalation rules, setup time, recordings, transcripts, attributed revenue and contract terms. Seth is useful when your biggest gap is inbound calls from Shopify customers and you want instant answers, Shopify order lookup and controlled escalation without hiring for another shift.
For ecommerce, the best fit is a provider that can understand orders, returns, exchanges, subscriptions, policies and product questions while the customer is on the call. Seth is built for Shopify brands and starts every call with the caller, their Shopify orders and what they said last time. A general answering service may still fit if you only need human call pickup and routing.
One cheaper alternative is outsourcing the phone to Seth instead of staffing an agency or receptionist plan. Ringly.io uses one Pay as you go plan at $99/mo for the first 50 phone conversations, then $1.99 per conversation. As a rule of thumb, 100 calls a month is about 80 billable, about $159/mo all in. You can also set a monthly spend limit in Settings.
Yes. You can keep your own number by forwarding calls to Seth. If you prefer, you can also use a number that comes with Seth. Forwarding lets customers call the number they already know while Seth answers 24/7. You choose the escalation path, including transfer to a human, email or a helpdesk ticket.
Seth escalates instead of guessing. You choose the rule, such as transfer to a human, email the issue, or create a helpdesk ticket. Escalation can differ by business hours. Seth answers from your website, help docs and policies, and uses Shopify order data on the call. When the answer is uncertain, the call moves to your chosen backup path.
Yes. Seth can create a helpdesk ticket, for example in Gorgias, when a call needs follow-up. You decide when that happens and whether the rule changes inside or outside business hours. Seth also provides recordings and transcripts in the dashboard, so your team can review what happened before taking over the issue.
Seth uses your Shopify order data, your website, help docs and policies. He starts each call with full context, including who is calling, their Shopify orders and what they said last time. The AI Coach helps set up integrations without an engineer. If Seth is not sure, he escalates instead of making up an answer.
Most brands go live in under an hour. You connect Shopify and your helpdesk, add the store information Seth should use, then forward your number or use a number that comes with Seth. Signup, onboarding, setting Seth up and the demo calls generated during onboarding require no credit card. You pay when you switch Seth on.
