Rethinking the role of the phone in ecommerce
Consio’s CEO - Philippe Roireau sat down with Jason Greenwood from Greenwood consulting, a specialist in B2B Commerce, to discuss the role on phone engagement in ecommerce retention.
In today’s ecommerce landscape, brands have mastered the art of digital convenience, from seamless checkout flows to omnichannel marketing automation. But there’s one powerful channel that remains surprisingly underused: the phone.
Yes, the phone call, the most direct form of communication, has largely been ignored in favor of email, SMS, and retargeting ads. Yet brands are sitting on thousands of customer phone numbers, and very few are doing anything meaningful with them.
At Consio, we believe it’s time to bring sales back into the conversation, literally. Ecommerce has optimized marketing to the max, but what about real human engagement at key decision moments? What about reaching out, not just reacting?
In this post, we’ll explore five actionable insights that can help your brand tap into the next frontier of ecommerce growth: scaling personal, one-to-one conversations through outbound phone engagement—and how platforms like Consio are making it possible.
🎯 1. Brands must embrace the untapped potential of phone-based sales in ecommerce
Most ecommerce brands sit on a goldmine of customer phone numbers but never leverage them for proactive outreach. Unlike push emails or SMS, a well-timed, personalized phone call builds a genuine human connection—and drives conversion. Brands should look beyond traditional marketing and recognize outbound phone sales as a core revenue channel, not just customer support.
Actionable takeaway: Audit your CRM for phone data and create a pilot outbound call campaign focused on high-intent segments—like abandoned carts over a certain value.
🔁 2. Customer experience is a conversation—not a campaign
Consio is built on the belief that ecommerce brands need to scale the unscalable—like a store associate asking “can I help you?” but online. By blending tech and human touch, brands can proactively re-engage churned subscribers, high-value customers, and even first-time site visitors with relevant, respectful outreach that feels personal.
Actionable takeaway: Create campaigns not just for transactions, but for relationship-building—like calling lapsed customers to ask why they left.
🔌 3. Great segmentation + smart tech = real-time, humanized outreach
Consio doesn’t reinvent the wheel—it integrates with tools like Shopify and Klaviyo to turn your existing customer segments into high-converting call lists. It handles the hard parts (like messy phone data), enriches your contacts, and automates voicemail drops, SMS follow-ups, and future AI agents—all tied to ROI.
Actionable takeaway: Use Klaviyo or Shopify segments to power your first outbound call workflows and measure conversion lift compared to email alone.
📞 4. Voice is a new power channel for attribution and retention
Phone conversations, especially when backed by context and segmentation, are among the least disputed channels when it comes to attribution. If a customer wasn’t on your site and then buys after a call—there’s no debate where the conversion came from. And it’s not just about sales: dropped voicemails and follow-up texts also create brand stickiness.
Actionable takeaway: Add voice calls and voicemails to your retention playbook—especially for churned subscribers and high-AOV abandoned checkouts.
🧠 5. The future is AI-assisted—but human-guided—for now
While Consio’s vision includes AI voice agents that can handle basic outbound calls (like expired credit cards), the near-term approach is to empower human reps with smart call scripts, objection handling, and campaign logic—all enriched by past order data and AI cue cards. Think of it as giving your team superpowers.
Actionable takeaway: Equip agents with campaign-specific AI-generated scripts and use recorded calls to refine messaging and improve rep training.
Conclusion: from transactional to relational commerce
It’s easy to forget that commerce, has always been personal. We used to walk into stores and have actual conversations with associates who helped us choose, compare, and ultimately buy. Somewhere along the way, we lost that in the digital space.
But now, with the right technology, ecommerce brands have the tools to reintroduce that human touch at scale. Whether it’s a well-timed call to recover an abandoned cart, a voicemail to re-engage a churned subscriber, or a personalized follow-up from a brand rep—proactive outreach can turn browsers into buyers and customers into loyal advocates.
At Consio, we’re building the infrastructure to make that happen—blending smart automation, human connection, and measurable ROI. The brands that thrive in 2025 and beyond won’t just be the ones with the best product or fastest site—they’ll be the ones bold enough to pick up the phone and start a real conversation.
Check the full episode. It's out on all the pod engines - Spotify, Apple, YouTube etc:
Apple: https://lnkd.in/gaYJqycq
Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gprVK2WP
YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gFuUuXjJ
Find out more about Jason Greenwood Consulting: https://www.greenwoodconsulting.net/podcast
