E-commerce customer service outsourcing: Key benefits

In the face of dynamic growth in e-commerce sales, which reached approximately $5.8 trillion in 2023 according to Statista, the need for effective e-commerce customer service is becoming increasingly evident. Projections indicate a further 39% increase in the coming years, with global online sales expected to surpass $8 trillion by 2027. As a result, the demand for scalable customer support solutions is rising.

How can online retailers manage this challenge effectively? For many, the answer lies in e-commerce customer service outsourcing. By partnering with specialized outsourcing contact center providers — including experienced Polish outsourcing companies — online stores can ensure flexibility, multilingual capabilities, and consistently high service quality.

This article outlines the key benefits of outsourcing customer support to an external partner, especially for e-commerce businesses looking to scale efficiently.

Flexible and rapid resource adjustment to traffic

Customer service load in e-commerce is directly tied to website traffic. During peak periods such as seasonal sales, Black Friday, or Cyber Monday, order volumes can rise dramatically.

According to a platform.sh report, e-commerce sites recorded up to an 80% traffic increase during these events compared to previous weeks. On Cyber Monday alone, site visits jumped by 50% versus an average Monday. These spikes can put enormous pressure on in-house customer service teams, which often struggle to scale fast enough to maintain service quality.

This is where e-commerce customer service outsourcing proves its value. By working with specialized outsourcing contact center providers, online stores gain the ability to flexibly adjust resources to current demand — without investing in new infrastructure or lengthy recruitment processes.

External partners have dedicated HR teams and trainers who can recruit and onboard agents quickly, ensuring service continuity during peak seasons. Just as importantly, they can also scale services down when traffic slows, keeping costs efficient and predictable.

For many online retailers, this flexibility makes outsourcing customer support the most effective way to handle unpredictable traffic while maintaining high-quality service standards.

Case study: Scaling customer service for Allegro

Axendi ensured adequate staffing to handle Allegro’s rapidly growing volume of inquiries while maintaining high-quality service and well-trained advisors.

Today, more than 450 agents support the Allegro project, effectively managing a high volume of inquiries while consistently meeting service standards.

Axendi’s flexibility also allows Allegro to run both continuous and ad-hoc campaigns:

• Scalability – seamless adjustment of team size during seasonal peaks and traffic surges.

• Outbound sales support – in 2023 alone, Axendi launched 10 new projects for Allegro, delivering 59 outbound campaigns focused on cross-selling and up-selling.

• Rapid automation – two of these campaigns were executed using Axendi’s proprietary voicebot, deployed in just two days from the service request.

This combination of staffing, scalability, and technology ensures Allegro’s customer service can adapt quickly to traffic spikes, while still delivering a smooth and reliable experience to millions of customers.

Read full Allegro case study

Multichannel support

Today’s e-commerce customers expect to interact with brands through the channel of their choice — phone, email, live chat, or social media. Providing this flexibility is no longer optional; multichannel customer service has become the standard.

For online retailers, managing all of these touchpoints in-house can be challenging. This is why many turn to outsourced contact center services, which can handle all or selected communication channels. External providers also deliver detailed performance reports, helping e-commerce businesses analyze data and continuously optimize their customer service strategies.

Examples of services Axendi provides for e-commerce companies include:

• answering product and shipping inquiries,

• managing customer accounts and profiles,

• collecting and analyzing customer feedback,

• handling returns and exchanges,

• managing loyalty programs,

• supporting and closing sales,

• guiding customers in an omnichannel environment,

• supporting B2B relationship management,

• delivering back-office services such as product positioning and presentation.

With outsourcing customer support for e-commerce, businesses not only gain the ability to deliver consistent service across multiple channels, but also access the expertise and scalability of experienced teams. This ensures every customer interaction — regardless of channel — is seamless, efficient, and aligned with brand expectations.

Service quality

An outsourced contact center operates based on agreed-upon KPIs, such as response times to customer emails, call duration, NPS survey results, and more. Ensuring high service quality and consultant efficiency is the responsibility of the service provider. External contact centers employ established processes for monitoring and improving service quality.

Multilingual customer service

For e-commerce stores operating in international markets, customer service must meet the linguistic requirements of their customers. Partnering with a contact center provides access to a team of multilingual agents, positively impacting customer satisfaction and the company’s image. Outsourcing also reduces costs related to recruitment, training, and operational expenses.

Axendi offers the LinGO service, which provides multilingual customer support in languages such as Polish, English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, and Hungarian. If other languages are needed, the HR team and trainers can quickly recruit and train new consultants.

Advanced technologies

Outsourcing providers often possess advanced technologies like chatbots, voicebots, and analytical tools. Implementing these technologies is faster compared to a company doing it independently. Contact centers with their own technologies can tailor these tools to the specific needs of the online store’s customer service.

Axendi offers Primebot – an AI-based tool that can handle repetitive tasks in inbound and outbound contact centers. Primebot is also a cost-effective solution, managing phone calls in multiple languages and supporting customer feedback surveys after sales promotions.

One of the main challenges in e-commerce is shopping cart abandonment. Automation systems, such as chatbots, can help recover abandoned carts by offering assistance in completing purchases and recommending products suited to customer needs.

Implementing contact center services in an online store typically takes from a few days to several weeks, depending on the project scale and IT system integration.

Boromir use case – contact center analytical tool

Axendi has its own tool, Boromir, designed to analyze, monitor, and optimize the work of agents and contact center operations. Boromir’s functions include:

• analyzing the number of consultant posts on the Teams platform
• monitoring question frequency and response times
• identifying peak activity periods
• assessing consultant efficiency
• analyzing traffic patterns.

Results of using Boromir in a project for a leading e-commerce company in Poland include:

• quality improvement by 10 percentage points, reaching 94% positive ratings
• reducing agent response time by 3 minutes (a 50% decrease)
• reducing consultation time by 35%, resulting in financial savings and better utilization of team leaders’ time
• reducing the number of internal support channels from 12 to 9

Outsourcing contact center services is a strategy that can significantly enhance customer service efficiency, reduce costs, and provide flexibility in resource management.

Boosting customer service efficiency through outsourcing

Outsourcing contact center services is a strategic solution that can significantly boost the efficiency and quality of customer service in online stores. Partnering with external providers allows for flexible resource management, quick adaptation to dynamic traffic changes, and the use of advanced technologies such as chatbots and analytical tools.

This enables companies to focus on their core activities while ensuring high-quality customer service across multiple communication channels. Outsourcing is an investment that brings tangible benefits in both the short and long term.