Every recovery channel vendor will show you a chart where their channel wins. Here is the honest version: each channel recovers a different kind of shopper, and the right answer for most stores is a layered sequence, not a single tool.
| SMS | AI voice call | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical open / answer rate | ~40% open for abandonment flows (far above normal marketing email), low single-digit click-to-order | Very high — the large majority of texts are read, usually within minutes | Answer rates vary widely by region and caller ID reputation; a meaningful share also calls back or converts after a voicemail |
| Cost per contact | Fractions of a cent | ~1–5¢ | ~$0.10–0.50 (AI), vs several dollars for a human call |
| Can answer questions? | No | Barely (slow, one-line back-and-forth) | Yes — this is the channel's whole advantage |
| Consent burden | Low (existing-customer/legitimate-interest flows are routine) | High — marketing texts need proper opt-in and carrier registration | High — telemarketing rules, quiet hours, do-not-call lists apply |
| Feels like | Routine, easy to ignore | Personal, easy to resent if overused | High-touch service — or an intrusion, if done clumsily |
| Best for | Every cart, as the cheap baseline | Time-sensitive nudges and delivering links/codes | High-value carts, hesitant or curious shoppers, people who ignore messages |
(Benchmarks are directional, drawn from published industry reports and our own operating data — your product, price point, and audience will move every number.)
Abandonment emails are nearly free and automated everywhere, so run them always. But be clear about what they do: they recover the shoppers who were already coming back and needed a link. They cannot handle an objection, and for the growing share of shoppers whose inbox is a write-only archive, they never land at all. If your only recovery tool is email, your recovery rate has a hard ceiling in the low single digits of abandoned carts.
Texts get read — that part of the pitch is true. Two catches. First, compliance is real work: in the US, application-to-person texting requires A2P 10DLC brand and campaign registration, and marketing texts require documented opt-in (see our compliance guide). Second, SMS is a one-liner medium. It delivers a nudge and a link brilliantly; it cannot discover that the customer's real problem was a sizing question.
A call is the only channel that works in both directions at full bandwidth. It reaches people who ignore both inboxes, it carries far more trust signal than any message, and it can diagnose: ask why they stopped, answer the actual question, and resolve the actual objection. Historically the economics only worked for cars and B2B. AI voice agents brought the cost per call down two orders of magnitude, which makes conversations viable for ordinary e-commerce carts.
The failure mode is equally real: a robotic, pushy, or badly-timed call damages the brand more than a spammy email ever could. A voice program has to be polite, brief, immediately respectful of "I'm busy," compliant with quiet hours, and honest about being an assistant. Done that way, it reads as service ("they called to help me finish my order"), not telemarketing.
Email is the cheap floor. SMS is the reliable messenger. Voice is the only channel that can hold a conversation — and conversations are where the hard half of abandoned revenue lives. Layer all three, cap the touches, and measure recovered orders per channel rather than opens.