How to create an exit-intent popup with Nudgesmart
Catch shoppers right before they leave with an exit-intent popup that offers a discount, an email capture, or a survey.
Exit-intent popups recover shoppers about to abandon — but only if you target the right pages, on the right device, with the right offer.
TL;DR
Create a campaign from an exit-intent template (or start from scratch and pick the Exit Intent trigger), customize the headline and offer, set page targeting to product pages and cart, and publish. On mobile, exit-intent works differently — pair it with a time-on-page or scroll-depth fallback so you catch shoppers who tab away or hit the back button. Test on your actual phone before going live.
When exit-intent works (and when it doesn't)
Exit-intent works when the shopper was already considering a purchase but is about to leave without one. That's product detail pages, the cart, and category pages — places where shoppers are deciding. It does NOT work on:
- Blog posts and About-Us pages — these visitors weren't shopping; interrupting them just trains them to bounce.
- Checkout pages — Shopify locks down checkout for a reason; popups there hurt conversion.
- Pages where the shopper has already converted (post-purchase, thank-you).
Use exit-intent narrowly. Targeting product and cart pages typically converts 3-5x better than running it everywhere.
Step 1 · Build the popup
If you started from a template, the popup is already designed — just customize the headline and offer. If you're creating from scratch, click Create campaign, pick the campaign type that matches your offer (discount popup, email capture, survey), and design the popup in the visual editor.
Visual editor with an exit-intent template loaded showing the popup canvas with a discount headline, body text, and email field
Screenshot coming soon
What to write in the popup:
- Headline that names the offer in the first 5 words. "Wait — get 10% off" beats "Don't leave just yet" because it says what the shopper gains.
- One CTA only. Don't ask for an email AND offer a discount AND link to live chat. Pick one outcome — most exit-intent popups do best as either a single discount-code reveal or a single email capture.
- A close button that looks like a close button. Shoppers who don't want the offer should be able to dismiss without thinking.
Step 2 · Configure the exit trigger
Open the Targeting or Behavior panel for the campaign and turn on the Exit Intent trigger. Set it to fire when Exit Intent Is True.
Behavior triggers panel with Exit Intent set to True and frequency cap Once per session
Screenshot coming soon
Recommended baseline triggers:
- Exit Intent = Is True (the obvious one)
- Time on Page ≥ 10 seconds — prevents the popup from firing before the shopper has even looked at the page
- Frequency = Once per session — don't ambush the same shopper twice
Step 3 · Mobile back-button fallback
On mobile, shoppers don't "exit" the way desktop shoppers do — there's no mouse moving toward the address bar. The back button and tab-switch are the equivalent.
If you want to catch every escape route on mobile, add a fallback trigger:
- Scroll Depth ≥ 50% — fires when a shopper is genuinely engaged but stalling
- Time on Page ≥ 30 seconds combined with Cart Abandonment = Is True — catches mobile shoppers who added to cart but are stalling on the PDP
The behavior-triggers panel lets you combine multiple triggers — choose All conditions if every condition must be met, Any condition if any one of them fires the popup.
Step 4 · Page targeting
Set page targeting to product pages and cart only. In the targeting panel, add a URL rule that matches /products/* and /cart.
If you sell on collection pages too, add /collections/* — but be careful, browse-mode shoppers on collection pages convert worse on exit-intent than decision-mode shoppers on product pages.
Step 5 · Measure and iterate
After 100+ impressions, check Analytics. You're looking for conversion rate ≥ 3% (industry baseline for exit-intent popups). If you're below 1%, the offer or the targeting is wrong.
Most common reasons exit-intent popups under-convert:
- The discount is too small (5% off rarely converts; 10-15% does)
- The popup fires too early (the shopper hadn't engaged yet)
- The targeting is too broad (firing on blogs and homepage drags the average down)
Iterate on one variable at a time so you know what changed the result.
Common pitfalls
- The popup shows on desktop but never fires on mobile. Pure exit-intent doesn't trigger on mobile — there's no mouse leave event. Add the time-on-page or scroll-depth fallback described in Step 3.
- Returning shoppers see the popup every visit. Adjust the frequency cap. Once per day or Once per week is right for most stores; Once per session can feel relentless to repeat visitors.
- The popup fires the moment a shopper lands on a page. Add a minimum time-on-page condition (≥ 5-10 seconds) so it never fires before the shopper has had a chance to look.
Frequently asked questions
What's a good exit-intent conversion rate?
3-5% is solid for a discount-style exit-intent on product pages. Email-capture exit-intents typically run lower (1.5-3%) because the cost to the shopper is higher (giving an email) than redeeming a code. If you're below 1%, look at the offer first, then targeting.
Can I A/B test two exit-intent popups?
Yes. Use the Experiments section to run two variants side by side. Common A/B tests: discount amount (10% vs 15%), CTA copy ("Get 10% off" vs "Claim your discount"), or layout (centered modal vs corner card).
Will the discount code I show be a real Shopify discount?
If you connect the popup to a Shopify discount, yes — the code redeems at checkout like any other Shopify discount, with full reporting in your Shopify Discounts page. If you display a static code as text only, it's purely cosmetic until you also create the matching code in Shopify Discounts.
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