How do I build an exit intent popup for Shopify?
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The reason decides the offer. Pick the one you most want to answer.
Pick why the shopper is leaving. A product page appears here, and the popup opens when you move to leave it.
- Why the shopper is leavingNeeded
- Your discount, for a last-chance codeOptional
- Your brand colour and your own wordsOptional
How a leaving shopper is spotted, and what the popup says
An exit intent popup opens at the moment a shopper shows they are leaving, when the cursor heads for the tab bar on a desktop or the back button is pressed on a phone, so a first-time visitor leaving a product page can be offered 10 percent off before the tab closes.
The triggers, audiences and frequencies named here are conditions and settings in the Nudgesmart rule builder. No figure on this page is a measurement of any store, and none estimates how many shoppers an exit popup brings back. For who sees a popup more broadly, plan your targeting rules.
An exit popup is three decisions: the signal that fires it, the offer that suits why the shopper is leaving, and the limits that stop it firing at the wrong person. The maker above makes all three for the scenario you pick.
- Exit intent, on a desktop
- The cursor moving fast toward the top of the window, where the tabs, the address bar and the close button are. It is the clearest leaving signal a browser gives, and it only exists where there is a mouse.
- Exit signals, on a phone
- There is no cursor on a phone, so leaving has to be read from other moves: pressing back, switching to another tab, or a quick scroll back up the page. Nudgesmart has a condition for each of the three.
- Exit scenario
- Why this shopper is leaving, as far as the store can tell: browsing with nothing in the cart, stalling at the shipping cost, or meaning to come back. The scenario decides the offer, and the offer decides whether the popup helps.
- Frequency
- How often one shopper may see the popup: every page view, every session, once per day or once per week. An exit popup that fires on every page view follows the shopper out of every page, which is the fastest way to make it a nuisance.
- Exclusions
- Who should never see it. Returning customers who would take a code they did not need, shoppers already at checkout, and anyone who has already said no this session.
Nudgesmart is available on the Shopify App Store. Browse the template library or see what it costs.
Seven exit situations and the popup each one calls for
Illustrative situations, not store data. Each row is resolved by the same function the maker above runs: the scenario, the line it opens with, the signals that fire it and how often.
| Situation | Scenario | Opens with | Desktop | Phone | How often |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First visit, leaving a product page with nothing in the cart | Last-chance discount | Wait. Take 10% off before you goGet my 10% off | Exit Intent: the cursor heads for the tab bar or the address bar. | Back button pressed, or Scroll up exit signal. | Once per day |
| Returning shopper, cart built, leaving on the cart page | Save your cart | Save your cart for laterEmail me my cart | Exit Intent. | Tab switched away, or Back button pressed. | Every session |
| Cart under the free-shipping minimum, heading for the tab bar | Free shipping reminder | Your order can ship freeShow my shipping code | Exit Intent on the cart page, where the shipping line is what they just read. | Tab switched away, the classic move to compare delivery costs elsewhere, or Back button pressed. | Every session |
| Reading a blog post on a phone, then pressing back | Email for later | Not ready yet? Get first look insteadSend me first look | Exit Intent. | Scroll up exit signal, or Back button pressed. | Once per week |
| Comparing prices in another tab with a full cart | Free shipping reminder | Your order can ship freeShow my shipping code | Exit Intent on the cart page, where the shipping line is what they just read. | Tab switched away, the classic move to compare delivery costs elsewhere, or Back button pressed. | Every session |
| Launch week, first visit, a bigger code to win the first order | Last-chance discount | Wait. Take 20% off before you goGet my 20% off | Exit Intent: the cursor heads for the tab bar or the address bar. | Back button pressed, or Scroll up exit signal. | Once per day |
| Gift shopper saving a cart to finish on payday | Save your cart | Save your cart for laterEmail me my cart | Exit Intent. | Tab switched away, or Back button pressed. | Every session |
Where an exit popup does more harm than good
A code on every exit teaches shoppers to leave
If the discount appears every time someone heads for the tab bar, regular customers learn that leaving is how to get it. Limit discount exits to new visitors and cap them with a frequency.
Mobile signals are not the desktop signal
Back, tab switching and a fast scroll up are signs of leaving, not proof of it. A shopper scrolling back up to reread a size chart can trip the scroll signal, so a mobile exit popup should ask for less than a desktop one.
The popup collects the address; it does not send the email
Save your cart and Email for later both promise an email, and Nudgesmart does not send either one. The popup captures the address; the reminder or the first-look email has to come from a flow you set up in your own email tool. A Shopify abandoned-checkout email will not fire for a shopper who never reached checkout, so a cart reminder needs its own flow. The discount and free-shipping popups promise nothing by email: their code shows on screen. Check the flow exists before the popup promises it.
A simulation is not a storefront
The preview above fires when your pointer leaves the phone or when you press the button. On a real store the exit signal is read from the shopper’s own device and browser, which is why the triggers are conditions you set rather than a guarantee of when it opens.
Exit intent popup questions
How do I build an exit intent popup for Shopify?
Pick the reason the shopper is leaving, and the maker above writes the popup and its setup for that reason: the headline, the offer, the desktop and mobile triggers, the pages it runs on, who to leave out and how often it may show. The preview opens on a product page, and the popup appears when you move to leave.
Does exit intent work on mobile?
Not the way it does on a desktop, because a phone has no cursor heading for the tab bar. Mobile exit popups fire on other signals instead: the back button, a switch to another tab, or a quick scroll back up the page. Nudgesmart has a condition for each, and the maker says which ones suit each scenario.
Should every exit popup offer a discount?
No. A discount suits a first-time browser who has not committed. A shopper with a full cart is often better served by free shipping or by saving the cart, and giving them a code teaches them to leave in order to get one. Two of the four scenarios here carry no discount at all.
How often should an exit popup show?
Rarely enough that nobody sees it twice on the way out. Every session or once per day suits most exit offers; a newsletter ask for first-time browsers can wait a week. Every page view is almost always wrong for an exit popup, because a shopper who says no and keeps browsing will trip it again on the next page.
Is an exit popup the same as the popup on arrival?
It can use the same design, but it should not say the same thing. On arrival the shopper has not decided anything yet. On the way out they have, and the popup has one chance to answer the reason they gave by leaving.
Will an exit popup annoy my customers?
It will if it fires on the wrong people or too often. Every setup the maker writes keeps the popup off checkout, gives a plain way to say no and caps it with a frequency. Only the last-chance discount also leaves returning customers out, so its code does not teach them to wait for one. The free-shipping and save-your-cart setups show to anyone with items in the cart, returning customers included, so add a New Visitor rule if you want them left out too.
Exit intent is a signal. The offer is the answer.
Nudgesmart fires on exit intent, the back button, a tab switch or a fast scroll up, and rule-based targeting is on every plan, so a full cart and a first visit can leave to different popups.
