Exit-intent popups: what they are and how to set one up

A visitor looked at a product page, saw the price, didn't add anything to the cart and is about to close the tab. Every store has visitors who leave like this without buying. For some of them, what would change the decision is small: a few percent off, how close they are to free shipping or hearing about the next sale.

An exit-intent popup opens right at that moment, as the visitor leaves. Set up well, it leaves people who are browsing alone and only makes one last offer to those on their way out; set up badly, it becomes an obstacle on every page. This guide covers where the difference lies, what happens on phones and how to set the popup up step by step.

What exit intent is and how it's detected

Exit intent is the movement that shows a visitor is about to leave the page. The browser doesn't announce “this person is leaving”; the site infers it from mouse or scroll movement. In Roigo, the rule depends on the screen:

When it helps and when it annoys

An exit popup interrupts visitors as they leave, not while they browse. That's why it makes the most sense in these situations:

• Visitors who browse product pages and leave without adding anything: the price or the shipping fee may have made them hesitate, and a small discount or a reminder of the free shipping threshold can change their mind.
• Sale periods: a time-limited discount gives you a good reason to tell a departing visitor to catch it before it ends. To prepare for the busy season, see the November sales guide.
• When you want to grow your email list: a visitor who won't buy today may leave their address in exchange for a discount, so you can reach them in your next campaign.

The same popup annoys visitors and chips away at their trust in your store when:

• It opens on every page. A visitor who sees the popup they just closed again on the next page remembers the obstacle, not the offer.
• It's hard to close. A tiny or barely visible × pushes the visitor to close your site along with the popup.
• The message doesn't fit the visitor. The popup also opens for visitors with an empty cart, and “Your cart is waiting for you” makes no sense to them.
• There's a popup on arrival and another on exit. Seeing two different offers in the same visit cheapens both.

What to offer

Roigo shows the coupon code to visitors but doesn't create it in your store: set the code up in your ideasoft, ikas or Shopify admin first, then type it into the popup exactly. Visitors copy the code by tapping the coupon box. If you only want to give the code to people who enter their email, a prize wheel fits better: its codes never appear in your site's source and only reach the winner from the server. There's also a separate tool that shows the amount left to the threshold live against the cart: the free shipping bar.

How often to show it

Frequency decides when a visitor sees the popup again after closing it. The How often? section on the studio's Behavior tab has four options:

If the visitor clicks the offer's button or fills in the email form, the popup counts as closed and the same offer doesn't reopen on the next page. Only one popup opens at a time on your site; the next one waits until the previous one is closed. On cart and checkout pages, only widgets targeted there appear, so an exit popup set to All pages never gets in the way at checkout.

Google and mobile: popups that cover content

Google calls promotional popups that hide content by covering all or part of the page “intrusive”. It says they frustrate users, make it harder for search engines to understand your content and may lead to poor search performance, and it recommends banners that take up only a small part of the screen instead (Google). Its page experience self-assessment also asks whether your pages avoid intrusive interstitials (Google).

Google's document doesn't single out mobile, but the difference is plain on screen: a popup that sits in the middle of a desktop screen covers most of a phone's and dims the rest. So:

• If you'll show it on mobile too, switch the type to Corner card: it slides in from a corner, doesn't dim the background and doesn't cover the whole page. You change the type on the studio's Design tab.
• Keep closing easy: leave Can be closed (×) on. Visitors can close the popup with the ×, the Esc key or by clicking the dimmed background.
• Don't open a full-screen offer the moment a visitor lands. The exit trigger already waits at least 4 seconds and fires as the visitor leaves.

Copy examples: weak and strong

Visitors glance at the popup for a few seconds. The heading should state the offer, the text the condition and the button the next step. The percentages and time limits below are only examples; use your own offer.

Pre-publish checklist

• The coupon code exists in your ideasoft, ikas or Shopify admin and is spelled the same in the popup.
• The code has an end date and a per-customer usage limit, and the time limit in the copy matches the end date.
• The copy works for visitors with an empty cart too.
• The button links to the right page: the cart, a sale or a product list.
• On the Behavior tab, the trigger is On exit and the frequency is Once per visit or Once a day.
• Can be closed (×) is on.
• The device choice is deliberate: desktop only, or a corner card on mobile?
• No other coupon popup opens in the same visit, or at least the offers don't clash.

How to measure the result

The widget list shows each widget's views and clicks for the last 30 days, plus the subscriber count for widgets that collect emails; tapping the code to copy it counts as a click too. A click alone isn't a sale: track how many orders used the code in your platform's admin. Restart the comparison whenever you change the offer or the copy, and keep other effects such as sale days separate.

Step-by-step setup in Widget Studio

In Roigo, you build an exit popup without code in a few minutes:

1. In Widget Studio, open Templates, pick the Exit intent template under the Increase sales goal and click Continue; the draft is created and the studio opens.
2. Change the heading, text and coupon code to match your offer, and fix the button's link for your platform.
3. On the Behavior tab, the trigger comes set to On exit; choose the frequency.
4. On the Targeting tab, choose the pages and the device. To target only people leaving product pages, pick Product pages.
5. Add the install code to your site once; the panel shows Verified once the code is running.
6. Publish. You won't need to add the code again for future widgets.

The Free plan includes 1 live widget and 5,000 views a month, and the exit popup can be that widget. To use it alongside other tools such as a welcome coupon or a shipping bar, Pro includes 5 live widgets and Business 25. When the monthly views run out, widgets stop showing on your site until the end of the month; the rest of your site isn't affected. All templates and display rules are on the Widget Studio page, and plans are on the pricing page.