How to Add a Popup on Shopify: 2 Easiest Methods Explained

And if you've been trying to figure out how to add a popup to your Shopify store, I'll walk you through two ways to set one up using a dedicated popup app or Shopify Forms app.

Method 1: Add a popup with the Kaching Upsell & Email Popup app

Using a popup app is one of the easiest and most profitable ways to add a popup to your Shopify store. These apps allow you to choose what triggers the popup, customize the design, and decide how shoppers see it. Follow these steps to add a pop-up on Shopify:

Step 1: Install the Kaching Upsell & Email Popup app on Shopify

A dedicated popup app is the most practical way to add a popup on Shopify. Kaching Upsell & Email Popup makes creating, designing, and publishing popups easier.

Search for the app on the Shopify App Store and click Install

Step 2: Choose a template

In Shopify Admin, open Kaching Upsell & Email Popup under Apps and create a new popup. Select one of the templates or build your own popup from scratch. You have the option to choose from different templates already prepared for email capture, discount offers, lead generation, or upsell.

Step 3: Customize your popup

Now, customize your popup. Edit images, rewrite the copy, change the text on the button, and change colors and fonts if you want.

Step 4: Set display rules

When it comes to popups, when and where you show the popup is a big deal for how well it performs. Kaching Upsell & Email Popup app lets you adjust the display settings. Set the popup to come on after a short delay, once a visitor scrolls a certain distance, or when someone's about to leave the page. Target it to specific pages and set how often you want visitors to see it.

Think about mobile devices when designing. Popups can look and behave differently based on screen sizes. You wouldn't want the popup to cover up most of a visitor's phone screen.

Step 5: Publish and test

When you're done, publish it. All done!

Now, click through and test the popup.

Method 2: Add a popup with the Shopify Forms app

On the other hand, if you want a free option with a basic sign-up popup, use the Shopify Forms app. It lets you create popups and inline forms for collecting email, SMS, or WhatsApp subscribers.

Step 1: Install the Shopify Forms app

Go to the Shopify App Store and install Shopify Forms.

Step 2: Create a popup form

In Shopify admin, go to Apps. Inside the app, click Create form, choose Popup form, then select the type of popup you want to create. Give the form a name. Something like "Welcome discount" works fine, then click Create.

From there, you can go ahead and add fields, a title, supporting text, and other settings.

Step 3: Set the teaser and trigger

Teasers are small elements that are visible on the store and open the form when clicked. Set when the teaser appears, where to put it, and what it says.

Step 4: Publish

Save the form, then go to Online Store > Themes > Edit theme > App embeds, turn on the Forms app, and click the Save button at the top left of your screen. If you don't turn it on, the popup won't show on your storefront.

I'd still recommend using a dedicated Shopify popup app over Shopify Forms. Here are some of the differences between them:

If you don't want to use any of those, you can write your own Shopify theme code popup. It gives you control over the design, but you'll need to maintain the code yourself every time you update your theme.

Shopify popup types and examples

Here are 5 of the most common Shopify popups:

Email/newsletter popup

These are probably the most popular popups you'll see on online stores. An email popup typically offers something, usually a discount or early access to a sale, in exchange for a visitor's email.

Take a look at how Pot Gang shows theirs. The brand's popup encourages visitors to sign up for email updates about its seeds and a discount. This is a good option if you have newsletters, product updates, new launches, or other content about the product that gives people a reason to subscribe.

To get a better idea, see our guide to Shopify email popups.

Discount and welcome popups

A welcome and discount popup greets new visitors and gives them a discount. Some of these discounts can be a limited offer or paired with a countdown timer to give visitors a sense of urgency.

Pierre Hardy uses a welcome popup to offer new visitors 10% off their first order in exchange for signing up, and it's pretty straightforward. First-time shoppers have an immediate incentive, and signing up becomes an opportunity for the brand to stay in touch with them. See our guide to discount popups for more ideas on setting up a discount offer.

Exit intent popups

This comes up when a visitor looks like they're about to leave the page. It's pretty common to use this as a last-chance discount or as an offer to save the visitor's cart for later. Exit intent popups are obviously more practical on desktop, where the exit intent can be detected when a visitor's cursor moves toward the back button or the tab close icon.

A good example is Pressed Juicery. The brand uses its exit popup to remind shoppers to save their cart and come back to it later. There's also a 10% discount for visitors who sign up.

Upsell and add-to-cart popups

These types of popups appear right after someone adds an item to their cart. In this case, instead of asking for an email, an upsell popup can recommend a related product or a bundle deal, giving shoppers a chance to add more to their order before they check out.

You can see how Waterboy uses an upsell popup to encourage shoppers already in the cart section to add more to their order before completing the purchase.

Announcement popups

An announcement popup basically skips the data capture and the offer entirely. They tell visitors about a sale, a shipping update, or a new product launch, usually with a short message and a single button.

In this example, GAP Factory uses a promotional popup to bring its current offers directly to shoppers. The "My Offers" panel highlights several deals at once, including extra 20% off, activewear and sweats on sale, and an extra 25% off a first purchase with a new card. It gives shoppers a quick overview of available promotions.

Tips for making high-converting Shopify popups

Use the right trigger: Use a short delay (8-15 seconds) or a scroll-based trigger. I'd say an exit-intent trigger gives customers time to get familiar with the store. According to Baymard's 2025 UX research, 55% of sites used pop-up banners or overlay sign-up dialogs on the homepage that created negative reactions. This points back to how important it is to give shoppers time to engage with the page first.

Keep the design simple: Try not to make one popup do more than one thing. If you're capturing emails, ask for the email and nothing more, maybe a first name or phone number at most. Having two fields is the practical limit before most people abandon the form.

Keep popups on mobile small enough that visitors can still see the page behind them and close them easily. Google also advises avoiding intrusive interstitials that block the main content. Popups that block the page immediately or redirect visitors to a different page without their consent can work against your rankings, not just your conversion rate.

Test the offer: Kaching Upsell & Email Popup's built-in A/B testing lets you run two versions of the same popup at once and see which one converts better. Shopify Forms doesn't have a built-in split test, so the way to go about this is running one version for a set period, then switching to a second version and comparing the numbers.