How to Add an Exit Intent Popup on Shopify (2026 Guide)

It's basically the last shot online businesses get at turning that visit into a sale, or at least securing an email address to follow up with later. I'll show you how to set one up on both desktop and mobile devices.

Benefits of exit-intent popups for Shopify stores

• Recover abandoning visitors: According to Baymard, roughly 7 in 10 online shopping carts get abandoned. These popups are specifically created to catch that moment and recover visitors right before they leave.
• Capture emails from paid traffic: It helps you get more out of the traffic you paid for. This could be a sale or an email for a follow-up.
• Maintain user experience: The popup only shows up when there's an exit signal, so it never interrupts someone who's still browsing your products or building a cart.

How to add an exit-intent popup on Shopify

There are a few ways to go about it, but I'd say the best way to do it is with a dedicated popup app. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to add one using the Kaching Upsell & Email Popup app.

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

First, install Kaching Upsell & Email Popup from the Shopify App Store. The app supports exit intent alongside triggers like add to cart, and holds a 4.9-star rating from 129 reviews on the Shopify App Store.

Step 2: Choose an exit popup template

Once it's installed, create a popup offer and pick one of the available templates or just create a new one specifically for the exit-intent popup. Kaching Upsell & Email Popup lets you edit the images, headline, buttons, and layout section by section.

Step 3: Customize the popup and the offer

Now set the offer. You can use several types of offers:

• Discount: Give new customers a percentage or fixed amount off.
• Free shipping: Remove shipping costs once the customer reaches a certain order value.
• Email signup: Ask visitors to join your mailing list, with an incentive if appropriate.
• Product offer: Recommend a related product instead of giving a storewide discount.

Keep the copy short. Something like this

Wait! Take 10% off your first order

Enter your email to get your discount.

If they're already leaving, they probably won't stop to read a bunch of text. Use a strong hook to catch their attention. Keep the popup to one headline, one offer, and one clear action button.

The popup should make these three things obvious:

1. What are you offering?
2. Why should I want it?
3. What do I need to do?

Step 4: Set the exit intent trigger

In the popup trigger settings, switch on exit intent. This is what turns your regular popup into an exit intent popup.

On desktop, exit intent normally tracks cursor movement. When the visitor moves their cursor toward the top of the browser window, toward a tab or the address bar, the system can interpret that as a sign that they're about to leave.

For mobile devices, it's a little different. There's no mouse cursor to track, so exit intent has to rely on signals like a back gesture or fast upward scrolling. It's generally not as accurate as desktop exit intent. I'll explain how it works a bit more in the next section.

Before that, I'd also avoid bringing up the same popup repeatedly during one session. Once someone has dismissed an offer, showing it again right after isn't going to improve their experience.

Step 5: Publish and test

Finally, save and publish. To test the popup, just open your store on both desktop and mobile to check how it looks and when it fires. Kaching Upsell & Email Popup has A/B testing and analytics that let you compare offers and see how they perform.

Do exit intent popups work on mobile?

Yes, but not the way they work on a computer. Mobile exit intent uses a different signal, usually a combination of the following:

• a fast scroll back up the page
• tapping the browser's address bar
• switching tabs
• tapping near the phone's back-gesture area
• becoming inactive

Please note:

Shopify has these as examples of signals that can indicate a mobile visitor may be leaving. The problem is that these signals are less precise than tracking the movement of a cursor on desktop. Someone might do a quick scroll back to the top to check the navigation. That doesn't necessarily mean they're leaving.

If most of your traffic comes from visitors using mobile devices, you can also try a timed or scroll-based trigger. For example, you could show the popup after someone has spent a certain amount of time on a product page or scrolled through a large portion of it.

Exit intent popup examples & best practices

Here are a few examples of how it works on an online store.

1. Natori

Using a timer is a great way to get shoppers to act. Natori adds a little urgency to its exit popup with a countdown that reminds shoppers to complete their purchase before their cart expires. The popup also offers 10% off as a last-chance incentive, giving shoppers two reasons to complete their order before they go.

2. The Sculpt Society

If you're looking for a simple way to secure an email address, The Sculpt Society is another great example. The brand's exit-intent popup offers a free class and updates on exclusive sales and events for visitors who complete the signup.

Best practices for exit intent popups

Having the right offer and timing makes all the difference when using exit intent popups.

• Show it once per session: Don't make visitors have to close the same popup every time they open a different page. Set a reasonable frequency limit.
• Make sure the incentive is worth it: Make sure you're offering something useful to shoppers, like a discount or free shipping.
• Make the popup easy to close: Your visitor should be able to dismiss the popup immediately if they're not interested. Popups that are hard to close can be frustrating.
• Keep the CTA clear: Tell visitors exactly what happens when they click the action button
• Test different offers: Don't assume the first version of the popup is the best, even if it succeeds. Monitor conversions and performance analytics to get a better idea of how offers perform.