Exit Intent Strategy: How to Recover 15% of Abandoning Visitors
Exit intent popups are one of the most polarising topics in e-commerce CRO.
Half the room hates them. "They're annoying." "They make the brand look desperate." "I always close them immediately."
The other half has them generating 8–15% of their email list and recovering millions in otherwise-lost revenue.
The difference isn't the tool. It's the strategy.
This post walks you through how to design, implement, and optimise exit intent properly — including the specific trigger logic, offer types, and copy patterns that actually work.
What Exit Intent Actually Measures
Exit intent technology works by tracking mouse movement (on desktop) or scroll velocity and back-button behaviour (on mobile). When the algorithm detects the user is about to leave — cursor moving toward the browser bar, aggressive upward swipe, reaching for the back button — it fires the popup.
The critical insight: An exiting user is not a lost user yet. They're a user at a decision point. They came to your site, engaged enough to browse, and are now leaving without completing the action you wanted. Something made them hesitate.
Exit intent gives you one more chance to address that hesitation.
The Four Types of Exit Intent Offers
Not all exit intent popups should make the same offer. Matching the offer to the visitor's stage in the funnel is what separates high-performing exit intent from annoying noise.
Type 1: The Discount Offer (Most Common, Often Misused)
When to use: The visitor has added items to cart or viewed product pages multiple times. Price sensitivity is a likely friction point.
The standard pattern: "Before you go — here's 10% off your first order. Enter your email to claim it."
Why it often underperforms: Too generic. Offering a discount to everyone who moves their cursor toward the browser bar devalues your brand and trains visitors to expect discounts — reducing full-price purchase rates over time.
When it works well: Cart abandonment specifically, first-time visitors with multiple product views, and situations where your price point is genuinely competitive.
Type 2: The Value Exchange (Lead Generation)
When to use: Earlier in the funnel — first visit, content pages, blog posts. The visitor hasn't shown strong purchase intent yet.
Pattern: "Before you go — get our free [relevant guide/tool/checklist]" in exchange for an email.
Why this outperforms pure discounts for early-funnel visitors: You're providing value without conditioning visitors to expect discounts. The email you capture enters a nurture sequence rather than a discount-seeking pattern.
Best formats: Checklists, cheat sheets, calculator tools, mini-courses, exclusive content.
Type 3: The Objection Handler
When to use: Post-product-view, pre-checkout. The visitor has shown intent but didn't buy.
Pattern: Address the most common objection head-on. "Not sure if [product] is right for you? Here's what [X customers] say about [specific concern]."
This type of exit intent doesn't ask for an email — it tries to convert the visitor right now by removing a specific friction point.
Examples:
- "Free returns, no questions asked — still not sure?" → shows returns policy prominently
- "Not sure which size to pick?" → loads a size guide
- "Wondering if it works for [skin type/use case]?" → shows relevant reviews
Type 4: The Urgency/Scarcity Trigger
When to use: Cart abandonment with low stock items, or time-limited offers.
Pattern: "Only 3 left in stock — your cart is reserved for the next 15 minutes."
Important warning: Only use real scarcity. Fake countdown timers and fictional "only 2 left" claims are increasingly detected by consumers and severely damage trust when caught.
Exit Intent Trigger Logic: When to Fire
The trigger matters as much as the offer. Most exit intent implementations fire too early, too often, or on the wrong pages — which is why they feel annoying.
Page-level targeting rules:
Show exit intent on:
- Product pages (high purchase intent)
- Cart/checkout pages (highest purchase intent)
- Pricing pages (strong consideration intent)
- High-traffic blog posts (lead generation, early funnel)
Do NOT show exit intent on:
- Homepage (too early, too generic)
- About/contact pages (wrong context)
- Order confirmation/thank you pages (they already converted)
- Pages where visitors just landed (they haven't given you a chance yet)
Session-level targeting rules:
- Only show once per session, maximum
- Don't show if the visitor has already seen it in the last 7–14 days
- Don't show if the visitor just subscribed via another form
- Consider suppressing for loyal customers (returning visitors with 3+ previous orders)
Behaviour-level targeting rules (advanced):
More sophisticated platforms let you fire exit intent based on:
- Cart value (higher-value exits get a stronger offer)
- Time on site (users who spent more time are more qualified)
- Pages visited (user saw your best-selling product multiple times → show product-specific exit intent)
- Traffic source (paid ad visitors get a retention offer; organic visitors get a lead magnet)
Designing an Exit Intent That Doesn't Feel Like a Popup
The reason exit intent has a bad reputation is that most are designed as banner ads with an email field slapped on. Here's how to design one that feels like part of the experience.
Visual Design Principles
Match your brand completely. Fonts, colours, image style, voice — all consistent with the rest of your site. A popup that looks like a template insert breaks trust.
Keep it simple. One headline, one sub-headline, one CTA. No multiple offers, no long copy, no navigation links.
Make the close button obvious. Burying the close button is the single biggest trust destroyer in popup design. Make it easy to close — people who want to close it will close it regardless, and making it hard just creates frustration.
Use real imagery. Product photos, founder photos, or customer photos outperform generic stock imagery consistently.
Copy Principles
Lead with benefit, not the ask. "Get 10% off" beats "Enter your email." "Your free size guide" beats "Sign up for our newsletter."
Address the specific hesitation. Generic "don't go!" copy is weak. If you know visitors leaving your checkout are most often abandoning over shipping costs, your copy should reference that: "Free shipping on orders over $50 — and you're almost there."
Use conversational language. The popup is interrupting a human moment. Write like a helpful assistant, not a marketing template.
A/B Testing Exit Intent Copy
The highest-impact variables to test:
- Headline — what benefit/hook gets the visitor to read on?
- Offer type — discount vs. value exchange vs. objection handler
- Urgency framing — "before you go" vs. "wait — one thing" vs. "you're leaving without this"
- CTA button text — "Get my 10% off" vs. "Yes, save 10%" vs. "Claim offer"
- Image — product image vs. lifestyle vs. no image
Test one variable at a time. Exit intent volumes are often lower than main page tests, so be patient with reaching significance.
The Exit Intent → Email Sequence Connection
Exit intent is only as valuable as what comes after the email capture. An email address collected from an exit intent popup and never followed up on is wasted.
The captured email should enter a high-intent welcome/recovery sequence:
Email 1 (immediate): Deliver the promised offer or lead magnet. Nothing else.
Email 2 (24 hours later): Social proof focused. "Here's why 4,200 customers love [product]." Reviews, before/after, testimonials.
Email 3 (48 hours later): Address the objection. "Still thinking it over? Here's our money-back guarantee + what to expect in your first order."
Email 4 (3–5 days later): Urgency close. If discount was offered, remind them it expires. "Your 10% off expires tonight."
Email 5 (1 week later): Pivot to value. Stop pushing the product. Send useful content related to their interest. Build relationship for the longer-term purchase decision.
The conversion window for exit-intent-captured emails is typically longer than cart abandonment. Expect 30–40% of conversions to happen within 7 days, but another 20–30% to come in over the following 30 days.
Measuring Exit Intent Performance
Track these metrics for each exit intent variant:
Impression rate: What % of exit-intent-eligible sessions see the popup? (If this is below 15%, your trigger logic may be too conservative)
Submission/conversion rate: What % of users who see the popup complete the action? Benchmarks: 3–8% for discount offers, 5–12% for strong lead magnets
Revenue recovered: For cart abandonment specifically — what % of exit intent participants go on to purchase within 30 days?
Email list quality: Are exit-intent-captured emails engaging with your subsequent campaigns? If open rates are significantly below your average list, the offer may be attracting low-intent subscribers.
Suppression effectiveness: Are you avoiding showing the popup to users who've already seen it or recently converted? Check this by reviewing who's in your "seen exit intent" segment vs. your recent buyers.
Common Exit Intent Mistakes
Mistake 1: Offering the same thing on every page A product page exit and a blog post exit should have different offers. Match the offer to the intent.
Mistake 2: Firing immediately on page load Exit intent that fires when a user first arrives (not actually on exit) is the most complained-about pattern. Ensure your trigger is calibrated to actual exit behaviour.
Mistake 3: No mobile strategy Desktop exit intent doesn't work on mobile (no cursor). Mobile needs a different approach: delay-triggered or scroll-based popups timed to capture visitors who are reading but haven't acted.
Mistake 4: Forgetting to suppress for existing subscribers Showing a "subscribe for 10% off" popup to someone who's already in your list — and already received the discount — is a common CRM failure. Integrate your ESP suppression lists properly.
Mistake 5: Not testing the sequence The popup is the first step. If the email sequence that follows is weak, the ROI drops dramatically. Optimise the full funnel, not just the popup.
The Bottom Line
Exit intent done right is one of the highest-ROI tools in e-commerce. The average well-implemented exit intent system contributes 8–15% of email list growth and recovers 3–6% of abandoning cart sessions.
The key is precision: right offer, right visitor, right moment. Generic discount popups on every page for every visitor is not a strategy — it's noise.
Build a matrix of your traffic stages (early funnel, mid-funnel, cart abandonment), identify the most likely friction point at each stage, and design an exit intent that addresses it specifically. Then measure, iterate, and improve.
The visitors are already there. They already found you. Exit intent is just asking them to give you one more chance.
Want to audit your on-site conversion strategy? Book a free CRO strategy call and we'll map out your biggest recovery opportunities.