Definition: Exit intent popups are website overlays that appear when a visitor is about to leave your site. Using mouse-tracking or behavioural technology, these popups trigger when someone moves their cursor toward the browser’s close button, back button, or address bar. Exit popups are often used to capture emails, offer discounts, or share last-minute messages that encourage visitors to stay engaged instead of leaving.
Use it in a Sentence: The e-commerce store added exit intent popups offering a 10% discount, which helped reduce cart abandonment and capture more customer emails.
Why Exit Intent Popups are Important
1. Recover Lost Visitors

Most visitors leave a site without converting. Exit popups give you one last chance to capture their attention before they go.
2. Grow Your Email List
By offering a free guide, newsletter signup, or special discount, exit intent popups turn abandoning visitors into subscribers you can nurture later.
3. Reduce Cart Abandonment
In e-commerce, exit intent popups can remind customers about items in their cart or offer a limited-time discount to encourage checkout.
4. Deliver Personalised Offers
Exit intent popups can be tailored to user behaviour—for example, showing different messages for blog readers vs. shoppers.
From Goodbye to Second Chance
Exit intent popups turn an exit into an opportunity. By re-engaging visitors at the right moment, businesses can boost conversions, capture leads, and make the most of their website traffic.
More Definitions
- Lead Magnet: A valuable resource offered in exchange for contact information.
- Conversion Rate Optimization: The practice of increasing the percentage of users who take a desired action.
- Call to Action (CTA): A prompt encouraging users to take a specific next step.
- User Engagement: The interaction and involvement users have with your brand.
- Sales Cycle: The series of predictable stages a prospect goes through, from initial contact to closing a deal.
- Lead qualification: The process of evaluating whether a potential customer meets certain criteria to be considered a good fit for your product or service.
Useful Blogs
- The Marketing Funnel: Stages, Strategies, & How to Optimize: A guide to understanding each stage of the customer journey, applying effective tactics, and improving funnel performance for higher conversions.