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Discount Popups

Discount Popups

6 Discount Popups You Can Use to Grow Your Ecommerce Email & SMS Lists (Examples, Templates & Best Practices)

A discount code is hard to resist, no matter what you’re thinking about buying—meaning they’re a great incentive to get people signed up to your marketing lists. Here are six discount popup examples you can use to do exactly this (with templates and best practices included).

Everyone wants to feel like they’re getting the best deal. The same applies to people visiting your ecommerce website.

That might sound counterintuitive. You’re running a business that needs to make money, right?

A discount popup is the best of both worlds. Not only do potential customers feel like they’re getting a good deal (one that causes them to buy), but the hit to your profit margin is less noticeable when you scale revenue.

Ready to experience that with your online store? 

This guide shares the best practices for creating a discount popup, along with six examples and templates to make your own.

What are discount popups?

A discount popup is a box that appears when someone visits your website. The visitor is offered a discount code or coupon—something which incentivizes them to make a purchase during the same session.

Discount popups can offer anything from $15 off their first purchase to a 20% discount code. Either way, they capture the 97% of shoppers who always look for a deal when purchasing items online.

Discount popup best practices

Before we get into the examples, make sure any discount popups you’re creating follow these best practices: 

  • Make sure the offer is appealing. No, 5% off won't cut it.
  • Get creative with your discount. Try building added value, rather than just giving X% off. Nectar Sleep, for example, offers "$499 of gifts" in a single package.
  • Get your triggers right. Don't annoy people with a popup that triggers instantly. Set a time delay of at least 5-10 seconds and/or a scroll-point of 20% or above. You can also add an exit-intent trigger that builds FOMO if they leave.
  • Have strong calls-to-action (CTAs). Make the button to redeem your coupon bold and obvious with benefit-driven copy—"Get X% Discount" is much better than "Subscribe" as CTA text.
  • Collect email and SMS over two steps. This technique can increase conversions since the barrier to entry is low. 
  • Use a two-tap floating button. This gives people the option to re-open the discount popup if they close it and later change their mind.
  • Make it easy for people to use the coupon code. Don't make them leave your website and dig around in emails. Offer the code in the popup thank you step and immediately direct them to best-selling products.
  • Put a time limit on your discount. Use urgency and nudge people to claim the discount code. Have them purchase something sooner, rather than later (when they’ll probably forget).
  • Keep testing. Experiment with discounts, triggers, and messaging until you find what works best for your target audience.

6 discount popup examples

Looking for an example that demonstrates how to use these best practices? Here are six discount popup examples to inspire you.

1. Hydrant "dollars off" discount popup example

The CTA on your discount popup is important—both in terms of convincing the visitor to use the coupon, and reiterating what they’re losing out on if they exit. 

Hydrant, for example, has a primary CTA for people to claim the discount code. The blue color stands out well against the red background:

Discount Popup Examples: Hydrant
See full example

However, its secondary CTA—”no discount, thanks”—is where you should focus your attention. It plays on loss aversion bias, where the feeling of losing something is more impactful than the gaining something.

The visitor is forced to acknowledge that they’re losing out by closing the discount popup.

2. Super Coffee segmentation discount popup example

Your discount popup is a perfect opportunity to learn more about the people visiting your website. This example from Super Coffee demonstrates how to do it well, promising a secret “super discount” in exchange for information about you:

Discount Popup Examples: Super Coffee
See full example

Each subscriber’s coffee preferences pass through to its email marketing platform. That gives the brand the chance to send personalized email campaigns that make the visitor think, “Wow—this brand really *gets* me.”

3. Pura Vida two-step email & SMS discount popup example

Not all discount popups have to be complex. If you’d rather keep things simple and avoid overwhelming your visitors, draw inspiration from Pura Vida’s discount popup example:

Discount Popup Examples: Pura Vida
See full example

Key elements here:

  • The 20% off discount is bold
  • The primary CTA button is simple and effective
  • The word "unlock" suggests you're getting something not everyone has access to
  • The secondary CTA text also plays on loss aversion

There's also a second step to the popup form that collects a visitor's phone number for SMS marketing:

Pura Vida popup step 2

The copy suggests that you'll get the discount after entering your phone number. However, as the email has already been captured on the first step, Pura Vida follows up with the discount code via this channel should someone not follow through by adding their mobile number 💪

4. Outdoor Voices segmented shopping discount popup

Outdoor Voices displays this discount popup to people visiting its home page:

Discount Popup Examples: Outdoor Voices
See full example

The discount it gives is better than most: 20% off. It also asks for basic information about the visitor—like who they’re shopping for—to personalize any retargeting emails and messages.

The primary CTA copy is also fun and quirky. The word “activate” is much more engaging than “subscribe” or “submit”, and it reinforces the reason why people should sign up.

5. Pattern Beauty tiered discount popup example

The nature of discount codes often means losing out on profit. But, you can recoup that revenue—and increase your average order value—with tiered discounting.

Take a look at Pattern Beauty’s discount popup for inspiration:

Discount Popup Examples: Pattern Beauty
See full example

The splash page style popup encourages people to enter their email, with the discount being that they can spend more to save more.

6. Spark Grills secret discount popup example

Spark Grills uses a discount popup on its landing page that promotes a $300 product bundle. The catch? You need to enter your email address to uncover what’s included:

Discount Popup Examples: Spark Grills
See full example

The messaging of this discount popup is what really shines. Not only does it tie into the festive season, but the popup talks to the visitor like they’re best friends. Visitors immediately feel like they’re valued with a “friends and family discount.”

Discount popup templates

Long gone are the days of custom, complex coding to display a discount popup on your site.

With ConvertFlow’s free popup builder and Shopify popup app, you can show discount codes and special coupons to anyone visiting your site—a surefire way to improve your conversion rate.

The best part? There's a ton of professionally-designed popup templates to get you started.

Simply change the discount to what you’re prepared to offer, customize the fonts and colors, and use an integration to add it to your website in just a few clicks. Talk about making popups easy 🙌

Here are some templates you can start using today:

About the author
Elise Dopson
Contributor, ConvertFlow
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Elise is a writer at ConvertFlow, and expert in B2B marketing. She's been featured in publications like ConversionXL, HubSpot, CoSchedule, Content Marketing Institute, Databox, and more. You'll usually find her cooking up some high-quality content for the ConvertFlow blog or campaign library.