Exit intent popup
A message shown at the moment somebody's pointer heads for the tab bar.
What it is for
The last thing a visitor sees, at the moment they have already decided to go. Exit intent watches the pointer, and when it crosses out of the top of the window — towards a tab, a bookmark, the back button — the widget opens. Nothing has been interrupted, because there was nothing left to interrupt.
Why this one asks for nothing
Most popups of this shape are a form. This is an offer: a code, somewhere to spend it, and a button that says no. There is nothing to fill in, so there is nothing for somebody halfway out of the door to weigh up, and what they take away works at a checkout we know nothing about. If an address is the thing you actually want at that moment, the sign-up box is the widget built for it.
When not to use one
There is no exit intent on a phone. A touch screen has no pointer going anywhere, so this reaches people on a laptop and nobody else — and any tool claiming otherwise has bound it to a scroll direction or a back gesture, which is a guess wearing a signal's clothes. Do not run one you would resent receiving, either. Somebody who leaves annoyed remembers the site, and no discount is worth being remembered that way.
Questions
- What does it do on a phone?
- Nothing at all. There is no pointer to watch, so it never opens, and somebody on a phone is left alone rather than shown a desktop idea done badly.
- How does it know somebody is leaving?
- By watching for the pointer crossing out of the top of the page. That movement is what precedes a tab, a bookmark or the back button, and it is the only warning a browser reliably gives.
- Will the same person see it over and over?
- No. It is set to open once ever, and the note that it has been shown is kept in that visitor's own browser rather than against any record of them here.
- Could it ask for an email address as well?
- It could, since any widget can carry a field. What you would have then is a sign-up box that happens to open on the way out, and that widget already has a page of its own.