Discount Popup: 8 Examples & Best Practices [+How to Create]

There are many ways to share discounts…

Yet, a discount popup is one of the most popular ones in ecommerce.

Here’s why: discount popups have an unmatched ability to focus visitors’ attention on marketing offers. That’s essential for motivating them to become customers.

But it’s not just about invading the screen and getting attention. Discount popups can be a versatile tool for converting traffic with sales promos of your choice.

Here, you’ll learn how to use discount popups the right way.

Click to go to sections:

• What is a discount popup?

• Why use discount popups

• Discount popup examples

• How to create a discount popup

What’s a discount popup?

A discount popup is a popup window whose goal is to convince website visitors to convert (signup for a newsletter or make a purchase) by giving them a discount or a coupon. Online businesses use discount popups to motivate visitors to make purchases.

With discounts being one of the top reasons for buying online, many ecommerce stores rely on promotion popups to get sales with this incentive. Discount popups are a great tool here because they grab and focus the attention of visitors.

Why discount popups are a good strategy

Well… 

Everybody loves to save.

Discounts are a tried-and-tested way to get window shoppers thinking about buying. But it’s not just the anecdotal evidence we rely on: ecommerce research gives us these insights into what customers think.

These findings mean that discount popups can:

• Increase your sales 📈

• Help you get new customers faster 📦

• Improve customer satisfaction with shopping 🙂

So, the takeaway here is—

Offering discounts with popups encourages customers to buy and, because of the savings, many of them will even be likely to spend a bit more (because they believe they’re getting a great deal).

Now, let’s see how successful businesses sell with discount popups.

Discount popup examples

We’ll take a look at these examples of discount popups:

• Email subscription discount popup

• “Buy one, get one free” popup

• Discount popup with segmentation form

• Minimum purchase discount popup

• “Free shipping” discount popup

• Gamified (spin the wheel) discount popup

• Product category discount popup

• Customer referral discount popup

1. Email subscription discount popup

• Website: MVMT Watches

• Goal: Convert first-time visitors into customers

Let’s start with the most popular discount popup. It offers an introductory 15% discount for email signup, which is the simplest yet effective lead generation strategy. To make the offer more attractive, this promotional popup also mentioned access to exclusive sales and limited edition items (that’s something many watch enthusiasts simply can’t afford to miss).

Why this discount popup works:

• Value-packed headline

• Cool-looking original product image

• The main benefit (the discount size) is highlighted by a different color

Discount popup best practice:

Offer a percentage discount if you’re not selling products for low prices. Any other discounts could have a major impact on your profits.

Here’s how to decide: if a product costs less than $100, then a percentage discount is a better choice. If the price is higher, go for the dollar amount discount. That would result in the highest perceived value for customers.

2. “Buy two get one free” discount popup

• Website: Blume

• Goal: Increase sales by generating a sense of urgency

Blume, a self-care brand, invites customers to buy two products and get the third one for free. Such discount popups are popular because online shoppers perceive this offer as a great value. Blume showed this discount offer popup on the homepage for one weekend to maximize the awareness of the deal.

Why this discount popup works:

• Enticing headline

• Beautiful design and branded color scheme

• Simple explanation of the terms

Discount popup best practice:

Use discount popups for time-limited “Buy one, get one free” promotions.

Such promos are great for selling items that need regular replenishment (like self-care), and products that complement each other.

The total price of the promo should be a bit over the average order value (AOV) at your store. For example, if your AOV is $50, go for no more than $60. Because if the difference is significant, many customers are likely to pass on the offer.

3. Discount popup with subscriber segmentation form

Website: Primal Pet Foods

Goal: Convert first-time visitors and segment them

A discount popup is also a nice opportunity to collect some information about visitors. In this example, the popup also asks to choose a pet along with their preferences—just what the brand needs to personalize future marketing emails.

Why this discount popup works:

• Visitor info collection form

• Creative format thanks to an awesome image of pets

• Quick to fill out—it takes only two clicks to answer the two questions

Discount popup best practice:

Use discount popups to also collect information about your potential customers. You can ask about their product preferences just like the example above. This info will be super helpful for your email marketing team to move visitors down the website conversion funnel.

Related: What is a website conversion funnel?

4. Minimum purchase popup

• Website: CODAGE Paris

• Goal: Get more orders over €100 in value

This discount popup example helps the brand upsell and increase the average order value. To motivate visitors to buy, it offers a 100% discount on a specific product. The choice of a product (a travel kit) is also right: it would introduce customers to multiple products.

Why this discount popup works:

• Limited-time, enticing offer

• Easy navigation thanks to the “Discover” button

• Convenient addition of the free product to the cart

Discount popup best practice:

Apply a minimum purchase discount or a free product for items that need to be regularly replenished or refilled. Add this offer to your discount popup and place the campaign on your homepage to raise maximum awareness.

5. Free shipping popup

• Website: Venus ET Fleur

• Goal: Increase the number of purchases from first-time visitors

Extra costs like shipping are the top reason why online shoppers leave even after adding a product to the shopping cart. You can encourage your customers to buy with a free shipping discount popup like this.

Why this discount popup example works:

• Question-based headline with a clear benefit

• Signup form contains a field for an email and a phone number

• CTA button has a clear message about the value for customers

Discount popup best practice:

Try writing the headline of your discount popup as a question.

Question headlines generate up to 257% more engagement compared to declarative headlines. Those with self-referencing cues, e.g. “Is this your new favorite thing?” perform the best according to research.

6. Gamified (spin the wheel) discount popup

• Website: Bold Socks

• Goal: Increase sales with discounts

Enter, spin, and win. That’s what spin-the-wheel popups are all about. A great thing about them is that you can choose to share any kinds of discounts or include perks like free shipping. Also, these discount popups can be extremely effective, converting up to 30% of visitors.

Why this discount popup example works:

• Gamification is a unique way to engage shoppers

• Colorful and eye-catching popup design

• Very easy to participate (only email required)

Discount popup best practice:

Use a spin-the-wheel discount popup to gamify the shopping experience on your website. 

It’s a proven way to generate leads. For example, this wheel popup campaign, generated 5,000 emails in one month. No worries about discount cheating, too: you can just limit the number of spins per visitor.

7. Product category discount popup

• Website: Shutterstock

• Goal: Generate more sales of a product category

This discount coupon popup motivates customers to buy a particular product category. A campaign like this can drive traffic to that category and encourage visitors to explore more of your website. Note that this promotion popup requires no signup.

Why this discount popup works:

• Clearly stated benefit in the headline

• Brief but comprehensive description of the offer

• Easily available discount code

Discount popup best practice:

Use discount popups to drive visitors to specific pages, product categories, or products.

When visitors click Redeem now in the Shutterstock popup, they go straight to the product category. It’s an effective way to help your business grow by driving visitors to explore more pages from the homepage.

8. Customer referral discount popup

• Website: Saint Jane Beauty

• Goal: Encourage customers to refer friends

Want to build a popular customer referral program? You can drive referrals with a discount popup like this example from Saint Jane Beauty. This way, you can let every visitor know about this offer and get sales on autopilot.

Why this discount popup example works:

• Clear description of the benefit

• Makes friend referral easy with the share link

• Encourages customers to advocate for the brand

Discount popup best practice:

Use discount popups to motivate your loyal customers to spread the word about your business. It’s a win-win, really: both shoppers will get a nice discount coupon and you will also get two more orders (and possibly more loyal customers).

How to create a discount popup

Let’s create an email subscription discount popup, the most common campaign.

I’ll be using Wisepops, a popup software rated 4.9 stars on Capterra and Shopify (see who uses Wisepops).

Get an account to begin:

Zero commitment, unlimited free trial.

Learn more about Wisepops popup builder.

Step 1: Choose a popup template

Once in Wisepops popups dashboard, choose Create Campaign.

Next, you’ll see a selection of popup templates:

For this tutorial, I chose this one:

We have more templates for you to choose from. Feel free to check out more of our templates for promotional popups here:

Step 2: Customize discount popup design

Of course, we need to make our discount popup look natural and good-looking. It’s easy thanks to the drag & drop popup editor in Wisepops: just click the element and start customizing.

Here’s how my final design looks after customizing:

For that design, I used:

• #000000 for color 

• Arial for text font

• This free image by Olof Nyman

Also, note that I've added the terms of service and privacy policy links under the button. Do so, too, by adding a text block and then adding the links to the text like you'd do in a text editor.

Step 3: Add the discount code in the thank-you window

A thank-you window appears when the visitors submit their emails and click Get my discount in our campaign. That’s where you give the discount to them.

To customize this window, go to the Step 2 tab.

Once there, write the message and add the discount code. Here are discount code ideas (also you can use unique Shopify discounts):

Step 4: Choose where to show your discount popup

You should show your discount popup at the right time to maximize conversions.

By default, Wisepops will display your campaign:

• Only one time

• To every visitor

• On all website pages

• After they spend 8 seconds on your site

But you can make any changes: with Wisepops, you can trigger any visitor category and when the discount appears.

To change who will see your discount popup, go to Display Rules > Audience.

There, you can leave the default setting if you'd like to show the campaign to desktop visitors:

To define when the discount popup will appear (on landing, on exit, on click, etc.), go to Display Rules > Trigger:

To see how your campaign looks on your website, click Preview. To exit the editing mode and finish, hit Done Editing.

Step 5: Publish your discount popup

Once you click Done Editing, Wisepops will take you to the campaign overview. 

There, click Publish to activate your discount popup.

To actually add the campaign on your website, just insert the Wisepops code snippet with a few clicks.

Additionally, if you prefer to have the gathered emails sent directly to your email application, you can easily set up the integration through Wisepops: Integrations.

If the initial discount popup version didn’t live up to your expectations or you want to try different discount offers, try A/B testing.

If you want to have the gathered emails sent directly to your email app, you can easily set up the integration: Integrations.

Also, if you need any help while creating your discount popup, visit our Knowledge Base or drop a message to our support team.

Discount popup: your next steps

Want more info about how to create and use discount popups to get sales? 

We got you covered.

Detailed instructions for your website:

• How to add a popup to Shopify

• How to add a popup to Wix

• How to make a popup for WooCommerce

If you prefer a plugin, here’s our WordPress popup plugin for you.

Also, see more useful posts:

• Examples of cool popup designs

• Best practices for popups

• Beginner’s guide to popups