Email Pop Up Examples: Six Types, and What a Submit Counts

An email pop-up is a website overlay that asks a visitor for an email address, often in return for an offer. Its standard scorecard is the submit rate, yet in Klaviyo’s own definition a submit is an event, not a new subscriber: an email-then-phone form counts at its first contact field, and a link click can count.

Klaviyo’s sign-up form analytics article spells this out. Submit rate is “the ratio of total submitted form events divided by the number of total viewed form events”, and it “encompasses when any visitor submits, not solely unique profiles.” On a form that asks for an email and then a phone number, “submitting whichever appears first in the form counts as a submit”, and “Clicking a Go to URL button can also count as a submit.” Quotes here are from Klaviyo’s, Shopify’s and Google’s documentation as served on October 22, 2026. It is published by Relvino, which decides per shopper across email, SMS and pop-ups and so has a stake in how stores ask for an address; read it as informed but interested.

What are website pop-ups?

Website pop-ups are messages that open on top of a page rather than inside it. Klaviyo sorts its sign-up forms by how much of the page they take. A popup appears “in the middle of the browser window” and is “potentially disruptive to a visitor's experience.” A flyout slides in from the edge and generally lets the visitor keep browsing. A full page form covers the whole window. An embedded form sits in the page itself, like a footer sign-up, and “Embedded forms cannot be dismissed”. Shopify Forms, Shopify’s free form app, offers Floating and Overlay popups. Both tools offer a teaser, a small tab that opens the form on a click.

What the submit rate counts, and what it does not

In Klaviyo and Shopify Forms, a pop-up’s headline number is submits divided by views. Klaviyo’s documentation says what goes into each side.

• A submit can come before the form is finished. “A submission can be counted before a visitor finishes every step”. On an email-then-SMS form the email step records the submit, so the headline rate of that form reads its email step. The phone step appears on a per-step chart, where “Each rate divides submissions on that step by views of that same step.”
• A click can be a submit. The analytics article says a Go to URL click can count, though “If a form submission has already been counted during that form opening, a later URL click does not add another submit.” Klaviyo’s analytics glossary sets the limit: Submitted form “won't count if the form step's submit action is only Go to URL or Close form.” Its examples that do count include Submit form and Go to URL.
• Repeat submits count again. The Overview rate uses totals from any visitor, while “A/B test results use unique views and unique submits to compare form variations.” Klaviyo adds that the Overview tab uses totals, “so its counts can differ.”

Shopify Forms keeps one ratio, completion rate: “The number of form submissions divided by the total number of views.” Its documentation shows a different gap between a submission and a subscriber: “When an existing customer submits a form, their email and phone number on file aren't modified, even when the form includes a different email or phone number.” The same note adds: “Other fields, such as marketing consent, also might not be updated.” And where an email list uses double opt-in, Klaviyo says new subscribers “must confirm their subscription before they are added to the list and subscribed to email marketing.”

Klaviyo’s own advice to stores switching tools points the same way: if the submit rate looks lower than in the previous list growth tool, “compare how each tool counts views and submissions, including whether it uses total or unique counts.” Whether a pop-up worked is measured by the new, consented subscribers it added to each channel’s list. The submit rate counts form events on the way there.

Email pop-up examples, by type

Six kinds of pop-up recur across the galleries. Each is described by what it asks for, what a good one says, and how its submit count reads.

1. The first-order discount

The default. It asks for an email, sometimes a first name. A good one puts the offer in the title and the condition underneath, such as Take 15% off your first order over a line saying the code works once and appears on the next screen. That promise has to hold. Shopify Forms can show the code on the success step, and Klaviyo suggests “Adding a coupon block to the success step of the form”. If the code arrives by email instead, the welcome email has to deliver what the pop-up promised.

2. Free shipping

Same field, different offer, for a store whose margin cannot carry a percentage off. A good one says whether there is a minimum order and whether only the first order qualifies. Klaviyo lists Free shipping among its sample teaser texts, with a rule for any teaser that names a specific offer: deliver it “either in your form’s success message or using a welcome series.”

3. The quiz or preference pop-up

It asks for an email and then a question or two: skin type, size, which collection the visitor shops. Klaviyo’s multi-step guide sets two rules. The step’s button must submit, because “If the button’s Action is set to Close form, the properties collected on that step will not be saved.” And answers alone create no subscriber: “Submitting other profile properties does not subscribe them to marketing.” Shopify Forms can collect answers in dropdowns, radio buttons or multiple choice fields, but “Multi-step forms aren't supported” and “Conditional logic isn't supported on forms”, so a quiz there is one page with every question shown at once.

4. Email first, SMS second

It asks for an email on step one and a phone number on step two. Klaviyo’s reasoning for the order: “In general, sign-up forms that collect email consent have higher conversion rates than forms that collect phone numbers.” A visitor who stops after step one still leaves an email consent. This is where the headline submit rate says least about the second step, since it counts at the email field; the phone step is read on the per-step chart. The SMS step carries its own consent rules, covered in SMS marketing best practices. Shopify Forms, with no multi-step option, puts both fields on one page.

5. The launch or waitlist pop-up

It asks for an email, sometimes a phone number, for early access to a drop. A good one names the date and what subscribers get that others do not. It belongs where the interest is: Shopify Forms can limit a form to specific page types, and Klaviyo can show one only on certain URLs or to visitors arriving with a campaign’s UTM parameters.

6. The gated content pop-up

It asks for an email in exchange for something useful: a size guide, a care guide, a lookbook. Shopify Forms can redirect the visitor to that page after submitting, in place of a success message. On Klaviyo the build affects the numbers: a button set to submit the form and then go to the guide records a submit, while Klaviyo’s glossary says a step whose only action is Go to URL does not.

• Headline ratio · Klaviyo sign-up forms: Submit rate: total submitted form events over total viewed form events · Shopify Forms: Completion rate: form submissions over total views
• Multi-step forms · Klaviyo sign-up forms: Up to 4 pages plus an optional success message · Shopify Forms: “Multi-step forms aren't supported”
• When an email-then-SMS form counts as submitted · Klaviyo sign-up forms: At whichever contact field appears first · Shopify Forms: One page, so one submission
• Link button counted as a submit · Klaviyo sign-up forms: A Go to URL click can count; a step whose only action is Go to URL does not · Shopify Forms: Not described in its analytics section
• Where a discount code appears · Klaviyo sign-up forms: Coupon block on the success step, or in a welcome series · Shopify Forms: On the success step
• Devices · Klaviyo sign-up forms: Desktop, mobile or both; tap-to-text forms show on mobile only · Shopify Forms: All devices, desktop only or mobile only

What a good one says: the copy and the fields

The tools set the length first. Shopify Forms caps the title at 50 characters, the text below it at 100 and the button label at 25, and suggests a clear call to action, “such as "Sign Up", "Subscribe", "Submit", or "Get my discount"”. Klaviyo’s mobile design guide disagrees on one: rather than a plain Submit, a label like Subscribe to newsletter “gives a clearer idea of what the button does.”

• Few fields. Klaviyo recommends 1–3 input fields and 1–2 buttons per page on mobile, and a multi-step form for anything longer.
• Least personal first. Name, then email or phone, then birthday.
• Readable and tappable. Klaviyo’s minimums are a 16 pixel font, 8 pixels between elements and 48 pixel touch targets, with the close button top right, where people look for it.
• A success screen that finishes the job. Confirm the sign-up and show or explain the offer; a thank-you line after a promised code breaks the first promise.

When it shows: timing and frequency

On Klaviyo, “By default, your form will be set to show Immediately”. Its sample welcome form keeps that timing, shows the form again 90 days after a visitor closes it, never again after a submit, and hides it from existing Klaviyo profiles. Its sample offer form uses two rules, a 15-second delay and a 30% scroll. A teaser cannot help a form that opens at once: “if your form is set to display immediately on page load, or after less than a 2 second wait, the teaser will be skipped.”

Two limits sit under Klaviyo’s frequency and audience rules. Klaviyo’s settings rely on its cookie, so a visitor who clears cookies or browses incognito may see the form again. And on Shopify stores whose privacy settings require consent, Klaviyo may not track unconsented visitors in the EU, EEA, UK and Switzerland, so a form set to Don’t show to existing Klaviyo profiles still appears to them, subscribers included. A dismissed Shopify Forms popup stays dismissed on that device, a rule the Shopify popup apps guide covers.

Mobile display rules

Google’s current Search Central page, Avoid intrusive interstitials and dialogs, separates two things: “Interstitials are overlays on the whole page and dialogs are overlays only on a part of the page”. Its search reason: “Intrusive dialogs and interstitials make it hard for Google and other search engines to understand your content, which may lead to poor search performance.” Its fix names newsletter sign-up prompts directly. Instead of full page interstitials, use banners that take up “only a small fraction of the screen”, and “You can reuse these small containers for other kinds of notifications, such as newsletter sign-up prompts.” Its common mistakes list starts with “Don't obscure the entire page with interstitials.” Google’s August 2016 announcement on mobile interstitials now opens with a note that “Some of the information may be outdated” and points to this page, which says its advice applies “to all kinds of promotional dialogs, including app install prompts.”

The vendor advice does not all point one way. Klaviyo’s guide to mobile popups says forms on common organic search landing pages “shouldn’t cover up your site’s content or disrupt a visitor’s experience”, and suggests a longer delay and a teaser shown first. Klaviyo’s newer mobile optimization article says to “Consider a Full page form for focus and clarity, especially on smaller devices.” For pages visitors reach from search, Google’s documentation is the one that speaks to search, and a form covering the whole page is the first item on its mistakes list. A flyout docked to the top or bottom of the screen, or a teaser that opens the form on a tap, sits closer to its banner advice.

Exit intent, in one paragraph

Exit intent is a trigger, not an offer: any of the six examples can be set to open when a visitor appears to be leaving. How the trigger is detected on desktop and on touch screens, and what an exit pop-up should say, is the subject of the exit intent popup guide.

Where the pop-up fits in a store’s messaging

A pop-up is often the moment a store learns who a visitor is; a browse abandonment email, for instance, only reaches shoppers the platform has already identified. After it, the welcome series carries the offer. Relvino treats pop-ups as one of three channels, alongside email and SMS, and decides per shopper which, if any, to use, inside guardrails the brand sets.

A sign-up is an address with consent attached

The six examples differ in offer, fields and timing, but each finishes in the same place: an address, a channel and a consent state stored on a list. What a submit rate counts before that point, a first step, a link click, a repeat submit, is form activity. Copy the examples for what they ask and how they say it; whether one worked is answered by the list it fed.

Frequently asked questions

What are website pop-ups?

They are boxes that open over a page to ask the visitor for something or tell them something: an email or phone number, an answer to a question, or an announcement. Not every pop-up is a marketing sign-up. Shopify Forms can capture email, SMS and WhatsApp marketing consent, but for a contact or lead generation form it offers a Don’t subscribe customers to marketing setting. When several pop-ups qualify for one visitor at once, Klaviyo shows the one with the highest display priority first, on four levels from Low to Highest, with Medium as the default.

Does submitting a pop-up subscribe a visitor to marketing?

It depends on the form’s consent setting. Shopify Forms offers two: On form submission, which signs the customer up for marketing implicitly when they submit, and On form submission if a box is checked, which adds a consent checkbox the customer must tick. Email consent needs the email field on the form, and SMS or WhatsApp consent needs the phone field. If the store uses double opt-in for SMS, Shopify sets the customer’s SMS consent state to pending, and the SMS partner is responsible for confirming the opt-in with the number and updating the status to confirmed.

Should an email pop-up also ask for a phone number?

Not on the same step, by Klaviyo’s guidance: it puts email first and the phone number on a later step. A store can also ask at a different time instead. Klaviyo’s targeting includes Show to email subscribers only, which shows a form to email subscribers who have not yet signed up for SMS, so a second, phone-only pop-up can reach people already on the email list. Klaviyo notes that single-step forms asking only for a phone number are effective for cross-channel audience acquisition, and forms with a tap-to-text button display only on mobile devices.

How often should an email pop-up show to the same visitor?

Klaviyo’s sample exit form shows again 30 days after a visitor closes it, against 90 for its welcome form. Setting the value to 0 days shows the form on every visit. A page-count rule resets with each browser session: per Klaviyo, someone who views 2 unique pages, closes the site and returns in a new window starts again at 1, and the same product page viewed twice counts once.

How do you A/B test an email pop-up?

Test one variable at a time. Klaviyo also runs an automated optimization test for display timing, which needs at least 400,000 profiles in the account and does not test page view rules. It runs in phases; a phase generally ends once at least 2 days have passed and the control and the variation being tested each have at least 600 views, though one can end after 1 day if the control is statistically significantly ahead. The test ends once Klaviyo has recommended a variation 3 times, or after 90 days. The form cannot be edited while it runs.

How long does it take to migrate from Klaviyo to Relvino?

The technical cutover takes about 30 minutes: connect the Shopify store, point the sending domain and SMS number, and shopper data ingests automatically. Revenue is then measured in a 14-day pilot. Before switching, it is worth recording which list each Klaviyo sign-up form submits to, since Klaviyo describes that list as where shoppers who fill out the form collect, along with each form’s frequency, device and audience settings, so the record of who signed up through which pop-up is kept.