How to add an exit-intent survey to your Shopify store

Nina De la Cruz Nina De la Cruz 5 min read

If you want to find out why people leave your store without completing a purchase, the only way to do that is by using exit-intent surveys.

Since Shopify doesn’t provide built-in features to create an exit-intent survey, we’ll show you how to create one using Getsitecontrol – a dedicated popup app for Shopify.

Here is what a typical Shopify exit survey designed in Getsitecontrol looks like:


Before publishing it on your website, you can adjust the content and the look of the survey, add an optional comment field and even offer a discount coupon in exchange for a response.

Keep reading to find out how it’s done.

Step 1. Log into your dashboard

Before getting started, we recommend finding Getsitecontrol in the Shopify App Store and adding it to your website.

Getsitecontrol app in the Shopify app store

The app comes with a free plan that allows you to create a non-targeted survey form that pops up as soon as someone lands on your website. The exit-intent trigger, however, is available in the premium plan for $19 per month.

Step 2. Select a survey template

Ready to get started? Then open your dashboard, click + Create widget and select Design ideas:

Getting started in Getsitecontrol

The app will take you to the popup template gallery, organized by use case categories. Select Use cases in the left-side menu and scroll down to “Website exit survey”:

Website exit survey templates

Feel free to explore the gallery and view each template in action. Since you’ll be able to change the content of the survey, at this point, you just need to select the layout to your taste. We recommend that you pick a fullscreen, a sidebar, or a modal popup:

Website exit survey template, live preview mode

Once you’ve found a template you like, click Take this template → to add it to the dashboard.

Step 3. Adjust questions and response options

First, take a thorough look at the question and adjust it to the goals of your research.

What do I mean by that?

Suppose you want to display the survey to the customers who added products to the cart but didn’t complete the purchase before leaving. In this case, you want to directly ask them about the reasons and include pre-written responses:

Editing the content of the survey in Getsitecontrol

Providing pre-written responses is crucial because you’re already interrupting someone’s intention to leave: the least you can do to maintain a good user experience on your website is to make that interruption quick and painless.

If you want, you can add an optional comment field to let customers share their thoughts. Just hit + Add field and select Text input:

Adding a new field to the form in Getsitecontrol

Then remove the checkmark from the Required box and type your text in the placeholder.

Text input field on a survey form

Once the customer submits their response, they’ll see a brief Thank you message. You can view and edit it on the second page of the popup:

Submission success message on a survey form

💡 Want to increase survey response rates? Then offer a discount code in exchange for the response. Make sure to make your offer clear on the first page of the form and display the code on the second page or send it via a follow-up email (in this case, you’ll also need to add an email capture field from the menu).

Step 4. Adjust the design of the survey (optional)

Now that you’re done with the content, you may want to work on the design of the form to make it better match your branding. For instance, you can change the font, style, and color theme using the Theme menu:

Adjusting the color theme of a survey popup in Getsitecontrol

You can also replace the default image with a photo of your products or another stock image. Just click on it and proceed to Change image; then explore your options:

Changing the image on a survey form in Getsitecontrol

At this point, your Shopify exit-intent survey is almost ready. The last step is to assign the right display trigger to make sure it pops up at the right moment.

Step 5. Set up the exit-intent trigger

Click Next → to switch to the Targeting tab. On this screen, you need to change 2 settings:

  1. Create a condition to only display the survey when the item count in the cart is higher than 0
  2. Add the exit-intent trigger (and remove the default trigger if there’s any)

Here is what the setup will look like:

Targeting settings for an exit-intent survey

With this setup, the survey will pop up for the customers who are leaving products in the cart – regardless of the page they’re leaving from.

If you want, you can choose to display your survey to those who have no products in the cart as well. To do this, just remove the condition for the minimum count of items in the cart. In this case, you might want to rewrite the survey question and responses. For example, you can ask “Haven’t found what you were looking for?” and then ask for the details.

💡 Another case for using an exit-survey on Shopify is to ask those who’ve completed their purchase how they discovered your store, what other products they used before, or how they’d evaluate their shopping experience. In this case, you need to only include your Thank you page in the first targeting field.

Publish your Shopify exit survey and start tracking results

If you’re done with the settings, click Next → a couple of times to finish editing and save the survey. Then follow the prompts to activate it on your website:

Widget activation in Getsitecontrol

Once the survey starts collecting views and responses, you’ll see numbers right on its card. Also, to view survey responses and see more detailed statistics, you can go to Responses:

Widget card overview in Getsitecontrol

When checking responses, you may be able to notice certain trends that will help you understand the reasons for cart abandonment in your store. For instance, you can filter responses by traffic channels or countries to see if there’s any correlation.

Form response analysis in Getsitecontrol

Then, based on your findings, you may want to revisit your ad campaign or shipping policy in an attempt to reduce cart abandonment in your store.

Find out why customers abandon carts in your store with a Shopify exit survey

By now, you have a clear understanding of how to create an exit-intent survey for Shopify, so go ahead and try it for yourself.

Keep in mind that the exit-intent technology only works on desktop devices, so you won’t be able to properly survey abandoning customers on mobile. However, you can create a separate survey for mobile shoppers who spent a certain amount of time in your store, and ask if anything prevents them from purchasing.

Nina De la Cruz is a content strategist at Getsitecontrol. She is passionate about helping small and medium ecommerce brands achieve sustainable growth through email marketing.

You’re reading Getsitecontrol usecase collection where we talk about the best practices for using website popups. This usecase is a part of Grow on Shopify section.

Get the print version

Download a PDF version of our use case for easier offline reading and sharing with coworkers.

Download PDF