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

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.

The app comes with a full-featured 14-day trial period. That’s enough time for you to publish the survey, start seeing responses, and decide whether you want to keep using it. No commitment is required.

Step 2. Select a survey template

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

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”:

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:

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:

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:

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

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:

💡 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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

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.

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.