2016 is almost halfway through, and it’s time to check some new stuff that is used by e-commerce sites this year. I have looked through over 500 sites from Alexa’s Shopping category to pick the most creative things shops are doing with their opt-in pop-ups. If you need some inspiration and want to see what’s working for your competitors, feel free to read on! I looked only at homepage promotional pop-ups and excluded informational opt-ins containing facts about shipping, cookies, notifications about services or delivery, etc.
Supersize it!
SUPERSIZED letters are very popular these. They look great in B&W and minimalistic design as it catches users’ attention right away. See how H&M used attractive typography on their homepage.
Move it!
Many websites are placing
opt-in pop-ups at one side to avoid the middle of the screen. It is a smart if you want targeted conversions. The good thing: Such pop-ups often don’t use shading or hiding the other parts of the screen. The advantage of such a method is simple.
The opt-in is not intrusive and does not hide important parts of the screen, so the users are not easily frustrated and annoyed by it. See how JCPenney uses a small pop-up on the right part of the screen.
Sears shows its pop-up on the left part of the screen and no shading is used.
Forever 21 chose to show its pop-up at the end. It allows using a bigger size of the pop-up, but it also lets visitors to browse through the site easily.
Chat it!
Websites that are actively using services of an online consultant put an invitation to
chat on a middle-placed opt-in to increase the chances of starting a conversation if compared to a traditional live chat tab or window on the bottom right part of the page. Toys R Us invites you to ask a specialist right after you enter their site.
Slogan it!
Using
creative wording and slogans instead of traditional call-to-actions (such as ‘Subscribe now’) is a more friendly way to invite a customer for some interaction. J.Crew says that customers are the first priority for their business and only afterward invites to subscribe.
Shape it!
More and more shops choose to use
interesting shapes for pop-ups.
Oriental Trading shows you a balloon-shaped pop-up on entering the shop.
Cole Haan designed a diamond-shaped pop-up, which nicely corresponds to the site’s layout as well:
Glasses USA uses a simple round form and a popping color, which looks rather attractive and unusual.
Or, you could go with a more creative solution! Burpee went further and put a funny fruit (or vegetable?) designed pop-up on their homepage.
Simplify it!
Another evolving trend is to
avoid showing complicated messages and describing why people should give you their emails, explaining the terms and conditions of offers, and so on. Sometimes you may simply ask a user if he or she wants to get in like Backcountry did.
Survey it!
A side effect of catching only a user’s email is that you don’t know anything about your potential customer. No gender, age, no nothing. More and more sites are
asking questions when inviting to subscribe. Although such a method means you use more steps, and it could influence conversions, you will still know more about a subscriber. This will help in creating targeted emails. Looks like Minted is using some sorts of ads that can’t be tracked through Google Analytics or other platforms, like TV, magazines, cards and envelopes, catalogs and brochures, or samples. Therefore, it asks users to say where they heard about the business.
Give it (away)!
A lot of both small and big retailers are offering to
participate in a giveaway or a contest just by subscribing to a newsletter. Gardener’s is offering a $500 credit for shopping on the homepage pop-up:
And, Ashford is giving away a gift card to one of their subscribers.
Note: Make sure running a contest among your email subscribers is okay with your local laws. Game it!
Gamification is a great way of engaging your site visitors. See how Personal Creations asks visitors to ‘win’ a discount:
After you ‘won’ a discount, you can claim it via email.
What Are 2016 Trends in Opt-In Usage?
Here is the list of e-commerce pop-up trends we found together: - Supersized typography is widely used for call-to-actions
- Alternative pop-up placement (up, bottom, left or right of the screen)
- Offering a live chat session in the centered pop-up
- Creative wording and slogans instead of traditional call-to-actions
- Unusual shapes of pop-ups
- Simplifying of call-to-actions on the pop-ups (yes-now options only)
- Surveys or questions about the users are put on pop-ups
- Visitors are offered to enter contests by subscribing
- Gamification is used to catch users’ attention
What’s the prettiest pop-up you have seen so far? Please share in comments.
About Author
Ksenia Dobreva is a devoted marketer with special love to blogging. She believes that content with several pinches of SEO and social can be a brilliant daily special. When she’s not working on
Amasty updates and blog posts, Ksenia runs a blog on movies and books and helps animal shelters.