An engaged customer list is a valuable asset. It’s no wonder most retail websites go for the obvious way of growing it: triggering a pop-up to everyone. Often seconds after someone lands, or as they go to exit.
Yet, asking for someone's email address moments after they arrive feels abrupt and annoying. It’s not the best start to a new relationship, is it?
The thing is, eCommerce makes these things easy to overlook. For most teams, a visitor's reaction to the pop-up is only perceptible through proxy metrics like close or conversion rate. This doesn’t give you the full picture. What’s not measurable is the number of people who were there to buy but didn’t, because of the email capture.
So we asked shoppers.
Our èƵ Gap report found that showing an email capture pop up too soon has a 1 in 5 chance of causing a visitor to abandon your site.
Let’s be clear. It’s not all email capture pop-ups that frustrate customers. Some are viewed as valuable and helpful, with conversion rates in high double figures. It all comes down to timing and context.
We’ve heard from the shoppers, so it’s only fair we did the same with the retailers. We spoke with nine ecommerce leaders to understand why a catch-all approach to email capture pop-ups is still the norm despite how they make shoppers feel.
The status quo of email capture
More than half of shoppers find pop-ups annoying. 1 in 5 dislike them so much it stops them from shopping. Yet, 79% of pop-ups are triggered within the first 30 seconds.
Is this the best approach we have in 2025 and beyond?
“How we shop online has changed a lot over the last 5-10 years, yet we’re still relying on the same tactics. Customers are more savvy, shopping across multiple websites and are protective over who they give their personal information to.”
Jackie Barnett, Head of CRM at MandMDirect
As Jackie points out, immediate email capture pop-ups might have worked 10 years ago, but today's shoppers are worried about data security. Plus, with overflowing inboxes, most people are reluctant to offer up their info. Time on site pop-ups might well be “the way we’ve always done it,” but it won’t wash with today’s customers.
Another reason the industry is stuck using an outdated method? FOMO.
“Most brands do email pop-ups early or on exit because it feels safe. Like, catch the visitor before they leave or bounce. It's a numbers game--more eyeballs, more chances.”
Natalia Lavrenenko, UGC manager/Marketing manager
It’s a numbers game when it should be a people game. Where’s the value in collecting 1000s of email addresses of annoyed people? Will they read your emails, or mark them as spam? That’s if the email’s even real.
So, what’s really at stake here?
“If you've got a lot of inbound organic traffic, combined with a good lead magnet, you can do well on that 1%-2% conversion on popups. The con is that you're annoying everybody else.”
Brenna Milleville, Founder at Elly and Grace
Capturing emails from a tiny percentage of all traffic while actively irritating the vast majority. It’s a pretty bad deal, and everyone knows it. So why is this method still being used?
“There's pressure to capture volume. Just like the pressure to send more marketing emails, even though we know it’s ineffective. It can be hard to justify more targeted efforts without data, especially when a belief persists that more activity = more revenue.”
Alfie Calas, Head of CRMat thortful
This is the reality for many ecommerce teams. Goals and targets that direct them away from doing better work.
It comes down to what can be measured and what data is available. While it’s obvious a smaller, engaged list will outperform a larger, disengaged one, having the data to prove it is the stumbling block.
“Customers who consent to email tend to have a higher LTV, so capturing their email is a priority. The more emails we have, the more customers we can keep speaking to, the more chance we’ve got at cost-effectively retaining them!”
Jackie Barnett, Head of CRMat MandMDirect
As Jackie shared, the rationale behind capturing every email address vs. just those that matter is the idea of chance.
Email capture pop-ups triggered after 30 seconds on-site equate to a scattergun approach based on a wish and a prayer. What’s ignored is the loss of potential immediate sales from the people put off.
This isn't news to ecommerce professionals, but it's not just the pressure of targets that has seen it become an accepted behaviour. It's the limitations of visitor data and the targeting options available in their tech stack.
“Most out-of-the-box tools only allow for a handful of triggers, so marketers are restricted in the ways they can be creative about approaching customers for email capture.”
Alfie Calas, Head of CRMat thortful
“The prevalent [email capture] methods don't consider the unique journey and mood of each visitor.”
Ben Read, CEO at Mercha
It’s worth reiterating; a web page tells you nothing about the customers’ buying stage.
So when tools are limited to triggering pop-ups based on page or time on site, you miss critical signals. Your experience becomes disconnected from the context of the visitor.
If retailers want to improve their relationship with customers, this status quo has to change. The focus needs to shift to the shopper and how they behave in the context of the whole experience. This is how we create higher opt-in percentages, less friction, and more meaningful lists.
The cost of generic email capture
So much effort goes into crafting the perfect welcome email series, the tone of voice, database segmentation, data security practices, etc. But so little goes into the moment when customers are asked to sign up. Yet there’s much at stake. 40% of shoppers say email capture pop ups make them less likely to buy.
“I've learned that how and when you ask for an email can make or break a relationship with customers…Focus on building relationships, not just lists.”
Asim Rahat, Founder at Oswin Hyde
Asim found out the hard way: get it wrong, and there’s rarely a second chance. A poorly-timed pop-up might get closed, but it also sets the tone.
So, what’s the real cost of generic, ill-timed pop-ups?
The negative shift in perception and lost sales you’ll never track.
“A huge issue is the unseen impact on people who find these pop-ups a total turn-off. What percentage of potential customers are being lost each day due to this one-size-fits-all approach?Plus, the cost of the voucher codes being handed out to customers who would have purchased anyway or had no intention of making more than one purchase.”
Jackie Barnett, Head of CRMat MandM Direct
Because generic email capture is a catch-all, it’s hard to work out what’s in it for the customer. Retailers resort to bribing visitors with discounts. This leads to a bad outcome: lost margin.
Offering discount codes in sitewide pop-ups might help you capture emails, but that’s because you’re giving money away to everyone by default. We’ve already explored the status quo of discounts in this article if you want more on the subject.
Fundamentally, generic email capture pop-ups cost you customer relationships, margins, and sales. But if this is the industry standard, what options do retailers really have?
Approaching discounts based on visitor intent
“Imagine someone is browsing sneakers, comparing a few models, maybe even checking delivery options. They’re clearly into it, but not quite ready. That’s when a “Hey! Want 10% off your first order?” feels helpful, not annoying.It’s like catching them at the right moment in-store, not shouting at them the second they walk in.”
Kardelen Ozyurda, UX & CRO Manager at PUMA
That’s the shift. Ask when it feels natural.
If you're not sure when these moments occur in your customer's online buying experience, consider when you might go over to a customer in a store setting to ask if they want more help, more information, or some material to take home. This exercise can also help you work out what to offer in return—whether that’s a newsletter, discount code, or a stock alert.
It should be obvious to the visitor why you need their email address, because there's value for both parties.
“We ask for push notification permissions after customers have done a 'high-value' action, like adding a product to their basket or purchasing. It's an easier value exchange when the customer can see the why behind giving their permission. We found the rate of acceptance skyrocketed when we did this.”
Alfie Calas, Head of CRMat thortful
If you find yourself cringing at the idea of only asking people at the end of the journey and not everyone, consider this: intent-based email capture reduces impressions by 50%. But it also grows sign-ups by 40%.
You know why?
Because it only triggers when appropriate.
“Context is everything. Email capture should be aligned with genuine value, like after engaging content, unlocking a discount, or adding to cart. The more it feels like a fair exchange, the better. The key is making it feel earned, not demanded.”
Niall Young O'Brien, CRM Manager at Represent
The more value you can convey, the higher the conversion rate of your email capture.
What’s wild is transforming something that actively annoys people into something that they are happy to sign up for, just by changing when you show it. It’s no longer one-sided.
What you say is just as important as when you ask. The more relevant what you say is to the individual, their mindset, and stage in the buying journey, the more likely you’re going to get your form filled in. Not only that, but relevancy has an added bonus when it comes to relationship building.
“Personalise the ask, tie it to behaviour, interest, or value. Relevance builds trust, trust builds lists. Ask when you’ve earned it. Timing + relevance = quality leads and higher conversion.”
Brad Ledson, Email Marketing & CRM Manager
Brad echoes what Jackie said earlier. Today's customers want, or even need, to trust the company asking for their information before they will give it away.
If you offer a discount for first-time buyers shortly after someone checks out as a guest, they aren’t going to have much faith in your brand. Likewise, if the visitor is in product research mode, offering a discount won't resonate as well as offering a handy guide to the product.
Retailers want relationships, not emails. But old tactics and poor tech haven’t kept up with how customers should be treated. The status quo prioritises capturing emails over customer experience and sales. To flip the script, retailers need to ask for emails at the right time in the right way, based on buyer intent.
Want to capture emails without subjecting your customers to generic, inappropriate pop-ups? Explore Email Capture with èƵ.
Thanks again to all the ecommerce experts who shared their thoughts with us:
, Head of CRM at
, Founder at
, UGC manager/Marketing manager at
, Head of CRM at
, CEO at
Founder at
, UX & CRO Manager - Ecommerce Europe at
, CRM Manager at
, Email Marketing & CRM Manager
Discounting is one of ecommerce’s oldest tactics. A proven lever for driving conversions, boosting AOV, and enticing new customer sign-ups. It’s a simple, effective value exchange. But it’s also safe to say many retailers often over-rely on it.
Our èƵ Gap report added another statistic to support this. In a OnePoll survey of online shoppers, 83% said they use discount codes when they would have bought at full price.
83%. That’s a staggering amount of lost margin. And all without any measurable benefit.
Of course, we have our view on the problem with the status quo of discount codes. But putting aside the strategic choice of whether or not to offer promotions, it’s our stance that retailers aren’t wrong to lean on discount codes. It’s one of the few trading levers that delivers both speed and impact.
The real issue isn’t that they are being used. It’s how they’re being used.
We wanted to understand how retailers think about this. Is this just the price of doing business? Do they see a way out? To explore this, we spoke with seven ecommerce experts about how discount codes work today, what’s broken, and what they wish they could do differently.
The status quo of discount codes
“Marketers congratulate themselves that their discount code campaign hit all the right KPIs when the reality is that many (all?) of those customers might just have converted without it. They’ve become a drug we can’t wean ourselves off.”
Marty Hayes, Senior Manager, Ecommerce Specialist
For many teams, discounting feels like second nature. The campaign goes out. The numbers tick up. Everyone breathes a little easier. But Marty’s observation challenges the feel-good metrics. When discounts are applied by default, without knowing who genuinely needs them, they risk being a comfort blanket for the brand more than a value-add for the customer.
“In my experience, today’s retailers have transformed discount codes from occasional promotions into permanent fixtures.”
Emma Olliff, Head of Digital and eCommerce
Emma highlights the same trend through a different lens. What began as a tool to incentivise behaviour has become hardcoded into the purchase journey. If a tactic is always on, it stops being a lever. It becomes the environment. That shift affects not just performance, but perception.
“We use pre-determined discount codes to get customers across the finish line. Our codes are $50 for $1000 or more, $100 for $4500 or more, and $200 for $7500 or more.”
Forrest Webber, Owner
Forrest's experience shows a different side of the same issue. His discount strategy is measured, value-tied, and deliberately structured. And yet, if given the choice, he wouldn't offer them at all.
“To be frank, I would not offer them. But in the competitive ecommerce landscape, sometimes you have to give something up to get something in return.”
Forrest Webber, Owner
That tension is telling. It reflects a broader discomfort that many ecommerce leaders feel: not that discounting doesn't work, but that it often doesn't feel right.
Discounting has moved from a considered lever to a habitual tactic. And when something becomes automatic, it stops being strategic.
The cost of blanket discounting
“We’ve always known there was an opportunity to improve our checkout conversion. We’ve tried offering discount codes and free delivery to everyone, but it comes at a huge cost, impacting profitability too much.”
Jay Shufflebottom, Trading Manager
Jay calls out the trade-off directly. Discounts may move the needle on conversion, but they can quietly crush profitability in the process. For teams under pressure to hit targets, it's easy to chase uplift without accounting for margin.
It’s a pattern familiar to many. The default, sitewide offer applied in the absence of context. In contrast to the automated, habitual discounting described earlier, Jay points to a more deliberate path. One that balances cost with confidence, rather than urgency with erosion.
“We want less compromise. We want to give customers more of what they need, the experience they want, and everything that will help them make a decision. We want to give discounts to customers when they need them the most.”
Jay Shufflebottom, Trading Manager
Jay isn’t just asking for better targeting. He’s pointing toward a deeper rethink - one where discounts become a relevant, timely nudge instead of a catch-all incentive. It’s not about discounting less. It’s about discounting with purpose. That purpose is as commercial as it is customer-centric: fewer wasted incentives, more protected margin, and stronger relevance in the moments that matter.
The message here isn't anti-discount. It's pro-precision. Jay wants to swap broad strokes for sharper tools. That means timing, not just triggers.
“It can be tough to track whether discounts are actually boosting long-term customer value or just attracting deal-seekers.”
Tom Armenante, Ecommerce Director
Tom raises the performance measurement problem. Without a clear view of incrementality, teams risk giving away margin to customers who never needed the extra push. In those moments, discounting becomes a tax on conversion, not a driver of it.
The costs of blanket discounting run deeper than most metrics can show. It may lift the top line, but often erodes everything underneath.
Customers come to expect discounts
“Retailers have created a dependency cycle where customers won’t buy without feeling like they’ve ‘won’ a deal. This addiction to discounting erodes brand value and trains shoppers to wait for sales rather than recognising true worth.”Emma Olliff, Head of Digital and eCommerce
Emma brings the brand lens. Performance isn’t just about the transaction. It’s about perception, loyalty, and price integrity. When your audience expects a deal, your full price loses credibility.
And this doesn’t just happen in-session. Ecommerce discounting has created a self-reinforcing problem. Retailers rely on always-on discounts, and in turn, shoppers have learned to search for discount codes before checking out.
“It’s become second nature once customers have added their chosen product to cart, to open up that new tab and search for ‘XXX discount codes’.”
Marty Hayes, Senior Manager, Ecommerce Specialist
We’ve all done it. That reflex to check for a code before checking out isn’t a fringe behaviour. It’s the new norm. And it’s not just driven by price sensitivity. It’s driven by pattern recognition. Shoppers have learned the rules.
In our èƵ Gap report, we also learned 85% of shoppers search for codes before buying. Yet 83% would have purchased without one.
“Customers become conditioned to expect discounts, reducing their willingness to buy at full price.”
Mathew Vermilyer, Senior Director of eCommerce Analytics and Optimisation
Mathew takes it a step further. Conditioning doesn't just shape behaviour. It reshapes value. The more shoppers wait for a deal, the less urgency – and perceived worth – the product holds.
“Codes are often leaked on coupon sites or found by AI chatbots.”
Niklas Bräutigam, Digital CRO Manager
Niklas highlights a structural flaw. Even when brands try to be selective, discount codes are rarely contained. They escape. They get scraped, shared, reused. That leakage doesn’t just undermine margin. It breaks the intended value exchange.
Customer behaviour isn’t fixed. But it’s shaped by what they see. And right now, they’re being trained to expect discounts by default. Smarter alternatives have to break that pattern.
So, what’s the alternative?
“It would also be great to test different discount structures like tiered offers or exclusive perks to see what actually works best. Discounts are a great tool, but they need to be used strategically.”
Tom Armenante, Ecommerce Director
There’s no call here to abandon discounting. But Tom makes the case for rebuilding it. The answer isn’t fewer offers. It’s smarter ones. Tiered incentives, exclusives and thresholds aren’t new ideas, but they are rarely tested with rigour.
If default discounting has created dependence, it’s in retailers’ interests to break it. Both in the timing and the nature of the offer.
“If we could offer free delivery only to people showing hesitancy or a high likelihood of abandoning the journey, that would be a game changer.”Jay Shufflebottom, Trading Manager
“What we need isn’t more codes, but smarter personalisation that rewards genuine loyalty instead of bargain-hunting behaviour.”
Emma Olliff, Head of Digital and eCommerce
Emma and Jay make the distinction clear. Targeting by context or real-time behaviour is better than targeting by default or simple rules. If a well-timed discount could be the difference between a sale or not, wouldn’t you want to offer it? Similarly, you may feel a loyal buyer deserves a reward, but not want to incentivise a one-time deal hunter.
“One idea might be to display a discount if a customer is really struggling at checkout, entering expired coupons, incorrect codes, rage clicking, showing exit intent, or spending an abnormal amount of time in checkout.”
Mathew Vermilyer, Senior Director of eCommerce Analytics and Optimisation
Mathew suggests one of the most practical shifts: linking offers to friction. A well-timed discount isn’t just persuasive. It’s supportive. It helps the customer keep going, rather than feeling pushed.
“Instead of offering the same code to everyone, retailers should provide personalised discounts only when necessary. I wish there was more use of Multi-Armed Bandits to continuously adjust discount offers based on real-time customer behaviour for better results.”
Niklas Bräutigam, Digital CRO Manager
Niklas brings in the optimisation layer. In other words, letting the algorithm run smarter tests by responding to customer behaviour, not just rules.
Personalisation doesn’t have to mean more segmentation. It can mean better responsiveness. When the system adapts based on what it sees, offers can stop being guesses.
All this hints that the future of discounting isn’t catch-all. It’s adaptive, behavioural, and already being tested by the brands getting it right.
Approaching discounts with intent
“We had one test with different variants. A showed everyone a delivery discount code, while B, C, and D only offered discount codes to those showing certain intent signals like hesitancy or abandonment.
As expected, both showed an uplift in sales, but the intent-based variants (B, C, D) delivered a much more profitable overall result with only a small difference to the top line uplift, which was a surprise.”
Jay Shufflebottom, Trading Manager
This is where the theory meets the real world. Jay ran the test on an alternative approach. And èƵ-based discounting didn’t just work. It got more from less. The business gained almost the same conversion uplift, but with significantly more profit.
And this doesn’t just apply to discount codes. Delivery incentives, reassurance messaging and urgency prompts all become more effective when triggered by behaviour, not assumptions. Two recent plays from Buy It Direct Group bring this idea to life:
Better Bathrooms increased conversion rate by 8% by focusing on visitors who had built purchase intent but were showing signals of abandonment. Offering discounts only when behaviour signalled uncertainty.
Appliances Direct saved 42% margin (with only a minimal drop-off in orders) by only discounting visitors with high intent to purchase who were displaying clear exit signals.
These plays proved that relevance, not reach, is what makes a discount powerful. èƵ-led discounting isn’t about doing more or less. It’s about doing what’s needed, only when it’s needed. The retailers doing this are seeing the impact where it counts.
Mathew neatly summarises the potential future of discount codes:
“Ideally, I would like retailers to have more dynamic and personalised discounting strategies, adjusting offers based on real-time customer intent, loyalty, and profitability.”
Mathew Vermilyer, Senior Director of eCommerce Analytics and Optimisation
Retailers aren’t turning their backs on discount codes though. Not yet. Even if they do see the cost of blanket offers, the risk of conditioning shoppers, and the danger of mistaking uplift for impact. Even if they are starting to call time on indiscriminate, always-on offers.
But while they are questioning how discounting is being used, they don’t see themselves completely abandoning it. Even if they want to. Instead, they want to redeem it. With smarter timing. With real relevance. With intent.
Want to protect your margin and personalise discounts at scale? Explore Discounting with èƵ.
Thanks again to all the ecommerce experts who shared their thoughts with us:
, Senior Manager, Ecommerce Specialist
, Trading Manager at
, Ecommerce Director at
, Head of Digital & eCommerce at
, Digital CRO Manager
, Sr. Director of eCommerce Analytics and Optimization
, Owner at
MANCHESTER, 02/05/24 - Made With èƵ have raised £1.5m to bring their segmentation platform and their vision for more appropriate eCommerce to market. Led by Mercuri, with Portfolio Ventures and previous investors Haatch following, the seed funding will support the fully remote team of 15 with their product, marketing and partnership efforts.
The idea came after the founder, David Mannheim, recognised a fundamental flaw in online retail strategies. After 15 years of optimising conversion rates in eCommerce, he realised the industry’s fixation on conversion metrics was the very thing holding it back.
“The current measures of success are the problem. Metrics like conversion rate, and therefore the actions retailers take to improve them, are short-term, retrospective and aggregated,” David explains. “This creates a race to the bottom. A numbers game that forgets how people really buy.”
Made With èƵ looks to change this by giving retailers two things—a more human, segmented perspective of their website performance and a predictive targeting mechanism that lets other marketing tech respond to customer needs in real time. The company reports this new intent-based approach creates a 9.4% average revenue uplift compared to generic optimisation.
“eCommerce is often guilty of trying to convert all customers at all times,” David states. “It focuses on the minority who are ready to buy, at the expense of those who are not. Our product helps retailers be appropriate for every customer. To progress both in-market and future buyers.”
The Beta launched in September has already helped customers like Ernest Jones, Bensons for Beds and Rapha align how they sell with actual buying behaviours. Nik Fletcher, Head of Digital Experience at Rapha, describes the product as “the closest we can get to understanding subconscious visitor signals, like we can in a physical store.”
The platform works by collecting data through an easy to implement script, modelling 250+ signals from online shoppers and returning predictive intent metrics in real time. Visitors are then automatically segmented based on their journey, momentum and how likely they are to buy, exit or return in the future.
This data and the targeting of segments are handled in platform, but the tool is designed to be complementary. With integrations to 40+ marketing tools, from ad networks to experience tools and CRMs, eCommerce teams can use Made With èƵ to deliver more appropriate shopping experiences or reengagement tactics with the tools they already use.
“Made With èƵ has embraced first-principle thinking and a decade of insights to shake up the vast eCommerce market,” comments Alan Hudson, Founding General Partner at Mercuri. “It empowers online commerce, making it more personal and focused on the quality of prospective customers. The product roadmap excites us and, importantly, those using it.”
“As a VC investor we look at a vast number of potential investments each year, however we only invest in less than a dozen. Made With èƵ's strategy is similar for its customers - to focus on the quality of the prospect, not the number of prospects."
With an existing user base in the UK, Denmark, Germany and the USA, the company aims to reach 100 global customers within two years. David Mannheim adds, "Made With èƵ is about more than a platform. It's about a movement to create a more personal, human eCommerce. This investment brings us closer to fulfilling our mission."
For media or product enquiries please contact Daniel Gripton, VP Marketing, on