Intent-led solutions

Retailers aren’t discounting to be generous. They discount to drive conversion. But when you throw codes at everyone, all the time, it stops working. And, they’re not always needed.

Our Intent Gap report found 83% of online shoppers say they’ve used a discount code when they would have paid full price.

That’s not incremental revenue you’re gaining. That’s margin erosion.

Worse still, this catch-all approach conditions customers to expect a discount. Once they’ve had that 10% off, they’ll wait for it next time. 

Shoppers aren’t fooled. They know the discount game. And they’re playing it better than most retailers. I’ve definitely logged in to my account, added some items to my basket and waited for that abandon basket email to come through. More than once. 

But we’ve already covered the problem with the status quo of discounting, both from the ecommerce leader’s perspective and why we think intent changes things. This piece is about how to solve it.

To be clear. We’re not saying discounting needs to stop. But it does need to change.

Rethink: Why you’re discounting 

Conversion rate matters. But it doesn’t tell the full story.

Of course if you give somebody a better deal they’re more likely to convert. So when it comes to the pros of discounting, we feel it’s smarter to be looking at metrics like:

• Incremental revenue: Are you gaining additional purchases, or giving away a % to those you’d have had anyway?
• Margin protection: Are discounts going to those who actually need them? Who wouldn’t purchase without?
• Intent to purchase: Are you helping someone over the line, or just handing out money to all?

Most retailers discount too early, too often, and to too many people. The fix isn’t more codes. It’s smarter targeting.

So where do you start?

Rethink: Who you’re discounting

At Made With Intent, we use a framework that maps where a visitor is in their buying stage (Engage, Build, Maintain, Convert), and what behavioural signals they’re showing (Focused, Struggling, Abandoning).

That gives us 12 core intent-based segments. And not all of them need a discount.

Start with visitors in the Maintain or Convert stages who are showing signs of struggle or abandonment. These people have intent. You’re just helping them follow through on it when they signal they’re hesitating, or going to leave.

On the other side, visitors in earlier stages or those showing focus don’t need an incentive nudge (at least not yet!). Give them one, and you’re spending margin unnecessarily.

Once you know who to target, the next step is how and when to show the offer.

Optimise: 2 ways to start discounting with intent

You don’t need to build something new. Just optimise what you’re already doing. Once you’ve tightened your audience, it’s time to rethink your triggers and delivery.

Play 1: Trigger discounts for high-intent abandoning visitors

Most retailers show discounts on landing. Pop-ups fire after 30 seconds, three pages, or immediately. But these rules have nothing to do with actual buying behaviour, they’re just proxies.

Instead, you should look for visitors with purchase intent. Then wait for signs of abandonment. Only then do you trigger the offer. And deliver it to visitors directly on site - not through an email sign-up campaign.

Appliances Direct adopted this play and focused their incentives on the Convert Abandon segment, also known as visitors showing high intent but clear exit signals. By targeting only this segment, they saved 42% in margin while maintaining conversion rates. See how Appliances Direct did it.

Better Bathrooms also used this exact approach to great effect. By targeting Maintain Intent Abandon visitors showing hesitation on PDPs, they triggered context-aware discounts only when abandonment looked likely. The result? A 25.6% increase in conversion rate without widening the net. Read more about Better Bathrooms' approach.

Why does this work?

• These visitors are already ready to buy, but something’s causing them not to
• You reduce giving away unnecessary discounts to casual browsers
• You create a smoother journey (no email sign-up delay, no inbox hunting for a code)

Besides, our Intent Gap report found 85% of online shoppers leave the site just to go find a discount code anyway. So either don’t make blanket offers, or don’t make them. Serve it when it matters instead.

Play 2: Offer timely incentives for struggling visitors

Not every visitor needs a discount. But some need a little help before they slip away.

While we recommend most retailers start by targeting Abandon signals, there’s a critical opportunity earlier in the journey. Struggling visitors. Our Maintain and Convert Struggle segments are shoppers who have shown clear intent, but are starting to lose confidence or momentum.

By detecting this behaviour in real-time, you can intervene. Either with the same promotional offer or a lighter-touch incentive, such as free delivery or even a lower-value discount.

These nudges help prevent drop-off before it turns into abandonment, while letting you reserve larger offers for those who really need them.

You can also factor in a visitor’s intent to return to site in the future. If someone is abandoning with high purchase intent but is unlikely to come back, you might want to push a stronger offer.

This is where the nuance of real-time intent shines. You’re not treating everyone the same. You’re responding with the right kind of support at the right time.

The core segments in our framework make these two plays possible with minimal effort. But the power of real-time intent data can take discount strategies even further.

Grow: What comes next

By this point, you’ve cut waste and improved impact. But what if you could push performance even further without giving away more?

Once you’ve refined your targeting and timing, the next stage is relevance and context. This is where Optimise starts becoming Grow.

Made With Intent lets you track affinities to products, categories, price points or brands based on rising purchase intent. You can use this to personalise the discount depending on visitor interests or your margin. 

Seasalt Cornwall used this data to deliver category-based discounts only to visitors in the Maintain Abandon segment - those with clear product interest showing signs of hesitation. The result? An 89% uplift in conversion rate by focusing offers where they mattered most. Read the full Seasalt case study.

But this is just one way of interpreting it. Other examples include:

• Varying the discount amount based on product margin (e.g. 20% off dresses, 5% off jewellery)
• Offering an alternative incentive, such as free delivery on larger high-ticket goods, to further protect margin
• Using copy that makes the discount feel personal (“Still thinking about that top? Here’s 10% off”)

Now you’re not just nudging in the right time and place, but with the right offer for them. Tailoring both incentive type and depth to how your visitors are behaving, and where they are in their journey.

This is where smarter discounting becomes smarter merchandising.

What happens when you get this right?

When intent-based discount works, you don’t see conversion drop. You see:

• Stable conversion overall (because the people who don’t need a discount don’t miss it)
• Higher conversion for those who do receive the discount
• More incremental revenue and margin saved

You also build a better customer base. One that’s not hooked on the discount drug.

Discounting doesn’t have to feel like a trick. It can feel like understanding your visitor, and using the levers you have available to you.

Your first 3 steps

If you're looking to make an impact fast, here’s where to begin:

1. Replace early blanket discount pop-ups with intent-based triggers
2. Offer high-intent abandoning visitors a discount while they’re in-session
3. Intervene with high-intent struggling visitors, offering the same or a lighter incentive

From there, you should explore your segments further. Looking at affinity and intent to return data to identify the next priority.

This isn’t about giving more or even less discounts. It’s about giving smarter discounts, only when they make a difference.

Want to see how Made With Intent makes this possible? Get a demo of our real-time intent agent.

The status quo of ecommerce discounting is broken.

A pop-up offering 10% off before you’ve even looked around. A banner shouting about today’s limited-time deal (limited or not). Indiscriminate abandon cart emails. If you’ve ever shopped online you’ve seen these tactics. If you work in the industry, you’ve likely done at least one of them.

Discount codes are everywhere. Retailers use them to drive urgency, clear stock, reward loyalty and, more often than not, to hit this week’s revenue target.

But, despite its shortcomings, discounting itself is a strategic choice. Discount codes themselves aren’t the problem. The way we use them is.

We recently shared the floor with retail professionals to hear the in-house view on ecommerce’s discount dilemma. This is our perspective. One that reframes why discounting, as it stands, is failing both customers and brands.

Why online retailers rely on discounting

It’s not hard to understand why discounting is so widespread. Ecommerce teams have a limited set of levers they can pull. When the goal is fast execution and short-term impact, discount codes often win by default.

They’re fast to deploy. Easy to measure. Valuable to customers. And they usually produce some sort of lift.

But that default setting is precisely the problem. Discounting isn’t being used strategically, it’s being used generically.

Most retailers still rely on a narrow set of triggering rules. Things like page type, category or product viewed, basket value or visitor type (e.g. new vs. returning).

These are blunt instruments. They don’t reflect how someone is behaving. They don’t consider their mindset. And they certainly don’t factor in what stage of the buying journey that visitor is in.

So when these rules are used to trigger promotions, it means most discount codes are offered to the wrong people, at the wrong time.

The immediate problem isn’t that retailers are defaulting to discount codes for short-term revenue gains. The problem is that these discount code campaigns aren’t run effectively due to the current limitations of triggering rules that retailers have at their disposal. And this leads to issues.

Let’s be honest. Blanket discounting does one thing really well: erode margin.

Need more proof? The Intent Gap report found that 83% of online shoppers have used a discount code even when they were ready to pay full price. That’s not incremental. That’s revenue left on the table.

Mass discounting also trains customers to expect a deal. It teaches them the rules to trigger offers. It hurts brand perception. And makes it harder to measure what’s actually working. After all, not every abandonment is price anxiety. Not every visitor needs a financial incentive.

If you can't time your discounts to context, you're not optimising their delivery. You're often just giving them away. This is something intent can solve. 

Why intent data changes things

People don’t buy in fixed journeys. And they definitely don’t all behave the same just because they’re on the same page.

But today’s discount logic doesn’t recognise that. A new customer on a PDP gets the same code as a casual browser with no interest in buying. A focused, high-intent visitor gets the same popup as someone barely engaged.

This is the real issue: discount codes are being fired without understanding what the visitor actually needs. What the context behind their actions is.

Starting to think in terms of customer intent fixes that, by letting you understand not just who the visitor is, but what they need in that moment. Regardless of where they are on site.

This is what our real-time intent agent unlocks for ecommerce teams. But I’m here to cover the change in thinking, not our product.

With intent data, you can make predictions on your visitors’ likely actions. You can identify not only the current stage of their purchase journey and what you need to do for them, but behavioural signals on whether they’re focused or struggling.

By starting to think about discount codes through this lens, you can move from fixed experiences. You can start to:

• Identify which visitors are likely to abandon but are also likely to convert if nudged
• Spot hesitation in real-time and respond with the right incentive
• Avoid discounting visitors who would have bought anyway

While the possibilities vary by brand and category, this unlocks some fairly universal opportunities. If you are going to do discounts, there are a couple of moments you really should be targeting. And they aren’t linked to page type or other retrospective data.

Two real-time moments where discounts works wonders

Discounting becomes impactful when it's tailored to real-time visitor context. We’ve seen this play out again and again across brands, and across shoppers’ journeys.

With this in mind, two of our Intent Segments are not only popular with our customers, but effective targets for discounting:

Convert | Abandon

• These are visitors deep in the journey, showing signs of exit
• They’re likely to buy, but not guaranteed
• A timely incentive here can rescue revenue

Maintain | Abandon

• Visitors who’ve built intent but are showing abandon signals
• They might be looping, hesitating, or comparing
• If their likelihood to return to the site is also low, a discount here protects the sale

These are moments when a discount can pay off incrementally. And while they are informed by visitor actions, they are not triggered directly by them but the context behind them.

While our product buckets visitors into Intent Segments from our framework, it’s just a starting point. Intent data can give ecommerce teams an abundance of datapoints to combine with their existing insights, from affinities to specific behavioural predictions. 

This gives retailers the flexibility to trigger discounts for the most appropriate segments to maximise incrementality. All based on where they are in their buying journey and how they are feeling in real-time.

This approach isn’t theoretical. Appliances Direct used this logic to save 42% in margin by only offering discounts to visitors with high purchase intent showing abandon signals. Seasalt Cornwall saw an 89% uplift in conversion by combining these segments with affinity data.

Flipping the traditional discount logic

Let’s take things further and rethink three common discount triggers based on the typical rules.

New customer discounts. Just because someone is new doesn’t mean they’re unsure. Instead, look for signs of struggle. Not all new visitors need a discount to convert.

Product-based discounts. Some people are already sold. Others never will be. Target hesitation, not just product type. Sell the value, not the price.

Time on site discounts. Time alone isn’t a sign of purchase intent. Look for signals like repeated views, erratic navigation or clear signs of exit.

To summarise, discount codes aren’t evil. The way we do them is often just…a little lazy.

Discount codes should be used to influence behaviour, not to cover for a lack of understanding. They should incentivise action, not act as a tax on uncertainty.

The good news? Most ecommerce teams don’t need different discounts. They just need better timing. Smarter triggers. And a shift in mindset.

Rethinking retail discounting doesn’t mean giving it up. It means doing it with more precision, more relevance, and more respect for the customer journey. It means delivering them with intent.

Want to see what discounting with intent looks like in action? Learn more about how Made With Intent makes it possible.

Visitors filling up their carts before abandoning them is a constant source of frustration for ecommerce retailers. Reducing cart abandonment is often at the top of to-do lists.

The way we both see and deal with this challenge needs a rethink.

Not all visitors reaching the checkout stage have the same intent or are in the same stage of their buying journey.

Data shows that intent at checkout varies, and therefore nuanced strategies are required to truly understand and address this persistent problem.

Key takeaways

Focusing on intent to combat cart abandonment

1. Data shows varied intent at checkout. Our LLM data validates distinct differences in intent at the checkout stage.
2. Higher intent equals higher purchase likelihood. Visitors with stronger purchase intent are more likely to complete their transactions.
3. Tailoring treatment based on intent. Different intent levels require different approaches to maximise conversion rates.
4. Checkout visitors differ from browsers. Visitors at checkout are not the same as those just browsing; treating them differently is crucial.
5. Reconsidering the traditional checkout mindset. Evidence from our LLM suggests that people buy in stages and should be treated based on their intent throughout the buying journey.

So, let’s dive in–starting with the big question…

Abandon the old way?

Should ecommerce ditch the traditional checkout mindset?

We're all familiar with the traditional checkout funnel:

Conversion rate optimisation specialists have spent years showing that navigation complexity, weak CTAs, slow page loads, ambiguous pricing, insufficient product information, site security, and cumbersome checkout processes all contribute to cart abandonment.

Yet it's easy to overlook a critical factor: intent.

Intent is everything

Traditional approaches have treated every visitor at checkout as if they are the same.

Some are ready and willing to buy, while others are still browsing or wrestling with indecision. Missing these differences means missing out on potential sales.

Sophisticated data models now give us more precise insights into visitor behaviour.

The conventional checkout mindset is outdated. Our data-driven insights reveal that buying is a process occurring in stages, not on product pages.

Visitors at checkout can range from curious to committed. Recognising and acting on these differences is essential.

High Intent = High conversion & lower likelihood of cart abandonment

Visitors with a strong intent to purchase are focused shoppers. Even though they may move items in and out of the cart, they are progressing steadily towards conversion with a low likelihood of abandoning.

Conversely, low-intent visitors often abandon their carts.

Treating both groups the same means irritation for those with high-intent (and often unnecessary discounting), and ineffective messaging for those with low-intent.

High-intent visitors crave a seamless, swift checkout process. Low-intent visitors might need a nudge—a well-timed discount or additional information could tip the scales.

In-session strategies

Maximising conversion through intent recognition

Take a look at the graph below. It shows visitors ranked by their likelihood to buy, from lowest (red) to highest (green), and how well they actually convert (CVR).

Our data reveals a clear distinction: from cautious 'considerers' (red) to decisive 'buy-now' enthusiasts (green).

High-intent shoppers boast an impressive 77% conversion rate, while low-intent browsers lag behind at 63%.

Intent is a critical factor to conversion.

It’s not just about items in a cart; understanding intent helps us tailor our approach—guiding the unsure and facilitating seamless transactions for the ready-to-buy.

Browsers vs Buyers

Tackling cart abandonment: The spectrum of intent in segments

There's a nuanced spectrum underlying audience segments and their varied intents.

Grouping your audience by states: focused, struggling, or abandoning; allows you to target each segment uniquely and intervene effectively, even during the checkout phase.

You can dig into the intent-based segmentation framework for a clear approach to optimise your ecommerce strategy, including tackling cart abandonment.

Actionable tips

Implementing intent-driven practices

• Segment Visitors by Intent: Use analytics to categorise visitors by behaviour and intent.
• Tailor Checkout Experience: Customise the checkout for different intent levels. Provide extra assistance for low-intent visitors and streamline the process for high-intent visitors.
• Monitor and Adjust: Keep an eye on your checkout performance and tweak based on intent data.

Tools and resources

Enhancing execution with precision

• CRM Systems: Integrate with intent data to personalise visitor experiences.
• Heatmap Tools: Tools like Hotjar can help you understand visitor interactions on the checkout page.

Conclusion

Leveraging intent for ecommerce success

Understanding and acting upon intent isn’t just beneficial—it’s essential for driving conversions.

By adopting an intent-based approach, ecommerce retailers can enhance customer satisfaction and achieve sustainable growth. 

So, harness your data insights, personalise the shopping experience, witness fewer abandoned carts and watch your checkout process prevail.

The ecommerce landscape has evolved dramatically over the past decade. Technological advancements, shifts in customer behaviour, and global events like the COVID-19 pandemic have accelerated online retail.

An estimated 24 million online stores worldwide compete for attention and spending. Platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce have simplified online retail, empowering entrepreneurs and established brands to establish their digital presence.

But a significant challenge bubbles underneath all this progress: competitive advantage through pricing strategies—a race to the bottom.

In this race, profit margins are sacrificed in favour of cutting prices to stay relevant and keep conversions high. Unfortunate side effects like eroding brand value and conditioning customers to expect discounts as the norm have been accepted at the price we pay to play.  

For many ecommerce brands, this has become a dangerous balancing act: how to drive sales without compromising profitability or brand integrity.

But there are ways to leverage discounting, not as a desperate measure but as a strategic growth lever.

You can enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty by tailoring discounts to customer behaviours while safeguarding profit margins.

In this article, we’ll explore the challenges ecommerce retailers face with traditional discounting strategies, examine segmenting and targeting your audience effectively and discuss the impact of strategic discounting on brand perception and profitability.

Protecting your margin

The problem

• The cost of goods is skyrocketing
• Prices are constantly under pressure due to intense market competition
• Brands feel compelled to sacrifice margins to maintain or grow market share through widespread discounting 

Discounts can give an immediate boost to sales figures, but often don’t contribute to sustainable growth. They merely accelerate revenue to meet short-term goals.

The solution

Implementing a real-time segmentation framework.

Their current state (whether focused, struggling, or abandoning), and most crucially, their intent, tells you when to step in and offer a discount or whether you can safely stay out of your customer’s way and allow them to purchase.

By segmenting your audience based on these stages, you can identify where customers stand in their buying journey, allowing you to make more appropriate offers.

This segmentation can be integrated into on-site discounting strategies and CRM platforms for managing discounts in behavioural campaigns like abandoned cart communications.

As an example, customers showing focused behaviour with a high intent to purchase may not need discounts to convert. In such cases, retailers can opt to hide or reduce discounts, preserving margins and focusing on opportunities for incremental sales. 

By strategically understanding customer intent, ecommerce brands can steer clear of the race-to-the-bottom mindset prevalent in the market.

This approach ensures profitability while still meeting customer needs effectively.

Protecting your brand

The problem

• Online retail competition intensifies
• Retailers increasingly rely on promotions
• Constant and widespread discounting
• Brands are trapped in a cycle of perpetual discounts to outdo previous campaigns

Over-reliance on discounts damages brand perception. Many customers now question the authenticity of pricing and categorise some brands as “discount retailers.”

This shift in customer perception threatens brand reputation, especially for retailers focused on quality and higher price points, threatening their long-term growth.

The solution

Discounting based on intent to purchase.

The issue isn’t discounting itself but how we execute it. Generic and blanket discounting strategies need to be replaced with strategic discounting reserved for those who actually need it.

Pinpoint where customers are in their buying journey precisely—whether they’re engaged, hesitating, or at risk of abandoning their carts—and, crucially, their purchasing intent.

Use real-time behavioural data to offer discounts only to those showing low intent, are struggling, or highly likely to abandon. Strategically deploy discounts to these specific customer segments at the right moments.

This approach reduces discounting noise, protects brand perception, and responsibly uses discounts as a strategic tool for sustainable growth.

By demonstrating a nuanced understanding of customer preferences and needs, you can not only meet immediate sales goals but also build trust and foster loyalty.

Discount smarter, not harder

Whether you’re protecting margins or brand reputation, it’s clear ecommerce is stuck in a cycle of dysfunctional discounting.

Effective discounting isn’t just about slashing prices randomly; it’s about timing and relevance.

You need a game plan that identifies where customers are in their buying journey and whether they’re keen to buy or still window-shopping.

Instead, tap into intent data to figure out who needs that little nudge and when.

Segments for discounting

Here are a few segments you can implement to identify those that might need a helping nudge.

Basket Pauser

• Context: Abandon behaviour
• Summary: These customers have built up a basket and are now showing signs that they’re likely to leave and may return
• Objective: Maintain Intent. What can you do to encourage this behaviour, e.g., save items for later (with email), sign up for payday reminders, etc., or convince these customers that now is the right time to purchase?

Basket Abandoners

• Context: Abandon behaviour and unlikely to return
• Summary: These customers have built up a basket and are now showing signs that they’re likely to leave and not return
• Objective: Maintain Intent. This is likely one of the last chances you have to persuade these customers; think about appropriate messaging that can reduce their likelihood of exit. This is the perfect segment for you to highlight immediate value. It’s extra time, and it’s probably your last-ditch attempt to keep them and persuade them to convert.

Struggling Buyers

• Context: Struggle
• Summary: Customers likely on the checkout who are showing struggle behaviours
• Objective: Convert. They’re struggling and not checking out. Why? Are they checking discounts? Rather than push them through a checkout when you know this journey isn’t typical, how can you allow for the fact that they don’t seem ready to buy? Without cutting the checkout off, of course. Understanding and addressing this hesitancy is key to converting stalled checkouts into successful transactions.

Hesitant Buyers

• Context: Struggling, not in Committing
• Summary: Customers who showed they are ready to convert but are no longer on the checkout and who are showing struggling behaviours
• Objective: Convert. The challenge with this segment is understanding and addressing the underlying anxieties that hold them back. That can be a set of questions you’re not answering effectively enough, concerns about the product, price, and trust in the brand. How can you influence their experience to remove any anxieties causing hesitation and promote motivating factors?

Last Chancers

• Context: Abandon, low expected return
• Summary: Customers who showed signs they wanted to convert but are now abandoning the journey and are unlikely to return
• Objective: Convert. These customers have demonstrated high levels of intent but are unlikely to return and are predicted to exit soon. This is likely one of the last chances you have to persuade these customers; think about appropriate messaging that can be used to reduce their likelihood of exiting. This is the perfect segment for you to highlight immediate value. It’s extra time and probably your last-ditch attempt to keep them and persuade them to convert.

Segments to avoid discounting

Here are some segments that might not need a discount, but may need other nudges instead.

Unengaged Browsers

• Context: Struggle Behaviour with active events in Browsing (min. 10 events)
• Summary: These customers are starting to interact with the website, but they’re not progressing from browsing and actively engaging in product discovery (yet). Unengaged Browsers are characterised by their lack of interaction beyond basic page views.
• Objective: Engaging this segment means understanding why they’re hesitating, piquing interest and encouraging a deeper exploration of your site. Inspire these customers with categories/products to help progress them in their journey. They interact with the website but haven’t moved into a Refining Buying Stage.

Basket Convincers

• Context: On a PDP with a high affinity for the current product but has not yet added to the basket
• Summary: These customers are on a PDP, with a strong affinity for the product they’re looking at and high Add to Basket activity, but they have not yet added any items to the basket
• Objective: Build Intent. How can these customers be convinced to Add to Basket? Consider product-specific anxieties and motivators that can be used to influence them. They need just the right nudge to transition from interest to action. The challenge lies in identifying and addressing the factors that can convert this hesitation into decisive action.

Struggling Evaluators

• Context: Customers who haven’t added a product to the basket, have viewed multiple PDPs and haven’t built an affinity for any products
• Summary: Broad Evaluators are the *tire-kickers*. They are shoppers immersed in the evaluation stage, showing an interest in what your brand offers but without any clear direction or behaviour towards purchase.
• Objective: Build Intent. The objective is to guide deeper engagement with your brand first and then your products, not the other way around. They need help finding the right product. They need ease of comparison but also content to help them understand what product is right for their needs.

Product Persuaders

• Context: Showing struggle behaviours, haven’t added any products to cart, have built product affinity/affinities but are losing momentum
• Summary: Customers who have built a product affinity but have not added any items to the basket and whose journey is showing signs of slowing down / heading in the wrong direction
• Objective: Build Intent. Their behaviour suggests a moment of hesitation or reconsideration. They have potential interest in specific products or categories but also need further persuasion or reassurance. How can you help these customers get back to a product and persuade them to actually add to basket?

Focused Shoppers

• Context: Positive behaviours
• Summary: These shoppers are on the cusp of conversion, are progressing nicely and are making their final decision(s) before moving to checkout
• Objective: Maintain Intent. Keep these customers on track (probably just leave them alone or use subtle enhancements to the journey), and if needed, help move them into checkout. Make things more accessible, and gently persuade them over the finish line.

Ready Returners

• Context: Landed back on site (at least 2nd session) and have a high likelihood of committing
• Summary: Landing page customers who have returned to the site and, after showing high intent to purchase, are likely back to purchase again.
• Objective: Maintain Intent. Their behaviour is a testament to their previous unresolved actions. Having already shown high levels of engagement, the challenge now lies in nudging them over the final hurdle to complete their purchase. Try to understand why this behaviour exists. How can you get these customers back into their product purchase journey without distracting them when they return?

Embracing change for sustainable growth

You don’t have to get trapped in that discounting death spiral - it’s possible to use discounting as a strategic tool.  

Understanding customer intent allows you to be hyper-targeted with your discounting, protecting your margin and elevating your brand reputation.  

Dig deeper into our intent-based segmentation framework here, or get into some execution strategies for making discounting work harder.

Here’s to shaping the future of discounting—one smart discount at a time.

Pop-ups. Seen as the noisy, uninvited guests of the digital world by customers and a tool for list growth and revenue generation by ecommerce teams.

In the race for conversion, many ecommerce sites bombard visitors with pop-ups from the get-go, hoping sheer volume will lead to clicks and sales.

This “more is more” attitude often results in visitors reflexively closing pop-ups in irritation and possibly abandoning the site altogether. 

Pop-ups can boost engagement and conversion rates when used effectively, but they often miss the mark.

Key takeaways

Pop-up success relies on careful timing

1. Data shows pop-ups are most useful at evaluation stages. Our LLM data shows that pop-ups in the sample were most effective during evaluation for the loyalty campaigns being run.
2. Pop-ups shown too early get ignored. When triggered too early, such as during browsing stages, pop-ups we closed without action taken.
3. Contextual nudges can maximise conversions. Nudges can significantly boost conversions when they’re used in conjunction with intent.

Let’s dive in.

The pop-up pitfall

Ignoring Intent

Many ecommerce teams focus on showing pop-ups to a broad audience early in the customer’s journey.

This rush for conversions often leads to visitors automatically closing pop-ups without reading them.

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Pop-ups should be paired with an understanding of customer intent, only displayed for segments of your audience that need the additional nudge.

To avoid the use of pointless pop-ups, we must provide them to visitors when they’re most receptive.

By leveraging intent data, we can pinpoint the exact stage and intent level where visitors are most likely to engage with a pop-up.

Loyalty program pop-up

The early bird gets... ignored?

Analysing the data for a series of loyalty programs, we tracked the display of pop-ups offering points for spending more.

Despite the attractive offer, 98.5% of visitors ignored the pop-ups because it appeared too early—during the browsing stage.

However, when shown during the evaluating stage, visitors were 71% more likely to engage, highlighting the importance of timing and intent. 

Though the number of visitors at the evaluation stage varies, analysing this data helps find the best triggers and timings for pop-ups.

These pop-ups are crucial in influencing the buying journey, so it’s essential to show them at the right moments to effectively engage visitors on the site. 

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The role of nudges

Conversion optimisation

Nudges, like pop-ups, are key for guiding visitors toward buying by providing important information.

Visitors who see too many pop-ups too early can be overwhelmed and driven away. Instead, spreading personalised information throughout their journey can make a big difference.

Case in point

Digging into the data, an experiment with nudges around product/service USPs based on intent levels saw conversion rate jump by 20% (US) & 44% (UK). 

Aligning pop-ups and nudges with the visitors’ buying stage and intent boosted engagement and conversion rates.

Instead of showing pop-ups to all users right away, a more targeted strategy delivers better results.

Actionable tips

Implementing an intent-based pop-up strategy

1. Analyse Intent: Use analytics tools to gauge your visitors’ intent level and buying stage when interacting with your pop-ups and nudges.
2. Tailor Pop-Ups: Customise pop-ups to appear at the most appropriate journey stage, reflecting their intent.
3. Test and Optimise: Continuously test and refine the timing and content of your pop-ups to maximise engagement.

Recommended tools and resources

• Google Analytics 4 (GA4): Track visitor behaviour and intent to refine your pop-up strategy.
• Google Tag Manager (GTM): Set up tracking for your current pop-ups and include intent data as parameters, allowing you to analyse the data in GA4.

Pop-ups can be a useful tool to leverage engagement and interception strategies.

When timed right and aligned with intent, they can enhance the buyer journey and boost conversions.

By respecting the buyer journey and offering value at the perfect moments, pop-ups can transition from a source of frustration into tools for success.