Can I add an email popup to Shopify without an app?

Not a real popup. Shopify themes include a newsletter signup section you can place on a page, and Shopify stores those signups as customers who accept marketing. A popup that appears on a trigger (a delay, scroll or exit intent) needs a third-party app or custom theme code.

Where do popup signups go?

In Poppy, every submission appears on the Submissions page, which you can export as CSV. If you connect Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Omnisend, Brevo or a webhook, signups are also sent there within seconds.

Why isn't my popup showing?

Check four things: the Poppy app embed is on in your theme, the campaign status is Active, you're testing in a private window (your normal browser remembers that you closed or submitted it), and the trigger condition has been met, for example the delay has passed or you've scrolled far enough.

How long should the popup delay be?

There's no universal number. A delay of several seconds or a scroll trigger gives visitors a moment to see the page first. Exit intent waits until they're leaving. Test two versions with an A/B split rather than guessing.

How-to

How to Add an Email Popup to Shopify (Step by Step)

By the Poppy team · September 24, 2026

Shopify doesn't have a built-in popup builder. Your theme can show a newsletter signup section on a page, but a popup that appears after a delay, on scroll or when someone is about to leave needs an app. This guide walks through adding an email popup to a Shopify store with Poppy, from install to your first test signup.

Short version: install a popup app, turn on its app embed in your theme, create an email capture campaign, choose a trigger and an offer, connect your email tool, set the campaign to Active and test it in a private browser window.

Before you start: decide on the offer

People trade an email address for something they want. For most stores that's a first-order discount, free shipping, or early access to a launch. Decide this first, because it shapes the headline, the button text and whether you need a discount code.

If you'd rather not discount, a clear promise can still work: restock alerts, a size guide, or "new drops before anyone else".

Step 1: Install the app

Install Poppy from the Shopify App Store. It starts with a 3-day free trial, then costs $25 a month. Billing runs through your Shopify account.

Step 2: Turn on the app embed

Shopify apps add storefront code through an app embed in your theme. Until it's on, no popup can appear.

In Shopify admin, go to Online Store → Themes and click Customize on your live theme.
Open App embeds in the left sidebar.
Switch on Poppy and click Save.

Poppy's dashboard shows whether the embed is active. If it isn't, the banner has an Enable now button that takes you to the right place.

Step 3: Create an email capture campaign

Create a new campaign and choose Email capture as the popup type. (Other types include SMS capture, spin the wheel, exit intent, countdown timer, discount, cart abandonment, survey and age verification. The steps are the same.) You can start from a template or from scratch.

In the visual editor, write the heading, the supporting line and the button text, and set your colours and image. A few things that help:

Put the offer in the headline ("Get 10% off your first order"), not in small print.
Ask only for an email. Every extra field costs signups. Add a name field only if your emails use it.
Switch to mobile preview before you save. Most store traffic is on phones, and a popup that looks fine on desktop can crowd a small screen.

Step 4: Choose when it appears

The trigger decides when the popup opens. Poppy offers:

Time delay: opens after the visitor has been on the page for a set number of seconds.
Scroll percentage: opens once they've scrolled a set share of the page, so it reaches people who are reading.
Exit intent: opens when the cursor heads for the browser bar on desktop, or on the back gesture on mobile.
Click element: opens when someone clicks an element you choose by CSS selector, such as a "Join our list" link in your footer.
Cart update: opens when the cart changes, for example after an item is added.
CTA button (floating): shows a small floating button, and the popup opens only when the visitor clicks it. This option appears when you edit a saved campaign.

A good first setup is a short time delay or a scroll trigger for your main signup offer. Add a separate exit-intent campaign later as a last-chance offer. If you're worried about search rankings, read do popups hurt Shopify SEO? before choosing.

Step 5: Add the discount (optional)

Under Reward / Discount, switch on Enable discount reward and choose:

Discount type: percentage off, fixed amount off, or free shipping.
Discount value and a code prefix (codes look like your prefix plus 8 random characters).
Expires after (days), usage limit per code and once per customer.
Show auto-apply link after submission, which adds an "Apply discount" link so the code is already applied when the shopper reaches checkout.

Poppy creates a unique code for each signup in your Shopify discounts, rather than one shared code. Here's why that matters.

Step 6: Set frequency, targeting and consent

This is what keeps a popup from becoming a nuisance. Under Display frequency:

Max shows per session: how many times one visitor can see it in a browsing session.
Re-show after dismissal (hours): the cool-down after someone closes it.
Stop showing after N dismissals: hide it for good after a visitor has closed it that many times.

Once someone submits the popup, it stops showing in their browser.

Targeting rules narrow who sees it: device, country, page URL, UTM source, medium and campaign, visitor type, cart quantity, visit count and session count. For example, a URL rule with "does not contain" /pages/contact keeps the popup off your contact page.

If you sell to the EU or UK, switch on Require marketing consent checkbox under Compliance and write your consent wording. Visitors then have to tick it before they can submit.

Step 7: Connect your email tool

Open Integrations in Poppy and add Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Omnisend or Brevo with an API key, or a webhook URL for anything else. New signups sync automatically within seconds. If you collected signups before connecting, Push all sends them over. There's a full walkthrough for connecting a Shopify popup to Klaviyo.

Then set up a welcome email in your email tool that delivers what the popup promised.

Step 8: Go live and test

Click Activate campaign. Draft and paused campaigns aren't visible to customers.
Open your store in a private or incognito window. Your normal browser remembers that you closed or submitted the popup and may not show it again.
Wait for the trigger, submit a test email and check it arrives: in Poppy's Submissions page, in your email tool, and (if you added a discount) in Shopify's Discounts list.

After launch: measure and improve

Poppy's Analytics page shows impressions, views, submissions and conversion rate for each campaign, plus the orders and revenue attributed to it. Give a campaign a week or two of traffic before judging it.

To improve it, add a second design variant to the campaign and set the traffic split. Poppy shows each variant's views, submissions and conversion rate side by side. Test one change at a time (the offer, the headline or the trigger) so you know what made the difference.

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