Pop-up, coupon and sign-up glossary

An abandoned cart is a cart that a shopper filled with products and then left without buying. It can happen for many reasons, from surprise shipping costs to a simple distraction.

A reminder can bring some of those shoppers back, but only if you have a way to reach them and their permission to do so. That is one more reason to invite visitors to sign up early in their visit. For the reminders themselves, see this overview of abandoned cart recovery by email and text.

A bottom sheet is a panel that slides up from the bottom of a phone screen and covers only part of it, leaving the page visible above.

For pop-ups on phones, a bottom sheet is gentler than a box that fills the whole screen. Its buttons sit where a thumb can reach them, and the shopper can still see the page they came to look at, so the offer feels less like a wall.

The break-even point is where the extra profit an offer brings in equals what the offer costs you. Below it, the offer loses money. Above it, the offer pays for itself.

A welcome discount costs you on every order that uses it, including orders that would have happened anyway. Before you choose a pop-up offer or a set of prizes, work out how many extra orders it needs to bring in. A tool that works out a discount's break-even point does that math for you.

A call to action, or CTA, is the button or link that asks someone to take one specific next step, such as "Spin to win" or "Send my code."

In a pop-up, the CTA is often the only button, so its words carry a lot of weight. A label that names what the shopper gets is clearer than a vague one like "Submit." The same idea applies to the buttons in your emails, as these email CTA examples show.

A conversion rate is the share of people who take a chosen action out of everyone who had the chance to. For a pop-up, the action is usually a sign-up. For a store, it is often a purchase.

Rates make fair comparisons possible when traffic rises and falls. When you change a pop-up's offer, headline or timing, compare sign-ups per visitor who saw it, before and after, rather than the raw number of sign-ups.

Coupon stacking means using more than one discount on the same order, such as a pop-up code on top of a sale price, or two codes at once.

Decide your stacking rules before you hand out codes. A welcome code that also works on top of a sitewide sale can turn a profitable order into a loss, which matters most during busy sale seasons. The guide to holiday spin wheel ideas covers how to plan for it.

A decoy slice is a slice on a prize wheel that is there for looks or fun, such as "Spin again" or "So close!", rather than a prize anyone can win.

Decoys can make a wheel feel lively, but in a game where every play should win, they must never come up. In Spin Wheel, decoy slices have a zero chance and are never landed on, so every spin wins one of the store's real prizes. The guide to setting spin wheel odds explains how chances work.

Double opt-in is a sign-up process with two steps: the person enters their email address, then confirms by tapping a link in an email before they join your list.

It keeps typos and fake addresses off your list and leaves a clear record that the person agreed. The trade-off is that some people never confirm, so if you use it, tell new subscribers in the pop-up to check their inbox. Wix Forms can turn on double opt-in for a subscribe field. Expectations differ by country, and this is general information, not legal advice.

An email subscriber is a contact who has agreed to get your marketing emails. On Wix, anyone who fills in a form or buys from you becomes a contact, but only contacts marked as subscribed should get marketing emails.

People join by filling in a subscribe form, ticking an opt-in box on another form or at checkout, or signing up in a pop-up. Our guide to growing your email list on Wix covers every place to ask.

An embedded form is a sign-up form that sits inside a page, such as in the footer or partway through a blog post, instead of appearing over it.

It never interrupts anyone, but it only works for visitors who scroll far enough to find it. Many stores use both: an embedded form for people who go looking, and a pop-up that brings the offer to visitors at a chosen moment.

Exit intent is a pop-up trigger that fires when a visitor seems about to leave. On a desktop, the usual sign is the cursor heading for the browser's tabs or close button. Phones have no cursor, so tools watch for other clues, such as a quick scroll back to the top of the page.

Because it waits until the end of a visit, an exit-intent pop-up rarely gets in the way of browsing. It works well as a last, simple offer for visitors who never saw your main pop-up.

A free shipping threshold is the order total above which a store ships for free.

As a welcome offer, a threshold rewards a slightly bigger first order instead of cutting your prices. Set it a little above your typical first order, so reaching it takes about one more item. A line in the cart showing how far the shopper is from free shipping keeps the offer in view after the pop-up closes. Our guide to offering free shipping over a set amount covers the setup in Wix.

Frequency capping is a limit on how often the same visitor sees a pop-up, such as once per visit, or not again for a while after they close it.

A pop-up that keeps coming back starts to feel like nagging, and a new subscriber who sees the same offer again may wonder whether their code worked. Stop showing it after a sign-up, and give it a rest after a close. The guide to exit-intent pop-up timing covers how often to show a last-chance offer.

Gamification means adding game elements, such as spinning, scratching or opening a box, to something that isn't a game, like signing up for emails.

In a pop-up, a quick game can make trading an email address for an offer feel more like fun than a chore. It works best when the game takes seconds and every result is a real prize. This comparison of spin wheel, scratch card and gift box pop-ups helps you choose a game.

A gift box pop-up is a game where the shopper picks one of several wrapped boxes and opens it to reveal a prize.

It takes a single tap to play, which suits phones, and the unwrapping moment fits gift shops and seasonal promotions well. As with any prize game, every box should hold a prize the shopper can really use. See an example on the gift box pop-up page.

An intrusive interstitial is a pop-up or overlay that blocks a page's main content in a way that makes the page hard to use, especially on a phone.

Google's search guidance advises against them, such as a box that covers the content right after someone arrives from search. A pop-up that waits for a sign of interest, covers only part of a phone screen and closes easily is kinder to shoppers and safer for search. The guide to pop-up mistakes shows the fixes.

A lead magnet is something useful offered in exchange for contact details, such as a discount, free shipping, a guide or early access to new products.

It is the reason anyone fills in your form, so it belongs in the headline of your email pop-up. Choose one that fits what you sell and what your first emails will deliver, so new subscribers get exactly what they signed up for.

A lightbox is a window that opens on top of a web page and dims the page behind it. On many sites, the same name describes an image viewer that enlarges a photo over the page.

Wix used the name for its built-in pop-ups, and its editor now calls them popups. Older guides that mention lightboxes mean the same element. This guide covers how to add a pop-up to a Wix site, using the built-in option or an app, and this one covers what to check when a popup won't show.

A minimum order is the cart total a shopper must reach before a coupon works, such as a dollar-off code that only applies above a set amount.

Minimums protect dollar-off prizes on low-priced items, where a fixed discount could wipe out the profit on a single product. Put the rule in the prize name so shoppers know it before checkout, and keep it within reach of a typical order. The guide to spin wheel prize ideas shows where minimums fit in a prize mix, and creating a coupon code in Wix Stores shows where the setting lives.

Opt-in rate is the share of visitors who join your list out of those who saw the sign-up form. It is a kind of conversion rate, usually worked out as sign-ups divided by the number of visitors who saw the pop-up.

It is the clearest way to judge a pop-up's offer, words and timing, because it adjusts for changes in traffic. Compare it over full weeks, since weekday and weekend visitors can behave differently.

An overlay is the dimmed or tinted layer that covers the page behind a pop-up. It helps the pop-up stand out and shows that the page is paused for a moment.

A light, see-through overlay keeps the page visible, so shoppers still know where they are. Letting a click or tap on the overlay close the pop-up gives visitors one more easy way out.

A pop-up is a window that appears over a web page, usually to share an offer, collect a sign-up or make an announcement. It can open after a delay, on a scroll, on a click, or when a visitor seems ready to leave.

For a store, the difference between a helpful pop-up and an annoying one is mostly timing and control. A good one waits for a sign of interest, asks for little and closes easily.

A preheader is the short line of preview text that many email apps show next to or under the subject line in the inbox.

If you leave it empty, the inbox may show whatever text comes first in the email, such as "View in browser." For a welcome email after a pop-up sign-up, a preheader that adds to the subject line, for example by naming the prize inside, gives people one more reason to open it. These preheader examples show how.

Prize odds are the chances that each prize in a game comes up. On a wheel, each prize has its own chance, set separately from the size of its slice, and all the chances together add up to 100 percent.

Odds decide both what a game costs you and whether shoppers trust it. Keep the most common prize cheap and welcome, and the headline prize rare but real. The free spin wheel odds calculator checks your split and estimates the prize cost per sign-up.

Quiet hours are times of day when a store holds back texts and other messages, usually late at night and early in the morning in the recipient's time zone.

Many stores set them as a courtesy, and some places also limit when marketing texts may be sent. Schedule messages by each subscriber's local time rather than your own, and hold anything that would land overnight until morning. Rules differ by location, and this is general information, not legal advice.

A scratch card pop-up shows a card with a foil layer that the shopper rubs away, with a finger or the mouse, to reveal a prize underneath.

Scratching is a natural gesture on a phone, and the reveal feels like a small surprise. A common flow lets shoppers scratch first and then enter an email to claim what they found, so signing up feels like collecting a prize already won. See an example on the scratch card pop-up page.

A shared coupon code is one code that anyone can use, such as WELCOME10 shown in a pop-up or printed on a flyer.

It is simple to set up, but it can travel. Once a shared code lands on a coupon site, people who never signed up can use it, and you can no longer tie an order to a sign-up. Shared codes suit print, events and partners better than pop-ups. The guide to unique and shared coupon codes compares the two.

Single opt-in is a sign-up process with one step: the person enters their email address and joins your list right away, with no confirmation email to click.

It is quicker for shoppers and lets a welcome email or prize code go out at once. The trade-off is that typos and fake addresses can slip onto your list, so a clear form that catches obvious mistakes matters more. Expectations differ by country, and this is general information, not legal advice.

A single-use coupon code is a code that works for one order only. Each shopper gets their own code, so it can't be passed around or used twice.

For pop-up offers and prize games, single-use codes stop leaks and make every redemption easy to trace. In Spin Wheel, each prize is one of the store's own coupons, so a store that wants a code to work once per shopper turns on one use per customer in the coupon's settings. The winner sees the code on screen with a Copy button, and a copy is emailed as a backup. See how prizes become codes on the coupon pop-up page.

SMS consent is a person's permission to receive marketing texts from a business, usually given by ticking a box or texting a keyword, next to clear terms about what they'll receive and how to stop.

A phone number on its own isn't permission to text. Ask with a separate, unticked box, and keep a record of each opt-in. In Spin Wheel, numbers are only signed up for texts when the shopper ticks that separate box. Rules differ by country, and this isn't legal advice. See how to collect SMS sign-ups.

An SMS segment is the unit a text message is split into for sending and billing. A message written only in the standard character set fits up to 160 characters in one segment, while an emoji or certain special characters switch it to an encoding that fits 70.

Longer texts are split into several segments, each holding a little less, and most providers charge per segment, so short, plain texts keep costs down. This guide to SMS character limits explains the rules, and a free character and segment counter for texts shows when a text splits.

A spin-to-win pop-up is a game where the shopper spins a prize wheel to win an offer, usually in exchange for an email address or phone number.

The wheel turns signing up into a moment of fun, and it works best when every spin wins something real. In Spin Wheel, every play wins one of the store's prizes, drawn on our servers from the odds the store sets. By default, shoppers spin first and sign up to claim. See it on the spin-to-win pop-up page.

A subject line is the short line that names an email in the inbox. Together with the sender name and the preheader, it shapes whether someone opens the email.

For a welcome email after a pop-up sign-up, a subject that says what's inside, such as "Your free shipping code is inside," is easy to spot now and easy to find later with a search. A free subject line tester shows where common inboxes cut a subject off.

A teaser is a small tab or button that stays on the page after a pop-up is closed, so the visitor can reopen the offer when they're ready.

It lets you stop interrupting without taking the offer away. Keep it small and clear of key buttons such as Add to cart. In Spin Wheel, a closed pop-up waits as a small tab, and on phones the pop-up itself opens as a bottom sheet that slides up from the bottom of the screen.

A trigger is the event that makes a pop-up appear. Common triggers are time on the page, scrolling, the number of pages viewed, a click on a button, and signs that a visitor is about to leave.

The right trigger depends on the page: a short delay on product pages, a scroll on blog posts, a few page views on home and collection pages. Spin Wheel offers a delay (five seconds by default), scroll, page count and exit intent, on desktop and phone. See how to match the trigger to the page.

An unsubscribe link is the link in a marketing email that lets the reader stop getting those emails. For texts, the same job is done by replying with a word such as STOP.

Make it easy to find and quick to use. Someone who can't find the way out may mark your email as spam instead, which can hurt how well your emails reach inboxes. Many countries require a working opt-out in marketing messages, and this is general information, not legal advice.

UTM parameters are tags added to the end of a link, such as utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign, that tell your analytics where a visitor came from.

Tag the links in your emails, texts and social posts, and your reports can show which channel brought shoppers to your store. Use the same spelling every time, since many analytics tools treat "Email" and "email" as different values. A free UTM builder puts the tags together without typos.

A welcome email is the first email a new subscriber receives, usually sent right after they sign up.

New subscribers are expecting it, so use it to deliver what the pop-up promised, such as their prize code, and to say what kind of emails will follow. The guide to what to send after the sign-up plans the first week, and these welcome email examples show different approaches.

A welcome offer is the reward a store gives new subscribers or first-time buyers for joining, such as a discount, free shipping, a gift with purchase or early access.

It gives people a reason to sign up, and it costs you on every order that uses it. Price it so a typical first order still leaves a profit, and state it plainly in the pop-up headline. These welcome discount ideas go beyond the usual percent off.

A welcome series is a short run of automated emails, and sometimes texts, sent over the first days or weeks after someone signs up.

It picks up where the welcome email leaves off, introducing the store, sharing best sellers and reminding people about an unused code before it expires. It should stop once the person buys, so nobody gets a discount reminder after ordering. Here is how to plan a welcome series that does this.

Win-back is a message or campaign aimed at past customers who haven't bought in a while, inviting them to return.

It often pairs a reminder of what they bought with a reason to come back, such as a new product or an offer. Time it to how often your customers usually reorder, so it arrives when a return visit makes sense. These customer win-back emails show how the messages can work.