Store homepages showing a popup within 15 seconds
| Group | Homepages | Any popup % |
|---|---|---|
| Other platforms | 30 | 6.7% |
| Shopify | 212 | 7.1% |
| Rank 1 to 3 | 65 | 7.7% |
| Rank 11 to 20 | 112 | 5.4% |
| Rank 4 to 10 | 69 | 8.7% |
| Apparel & jewelry | 67 | 4.5% |
| Home, kitchen & garden | 52 | 5.8% |
| Outdoor & fitness | 43 | 4.7% |
| Pets & baby | 33 | 9.1% |
Source: PageSpeed Matters, Oct 2026. Cookie banners excluded; popups that fire on exit or after 15 seconds are missed.
Summary
Email popups are often treated as standard on online stores. We loaded ranking store homepages on a phone to see how many actually show one to a first-time visitor.
Very few do. Of 246 ranking store homepages, 3.3% (8) showed an email signup popup within 15 seconds and a scroll, and 6.9% showed any popup at all.
What we measured
We loaded ranking store homepages on a phone-sized 390x844 screen. The 246 homepages are those that rendered usable content. We checked for large fixed overlays at 5 seconds, then scrolled and waited 10 more seconds and checked again. A popup counts as an email popup when it has signup markup or an email field, and we read the offer text inside it.
This is a short study: 246 homepages and only 8 email popups, from a first-visit render. There is no exit-intent trigger, so popups that fire on exit, on a second page or after 15 seconds are missed. Cookie banners are excluded.
Few homepages show a popup on first visit
Of the 246 homepages, 6.9% showed any popup at 5 seconds or after the scroll and wait, and 3.3% (8) showed an email signup popup. These are floors: stores that save their popup for a second page, a returning visitor or exit intent would not show it in this render.
Timing matters even inside the 15 seconds. 47.1% of the popups appeared only after the scroll and wait, not at the 5-second check.
Of the 8 email popups, 6 offered an incentive and 4 offered a percentage off, with a median of 10.0%. With so few popups, these offer figures are too thin to generalise.
On ranking product pages in the same render, 3.3% showed a popup at the 5-second check.
3.3%
Share of 246 ranking store homepages that showed an email signup popup within 15 seconds and a scroll on a phone.
Platform and rank make little difference
By platform, any popup ranged from 6.7% on other platforms (30 homepages) to 7.1% on Shopify (212 homepages). By rank, it ranged from 5.4% for stores ranking 11 to 20 (112 homepages) to 8.7% for stores ranking 4 to 10 (69 homepages), with 7.7% for the top 3 (65 homepages).
By vertical, pets and baby stores showed a popup most often (9.1% of 33) and apparel and jewelry stores least often (4.5% of 67). These groups hold only a few popups each, so read the splits as directional.
What this means for your store
A popup on first load is not the norm among ranking stores, so you do not need one to look like a typical store. If you run one, a few habits keep it from hurting the visit:
- Trigger it after a scroll or a delay, not on load, so it does not compete with the main image or the first tap.
- On mobile, keep it small enough that the page behind it stays usable, and make the close button easy to hit.
- Load the popup script after the main content, and test the page in PageSpeed Insights with the popup on and off.
Sources
- PageSpeed Matters analysis of a phone-sized (390x844) render of ranking store homepages and product pages, October 2026
Embed this research
Paste this on your site to embed the chart. It links back to the source automatically.
<iframe id="psm-email-popups" src="https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/embed/data-studies/email-popups" width="100%" height="600" style="width:100%;border:1px solid #E2E3E1;border-radius:12px" loading="lazy" title="Email Popups: 97% of Ranking Stores Skip Them on a First Visit - PageSpeed Matters"></iframe>
<script>window.addEventListener("message",function(e){if(e&&e.data&&e.data.psmEmbed==="email-popups"&&e.data.height){var f=document.getElementById("psm-email-popups");if(f){f.style.height=e.data.height+"px";}}});</script>
<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif">Source: <a href="https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/email-popups">Email Popups: 97% of Ranking Stores Skip Them on a First Visit - PageSpeed Matters</a></p>
Frequently asked questions
How many online stores use email popups?
Fewer than you might expect on a first visit. Of 246 ranking store homepages loaded on a phone, 3.3% (8) showed an email signup popup within 15 seconds and a scroll, and 6.9% showed any popup.
When do store popups appear?
Often after the shopper starts moving. 47.1% of the popups we saw appeared only after a scroll and a 10-second wait, not at the 5-second check.
Do Shopify stores show more popups?
Barely. 7.1% of 212 Shopify homepages showed any popup, against 6.7% of 30 homepages on other platforms.
When and how a popup appears is easy to change, and getting it right protects both the first impression and the signup rate. Need help with this? See our ecommerce CRO agency.