<b>"Exit-intent popups recover lost visitors." [DEPENDS]</b>

<b>"Exit-intent popups recover lost visitors." [DEPENDS]</b>

The myth: catch people as they leave with a 10%-off popup and reclaim conversions.

Why it spread: popups show a tidy "X% of exits captured" number that looks like found money.

The boring truth: that number ignores cannibalization. A chunk of those "recovered" buyers were going to convert anyway, you just trained them to wiggle the mouse for a discount. And on mobile, exit-intent barely fires, so the win is desktop-only and smaller than the dashboard claims.

The nuance: it's defensible when the offer is information (a guide, a comparison) for genuinely undecided traffic, not a reflexive coupon that erodes margin and conditions discount-hunting. Measure incremental conversions against a holdout, not raw popup clicks. Half your "saves" never needed saving.