The Challenge
On The Beach wanted to grow its email list without negatively impacting their website experience. Despite innovating with an in-house model, its setup only supported intent-based email capture near the end of the customer journey, typically around the checkout or after prolonged session activity.
This meant they missed opportunities to sign up visitors who were showing earlier signs of hesitation. Visitors who browsed and bounced never saw an email capture. And by the time the pop-up appeared, many had already disengaged. Without real-time intent data, they couldn’t act soon enough.
They needed a faster, more responsive way to recognise exit signals earlier. To turn waning attention into a softer conversion.
The Hypothesis
By triggering an exit intent email capture earlier in the visitor's journey, when they are showing more subtle signs of abandonment, we will increase the volume of emails captured.
The On The Beach team believed they could capture more emails by acting earlier without being overly aggressive. That real-time intent signals would help them identify when someone was likely to leave even before they hit a final buying step, such as the checkout.
And timing matters. According to The Intent Gap, 76% of online shoppers say receiving the right information at the right time would improve their experience and make them more likely to return. For On The Beach, that meant maintaining an intent-based approach, but listening a little closer.
The Solution
Using Made With Intent, On The Beach built a segment of visitors spanning our framework’s Engage and Build intent phases who showed early signs of exiting the journey. This targeting meant they could identify visitors who were either in the early moments of their journey or had just started to demonstrate some level of intent. These were not late-stage buyers. They were early-to-mid-funnel browsers displaying subtle drop-off behaviours.
The team used this segment to trigger their existing Bloomreach-based email capture campaigns earlier in the session, just before visitors were likely to bounce. This simple shift in timing allowed them to convert otherwise lost sessions into email contacts without adding friction or waiting for too long.
The Impact
Without Intent, email capture experiences came too late, missing visitors who had already left or never demonstrated intent.
With Intent, email capture was triggered earlier, and at the right moment, helping On The Beach convert more visitors before they disappeared.
Key Result: 28% increase in email capture conversion rate
This Play proved that even small timing changes can drive significant returns. Especially when they’re linked to visitor behaviour. By spotting and responding to exit signals earlier, On The Beach got more signups while protecting their wider experience.
They’re now exploring how intent-led triggers could shape the entire purchase funnel, from early-stage research to post-search drop-offs.
Email capture shouldn’t be reduced to a generic trigger or a last-ditch attempt. This Play shows how intent data helps you target the right moments. And how doing so creates mre impact, for brands and their customers.
Want to grow your email list with intent-based targeting? Explore more about Email Capture with Intent.
