I'm so sick with ecommerce sites that interrupt my product research with intrusive full screen popovers. I don't want to sign up for a newsletter for a 10% discount when I haven't even had a chance to view the product I'm interested in. I know I have written about this in similar posts on Mobile Experiences Are Shit and when I wanted to Unsubscribe from all these newsletters.

What these businesses fail to understand is that I'm comparing their product against competitors offering similar items. When they block me from viewing their product, it signals how they'll likely treat me as a customer.

Instead of blocking the screen with popovers, companies should focus on creating better product detail pages that address customer needs. They should streamline the checkout process, simplify conversion, and then present newsletter value propositions. A better approach might be including signup options in order confirmation emails. Customers who have already purchased are more likely to engage with your content anyway. Simply collecting email addresses is pointless if those contacts aren't converting and contributing to revenue.

Call to action: Developers, stop adding these interruptions to websites, stop creating intrusive plugins, and start improving user experience. Marketers, shift your focus from aggressive email collection tactics to reducing friction in the customer journey and researching better conversion strategies.

Ecommerce platforms and search engines should penalize websites that use popovers that prevent users from completing their intended tasks.