You know the old saying: “It all starts with an email list.”
As the era of third-party data comes to an end, your email list becomes more important than ever.
Not any email list will do, though. You need a list full of relevant and interested email subscribers. And well-thought-out newsletter signup forms are the key to achieving that.
If you need inspiration for crafting a high-converting lead capture machine, read on to see the 15 best signup form examples from top e-commerce brands, and what you can learn from them.
What Is a Signup Form?
A signup form is a type of form that allows visitors to join your marketing list by submitting their email address or phone number.
Signup forms help e-commerce marketers collect valuable information about prospects that they can later use in their marketing automation.
Traditional signup forms consist of simple input fields, such as email address and first name, whereas new-age forms often contain interactive elements, like gamification or videos, to increase the number of signups.
Newsletter signup forms come in many forms and shapes, including email popups and slide-ins…
…sidebar campaigns…
…embedded forms…
…floating bars, and much more.
No matter the format you choose, there’s a lot you can learn from these 15 brands that approach email signup forms the right way.
1. Allbirds
Although it’s common to incentivize email signups with a discount code, it’s not the rule.
On the contrary, when overdone, discounts may reduce the perceived value of your products, causing people to expect a new incentive each time.
If using discounts all year round isn’t a sustainable strategy for your brand, you’ll like how Allbirds collects emails on its site:
When you scroll down to the bottom of the company’s homepage, you see a signup form asking if you want “first dibs.”
No discounts or free shipping. Just the benefit of joining Allbirds’s email list: being the first to hear about new limited-edition products and other fun updates.
To help you commit even more easily, Allbirds notes that you can opt-out anytime. If you’re looking for a simple signup form that’ll stay on your website footer all year round, follow Allbirds’s example.
2. Recess
Design and copy are both important in website popups. However, my next example, from Recess, favors the former over the latter.
Similar to Allbirds, Recess has an email form at the bottom of its homepage, and it fits the brand’s aesthetics perfectly.
For reference, Recess has a beautifully designed homepage with a unique font and lively colors.
Surely, the copy could use some work but, overall, Recess’s signup form is consistent with the brand’s personality.
If you’re thinking of embedding an email form to your homepage, as Recess does, try blending it in with your website and its surrounding elements.
3. Pit Viper
You don’t necessarily need to wait until shoppers scroll to the bottom of your website before asking them to join your email list.
Pit Viper, an eyewear retailer known for its unique website design, uses an email signup form in the middle of its homepage.
It’s a unique one, for sure, and not just for the sake of its retro design.
Pit Viper’s form copy contains humor from its headline to the placeholder text. It also hints at the popularity of the company’s email list by suggesting its list is teeming with subscribers.
“Your mom” jokes may not be your brand’s thing, but you get the idea. In the world of generic, boring forms, a little humor can go a long way. All in all, Pit Viper’s form example is another testimony for matching your form’s design and copy with your brand’s personality.
4. Message
Placing your signup forms in a fixed position, such as in the footer or as a page-break, is only one way of collecting emails on your site.
Although optin forms like the above are quite unintrusive, you risk your forms going unnoticed by most of your visitors. Luckily, there’s a way to make your email signup forms stand out without hurting your visitors’ shopping experience.
The fashion retailer Message knows this well. That’s why, when you visit its shop, they first greet you with a teaser, previewing its offer:
Only after you spend a few seconds on the homepage looking around, this form gently slides in—still, without disturbing you or taking up the entire screen:
The form design is minimalistic and the message is straightforward. The brand’s incentive is crystal clear, too: sign up and get a 10 percent discount code.
By showing a teaser first and using a slide-in animation, Message draws attention to its signup form without intruding on shoppers.
5. Georg Jensen Damask
While Message goes for simplicity, Georg Jensen Damask pays special attention to aesthetics.
Similar to the previous example, the company greets new visitors with a subtle teaser at the bottom of its homepage, inviting you to “be the first to know.”
After you spend a few seconds on the page, this elegant signup form slides in:
Notice how the form’s color scheme, fonts, and design style perfectly matches with Damask’s website.
You also see a second form step after submitting your name and email address in the first step.
Rather than overpopulate its signup form with long marketing consent text, Damask saves the legal formalities for the second step. You’ve already sent your email address and name, so ticking off a checkbox is a no-brainer.
Multistep forms, like Damask’s, are ideal for collecting information without distracting people from the original goal.
6. Kapten & Son
Aiming for simplicity (and higher conversions), most signup forms contain one or two input fields.
Our research also shows that popup conversion rates start dropping significantly after two input fields.
On the other hand, you want to collect more data about your prospects, so you can target them with relevant and personalized offers.There are two workarounds for this problem, and Kapten & Son chooses the first one. Following best practices, Kapten & Son first shows visitors a teaser of its offer:
After giving you some time to look around, the company shows this email popup in the middle of the page:
The form is simple and clear. It consists of an image, two input fields, and the promise of a discount code.
But that’s not all.
By adding two small radio buttons to this form, Kapten & Son segments its new subscribers by gender. It’s a super simple question and radio buttons make it ridiculously easy to answer.
If you have more (or tougher) questions to ask new subscribers, go for the second option instead, and use forms that consist of multiple steps. You will get richer lead data without sacrificing conversions.
7. Stelton
Discount popups are pretty much the industry standard for collecting emails today. But if you don’t feel comfortable handing out coupon codes upon each signup, they are not your only option.
Stelton, a Danish houseware brand, can back me up on that. Firstly, Stelton welcomes website visitors with a straightforward teaser.
Stelton has no time to lose, so it invites you to click the teaser and shows this slide-in right away:
The form design is simple and the number of input fields is optimal.
Choosing another popular incentive, Stelton gives you a chance to enter its monthly giveaway by joining its email list.
Rather than pick a one-off, giant, irrelevant prize for its giveaway, Stelton gifts the winner one of its products. Since it’s more affordable than, say, a brand new iPhone, Stelton can easily repeat this strategy month after month.
What’s more, the image of the prize and its monetary value make the giveaway more attractive, helping the company collect more emails with this form.
8. WoodUpp
Giveaways, like Stelton’s, work like a charm in turning visitors into top-of-the-funnel leads.
Other brands, like WoodUpp, go straight for the middle of the funnel in their signup forms to collect warm leads. Here’s how WoodUpp does that.
The teaser copy clearly tells what to expect from WoodUpp’s signup form:
And this is what the form looks like:
WoodUpp’s incentive isn’t a tangible product, but a nice €400 store credit. In other words, it’s a gift that requires you to return to WoodUpp’s online store and spend (ideally €400 or more) on its products.
WoodUpp’s signup form is a brilliant example of how to capture ready-to-buy email subscribers.
9. MeUndies
It’s not only the incentive or the placement of your signup form that determines its success. Your form’s design and copy can make or break a conversion too.
MeUndies clearly cares about both.
The company’s email form pops up out of nowhere, a bit too early for my taste. But other than that, I like what I see.
The form design is simple and its playful colors align well with MeUndies’s brand personality.
The incentive is summarized in one line, and in the form of a question, rather than a call to action that reads “Take 15% off your first order.”
MeUndies doesn’t need more than your email address to sign you up, so the single input field guarantees higher conversion rates. And the marketing consent checkbox reaffirms your decision to get “the best emails in town.”
All in all, MeUndies has a great signup form with an eye-catching design and simple, yet powerful, copy.
10. Death Wish Coffee
While MeUndies goes for the bare minimum, Death Wish Coffee injects persuasion techniques into its signup form.
There are a few things Death Wish Coffee does right here, so let’s take a closer look.
First of all, the hypothetical question “who doesn’t like free cash?” quickly grabs the reader’s attention. Next, by calling its discount offer “free cash,” Death Wish Coffee helps you visualize the monetary benefit of signing up for its emails. Finally, the part that reads “sign up now before it disappears” drives urgency and scarcity.
Besides the persuasive copy, notice how Death Wish Coffee asks for your coffee preferences so they can target you later with relevant promotional emails.
A lot is going on in this form, but Death Wish Coffee is onto something clever with its urgency-driven copy and segmentation.
11. Charlotte Tilbury
No matter how effective they are, most email signup forms lack creativity. Or worse, some of them even lack basic manners.
You’ve surely seen those popups with condescending opt-out buttons that read “No, I Hate My Life” just because you didn’t want to join a brand’s email list. These and similar popup mistakes not only hurt your conversions but also cause visitors to abandon your site.
Charlotte Tilbury is aware of this trap and knows how to avoid it.
Its signup form is simple and elegant. It offers you a small discount and early access to offers and product launches in exchange for your email address.
The counterpart of its positive “Sign Up Now” CTA reads “Not This Time.” This is brilliant because it mimics a polite way of turning someone down in real life. The opt-out copy also hints that you might be interested at a later time, so there’s no need to burn all bridges.
If you want to go with a double-CTA signup form, follow Charlotte Tilbury’s example.
12. Hollister
Not all signup forms are meant to bring more newsletter subscribers. Many e-commerce brands also use forms to get more signups for their customer loyalty clubs.
Hollister is one such brand and its signup form is worth a mention.
With this white-and-blue email form, Hollister promotes its loyalty program, Hollister Club Cali.
The design elements that extend the form’s boundaries make the popup visually appealing. And the copy focuses on the benefit of joining Hollister’s customer club.
Similar to Death Wish Coffee’s “free cash” approach, Hollister highlights the monetary value of submitting your email address. You’ll get at least €10 just by signing up because “this club is money”.
If you’re trying to get more loyalty program members, take inspiration from Hollister’s signup form.
13. Rituals
Most signup forms, including the best examples I’ve featured in this post, simply consist of text and images.
Rituals, on the other hand, goes the extra mile in its signup form to make it much more eye-catching and engaging.
At first glance, it simply looks like a beautifully-designed email popup with a single input field that promotes Rituals’s loyalty program.
In fact, the company’s signup form contains a video featuring an imaginary loyalty club member enjoying her favorite Rituals products:
By using Sleeknote’s video feature, Rituals makes its signup form stand out with its design. Plus, it shows the company’s products in action without saying much.
14. Poo Pourri
When used right, signup forms can do much more than just collecting email addresses, and we’ll see that in this example.
Similar to all other brands in this post, Poo Pourri welcomes you with a well-designed popup, offering a 10% discount on your first order.
In return, it only asks for your email address. Things get more interesting when you submit your email address and move to the next step.
In the success step of its popup, Poo Pourri confirms your subscription, thank you for joining, and then, does something unusual.
The brand asks if you’d like to receive your coupon code delivered to your phone as well. If you’re a frequent mobile shopper, having the code as a text message can come in handy.
And if you’re a brand like Poo Pourri, which collects phone numbers for SMS marketing, this tactic can surely help you.
15. United by Blue
Although Poo Pourri’s idea of collecting phone numbers as an additional conversion is brilliant, the execution could be improved.
Take a look at how United by Blue does something similar with a completely different approach here.
It’s a textbook email capture form with a discount offer, good design, and clear copy. But fascinatingly, you get an additional incentive to submit your phone number.
Your email gets you a 15 percent discount code, and your phone number unlocks a giveaway entry for a chance to win a $200 gift card. It’s a much stronger incentive than getting your coupon code delivered to your phone, and it’s executed well.
To improve this signup form further, you can divide it into two steps, where you ask for the email address first, and then collect phone numbers in step 2.
That way, you can collect email addresses and phone numbers at the same time—without the latter affecting conversions for the former. Check out this recipe to learn how you can do that step by step.
Conclusion
When it comes to signup forms, there’s no one-size-fits-all success formula.
But an eye-catching design, persuasive copy, the right placement, and a compelling incentive can contribute significantly to your form’s success.
Take inspiration from these 15 signup form examples while building your own, and make sure to A/B test different versions to find out what works best for your website visitors.
