By switching to a Circle-style popup instead of the standard rectangular version, we believed the fresh and distinctive design would grab more attention on mobile, reduce banner blindness, and improve overall opt-in performance for both email and SMS.

Two A/B tests were run across two different brands:

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• Sweet Cookies
• Born Primitive

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Both compared the performance of a Circle-style popup against a regular rectangular teaser popup, using the same offers.

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Visitors were randomly assigned to either the control or Circle variant.

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Key metrics tracked:

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• Email Conversion Rate – % of visitors submitting email
• SMS Conversion Rate – % of visitors submitting phone number

Conversions were calculated as opt-ins divided by popup impressions.

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Across both brands, the Circle popup design underperformed compared to the standard rectangular popup.

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• Born Primitive: Opt-ins dropped steeply, with email down −37.7% and SMS down −34.9%.
• Sweet Cookies: Results were less dramatic but still negative, with email down −16.1% and SMS down −13.2%.

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The regular rectangular popup consistently outperformed Circle, suggesting that while the Circle design looked distinctive, it reduced clarity and usability, ultimately hurting conversions.

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Key Takeaway:

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Novelty in design doesn’t always equal higher performance. For both Born Primitive and Sweet Cookies, sticking with the standard popup layout proved to be the better choice for driving both email and SMS opt-ins.

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