How to Create Pick a Gift Popup

Website gamification has evolved from a trendy tactic to a proven strategy that can get you real results. Our data shows that gamified elements result in up to a 400% increase in conversions and nearly a 30% rise in sales. However, we agree that the key to success lies in making the experience immersive and rewarding. 

Tools like spin the wheel, time-limited promotions, interactive quizzes, and loyalty points create a deeper connection with users, motivating them to engage more frequently and spend more. In this tutorial, we will focus on a “pick a gift” popup as a means of introducing website gamification into your marketing strategy. 

Let’s make your next move a win 😉

What is a Pick a Gift Popup?

A "pick a gift" popup is a gamified marketing tool commonly used in e-commerce to engage visitors and encourage conversions. It’s a type of interactive popup that prompts users to select from a set of options (often represented as boxes, envelopes, or other clickable elements) to reveal a reward or offer.

Here’s how it usually works:

1. The pick a gift pop-up appears when a user visits a site. It gets triggered by specific conditions, like time spent on a page, number of visited pages, scroll depth, etc.  
2. The user is invited to "pick a gift" from multiple options or play a game, depending on the type of gamified popup used.
3. Once the user makes their selection, they see the reward. 
4. The user is encouraged to take immediate action to claim the reward, such as completing a purchase, subscribing, or being redirected to a specified page. 

Creating a pick-a-gift pop-up is easy with the help of a popup builder like Claspo. A wide selection of pre-designed templates and a user-friendly drag-and-drop editor allow for a quick setup, with no coding headaches and time-consuming development, while creating space for experimentation and saving you money on development. 

To finish off with the basics, let’s explore some ways pick a gift popups can be applied: 

1. Greet first-time visitors with an interactive offer.
2. Motivate users to join your email list.
3. Drive signups for your loyalty or rewards program.
4. Reduce cart abandonment by offering incentives.
5. Encourage users to refer friends or family.
6. Create excitement around special events.
7. Reward users for special milestones like anniversaries or birthdays.
8. Drive awareness and excitement for a product launch
9. Gamify surveys to encourage users to provide valuable feedback.
10. Prevent users from leaving your site without taking action.

Honestly, the list goes on. Given the nature of pick-a-gift popups, one can easily come up with their own unique idea. 

Why Pick a Gift Popup Really Works

"Pick a gift" popups are a great way to blend interactivity, customer psychology, and value-based marketing in a way that matches what today’s consumers expect. They make the experience feel more engaging and less like a straightforward transaction. 

When used strategically in your campaigns, they can leave a positive impression and encourage customers to come back for more. Let’s consider three practical examples to understand why this kind of popup works.

Growing Your Email List 

One of the best things about using a pick-a-gift pop-up is how it helps grow your email list through fun, interactive engagement. These days, everyone’s flooded with requests to sign up or follow, so offering something in exchange for an email address changes the game. Instead of just a simple transaction, it turns into an enjoyable, rewarding experience. 

When users get the chance to choose a virtual gift, it creates a moment of excitement and curiosity. This playful approach taps into the excitement of receiving a reward, which leads to higher engagement. 

Increasing Conversion Rates

Beyond collecting emails, “pick a gift" popups are a great way to get more click-throughs by incorporating choice and surprise. Giving users the ability to choose their gift makes them feel more in control of the experience. 

This sense of autonomy makes the interaction feel more personal and valuable. People naturally like having control over their choices, so this feeling of agency can be a strong motivator, encouraging them to complete the action and engage with your offer.

Encouraging Repeat Visits and Customer Loyalty

Surprise is key here. The unexpected nature of the rewards in "pick a gift" popups triggers excitement, often tied to a release of dopamine. This positive experience becomes linked to your brand, making customers more likely to complete their purchases. 

This aligns with the "peak-end rule" — a psychological principle that suggests people remember the most intense and final moments of an experience. Businesses can reduce cart abandonment and boost customer actions by turning the checkout process into a moment of discovery and joy.

"Pick a gift" popups can be particularly effective during holiday campaigns, offering a perfect opportunity to build loyalty and encourage repeat visits. During seasonal sales, emotions run high, and consumers are ready for more interactive experiences. 

When users get to join in on exclusive holiday-themed activities, it deepens their emotional connection with your brand. These popups not only make customers feel like they’re part of something special but also create a sense of tradition. This can motivate users to return for new offers or claim additional rewards throughout the season.

How to Create a High-Converting Pick a Gift Popup

Let’s go through the steps to create a gamified popup in Claspo. First, you need to create an account. Then, open our free popup maker, click on New Widget, and select Template Library.

On the left side panel, under Use Case, select gamification. You’ll then see all gamification templates.

Pick the one that you like. We’re going to use this template for demonstration.

Use this template

Now, let’s customize this gift box popup for the website. One of the first things you need to do is change the rewards. You can add or reduce the number of gifts. Click on the gift element, and in the right panel, under Style, you’ll see the Number of boxes. 

We’ll keep three boxes for this template, but just know that you have this option. Now, you need to configure the prizes you want to offer. Switch to General, and you’ll see prize settings. 

Click the Edit rewards buttons and add your rewards. 

By default, there are three discounts. You can set your discount values, as well as win chances. Or you can remove the default rewards and add your own rewards. To do this, choose the Custom reward from the drop-down list. Now, you can add text-based rewards such as free shipping, free samples, etc. 

OK, rewards are set. The template also has a timer. Let’s configure it as well. In Claspo, you can set the timer to start independently for each visitor. We call it a relative timer. This ensures every visitor gets a chance to claim the offer and turn from a visitor into a lead. 

To use a relative timer, in the settings, select From the start of displaying in the settings. Note that the relative can be reset after the time runs out. Since this is a Cyber Monday offer, we’re disabling that option. 

Now, let’s add a field for users to enter their first name and move to the next page. 

Overlay popups have the signup page and three additional pages: Success, Existing, and Error. Let’s make a few tweaks to the Success page. Since we have a first name field and promo code label in the signup form, we can add corresponding merge tags to personalize the success message. Simply set the cursor anywhere in the text and insert a merge tag (you’ll find it in the left-right panel).

So, when the user fills out the form, this is what they’re going to see: 

It's much better than the template text! By the way, this is a widget preview. Use it to test the design and ensure elements like merge tags work properly. 

If you’re going to show the pick a gift pop-up on mobile, switch to mobile view to ensure elements are well aligned and accessible. 

We’re done with the design. Let’s move on to display settings. These are incredibly important because they help deliver your message to the right audience in the best possible way. The default display settings are configured to give users browsing time before they’re shown a popup. 

The rules in Claspo give you plenty of options to make your targeting as accurate as possible. For example, specify the pages where the popup needs to appear. Specify the country or even city (why not create individual popups for multiple locations with tailored rewards?). You can target visitors using UTM parameters to make the popup a natural continuation of the bigger campaign. 

You might have also noticed that there are three more triggers you can use. The first one is a launcher. A launcher is the little icon that hangs around the bottom corner of the page and triggers the popup when clicked. Launchers can be created later or enabled at the first stage of popup creation. They are great if you want to give users a bit more control over when the popup appears.

HTML click-based triggering allows you to use virtually any element of the page to display a popup. For example, the popup can appear when visitors click on an image, a button, or a link in the text. 

Finally, API-based popup triggering allows more programmatic control over when and how popups are displayed. This can significantly enhance flexibility, integration with other services, and user experience. However, this method requires some deeper tech knowledge. 

We’re almost done 😌

All that’s left to do is connect Claspo with other tools, like a CRM or an email service provider. That way, the information collected by your pick-a-gift popup can be instantly transferred to create leads in your CRM or trigger email campaigns. 

Claspo works with many popular software solutions. Pick all you need, and remember to map the fields to make sure information is recorded correctly. 

We’re done with the design and settings! Now, connect your popup with your website, and you’ll be all set to start capturing leads.

What Makes Pick a Gift Popups Perform Better 🎁

Value Proposition and Clear Messaging

The core of your popup is the offer 🎁 Make sure users instantly understand what they’ll get in exchange for engaging with the popup. Use simple language and keep the message concise.

Timing, Targeting, and Offers

Timing helps avoid interrupting the user experience at the wrong moment, while targeting ensures the offer is relevant, increasing conversions.  

Don't trigger the popup as soon as the page loads. VWO reports that popups that appear after a delay have a 13% higher conversion rate than those that trigger immediately. That’s why the default delay time in Claspo is set to 20 seconds. Even if it’s a welcome offer, give users time to engage with the content first.

Alternatively, you can use the pick a gift popup to prevent website exit. This can help recover some of the traffic that would have been lost. 

As for targeting, offer variety. Depending on the user segment, adjust the gift options. For example, repeat visitors can be offered an exclusive offer to build loyalty.

Mobile Responsiveness

Test your popup design on different screen sizes. While Claspo automatically adjusts its size, layout, and text to different screen sizes, it’s best to double-check. 

Use large touch-friendly buttons for mobile users and ensure there's enough space between clickable elements to avoid accidental clicks. Make the popup easy to close on mobile — don’t make users feel trapped by a difficult-to-dismiss popup. 

A/B Testing and Personalization

Test multiple versions of your popup to see which ones perform better. Split testing lets you see which offers or triggers work better. Instead of running consecutive campaigns, set up a split test and get answers faster. Besides, with Claspo, split testing takes a few clicks. 

We also have a template to help you jot down and analyze your tests, which you can download for free below. 

To Sum Up

Adding a "pick a gift" popup to your overall strategy can make a big difference. These popups help you catch your visitors' attention, give them something fun or rewarding in return, and nudge them toward taking action — whether that’s subscribing, making a purchase, or coming back for another visit.

Claspo offers you flexibility in design and targeting, allowing you to adapt this tactic to any stage of the customer journey. And the ability to A/B test and personalize ensures that you’re constantly improving and optimizing for maximum performance. 

🧡 The best part? You can sign up for free and use the free plan without any restrictions on features.