Set Up The Countdown Timer App

Create urgency by displaying a countdown timer.

Similar to scarcity, urgency has been proven to be a powerful tool for boosting e-commerce sales. For customers, it rapidly activates FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), which in turn can significantly increase a store’s conversion rate.

With the Vitals Countdown Timer app, it can show a timer counting down on your product page - providing a sense of urgency. The Countdown Timer app can also be customized further according to your desired behavior.

Getting Started ⚡

Before enabling the Countdown Timer app, set the dates your countdown should run between. You'll find "Countdown starts at" and "Countdown ends at" at the top of the app's settings — the timer only appears on your storefront between those two moments, and disappears once the end date passes. Both dates follow your store's timezone.

Set "Countdown ends at" to the real moment your sale finishes and the timer counts down to it, then disappears — the same deadline your customers are being told about. Use "Countdown starts at" if you want the timer to stay hidden until your promotion actually begins.

You can then go down further the app's settings to fine-tune additional details:

Only show the countdown timer for products that are currently discounted - Since the Countdown Timer app's purpose is to provide a sense of urgency to customers, the app will only appear on products that have a sale price by default. Should you like to have the Countdown Timer app appear on all products in the store (including regular-priced products), you can untick this option.
Theme - Choose from our seven available themes to better fit your brand: Classic (default), Hexagon Timer, Progress circles, Cards, Modern, Progress bar, and Minimalist.
Align - The overall alignment of the app (Left, Center, Right)
Title - The heading shown above the Countdown Timer app (default: "Sale ending in"). You can edit it — and translate it — per language.
Time-unit labels - The Day/Days, Hour/Hours, Minute/Minutes and Second/Seconds labels can each be customized and translated per language.
Show milliseconds - Tick this box if you would also like to see the milliseconds in the app.

Good to know: the timer only shows when the product variant a customer is viewing is available for sale, and it removes itself from the page the moment it reaches zero. If your store displays a privacy banner, the timer activates only after the visitor accepts tracking.

💡 Looking to have this app appear only on specific product pages? You can use the Display Rules section of the app to specify the product pages where you would like this app to appear. For more information, you can refer here: Displaying apps only on specific products using Display Rules

Countdown Timer FAQs

I enabled the Countdown Timer app but it is not appearing on the store.

The most common reason for this issue is that the products on the store might not be on sale. By default, the Countdown Timer app will only appear on products that are discounted (have a crossed-out price). If you want the Countdown Timer app to appear on non-discounted products as well, uncheck the option "Only show the countdown timer for products that are currently discounted" in the Countdown Timer app's settings.

What happened to the Evergreen option?

Evergreen has been retired. It used to give every visitor their own randomly generated countdown that reset after a cool-off period, which meant the deadline shown on your storefront wasn't a real one. The Countdown Timer now runs on genuine start and end dates that you set yourself, so the urgency your customers see matches an actual sale.

No — that's expected. The dropdown only appears for stores whose last saved setting was Evergreen. If your store is on a fixed end date, you'll simply see the "Countdown starts at" and "Countdown ends at" fields instead.

My store is still running Evergreen. Will my timer stop working?

No. If Evergreen is your currently saved setting, your storefront keeps working exactly as it does today and your visitors will keep seeing the timer as before. You can move to fixed dates whenever it suits you.

How do I switch from Evergreen to a fixed end date?

In the Countdown Timer app's settings, open the "Countdown timer end date" dropdown and choose "Fixed end date". Fill in your "Countdown starts at" and "Countdown ends at" dates, then save. Your timer will count down to the end date you set and disappear once it passes.

Can I go back to Evergreen after switching?

No — the switch is one-way. Once you save the app on "Fixed end date", the dropdown no longer appears and the Evergreen option is no longer offered. Do make sure you're ready to move to real dates before you save.

What happens to my Minimum/Maximum expiration deadline and Cool off period settings?

Those settings belong to Evergreen only, so they go away with it once you move to a fixed end date. There's nothing to replace them with — with fixed dates every visitor sees the same countdown, running to the same end date, and the timer simply disappears when it reaches zero.

In which timezone are the countdown start and end dates based?

It will be based on your store's timezone, and will also be displayed as additional information while you change the start and end dates: