Scheduling Your Pop-ups

You don't have to publish a pop-up the moment you finish designing it. The Pop-ups app lets you schedule a pop-up to go live at a future date and time, and optionally end on its own — perfect for flash sales, holiday campaigns, and limited-time promotions you want to prepare in advance.

How to schedule a pop-up

Open the Vitals dashboard and go to the Pop-ups app.
Create a new pop-up or open an existing one.
In the Settings card, click Edit display rules. Under Schedule, choose one of the two options:
- "Immediately" — the pop-up goes live as soon as you publish it.
- "Schedule" — the pop-up goes live automatically at the moment you choose. Set the "Start date", "Start time", and "Timezone" (it defaults to your store's timezone).
Optionally, tick "Set end date" and choose an "End date" and "End time". When that moment passes, the pop-up stops showing automatically. Leave the end date unchecked to keep the pop-up running until you disable it manually. Turning on Set end date also unlocks the Countdown timer field for your pop-up (in the Content Screens card, Screen #1 → Add field), which counts down to that same end moment — handy for flash sales.
Click Done to close the display rules, then click Publish.
If you already run other pop-ups, decide where this one sits in the queue. Only one pop-up is shown per page view, starting with the highest priority. On the Pop-ups list, set Sort by to Priority (highest first), click Change priority, drag your pop-up to the position you want, and click Save. You can do this before it goes live — drafts and scheduled pop-ups keep their place in the order just like active ones.

You can combine the two: publish a pop-up immediately and still give it an end date — for example, "go live now and stop by itself in 7 days."

Understanding pop-up statuses

Each pop-up shows a status badge on its row in the pop-ups list, and beside its title when you open it:

Active — currently live on your store
Scheduled — published with a future start date; it will switch to Active automatically when the start time arrives
Draft — saved but not published; visitors never see drafts
Expired — the pop-up reached its end date and stopped showing; you'll also see a notice that the pop-up has expired when you open it

The filter tabs above the list group these a little more broadly: All, Active, Inactive and Scheduled. Inactive covers both Draft and Expired pop-ups, so you won't find a separate Draft or Expired tab.

Frequently Asked Questions

What timezone does the schedule use?

The schedule uses the "Timezone" you pick under Schedule in Edit display rules — by default, your store's timezone. If you run a campaign for an audience in another region, you can select that region's timezone instead.

What happens when the end date passes?

The pop-up stops displaying automatically and moves to the Expired status — no manual action needed. Your pop-up design and settings are kept, so you can reuse it later.

Can I run a pop-up again after it expired?

Yes. Open the expired pop-up, update its schedule (or switch it to "Immediately"), and publish it again.

Do I need to keep a pop-up as a draft until launch day?

No — that's exactly what scheduling is for. Finish the design, set the start date and time, and publish: the pop-up waits in the Scheduled status and goes live on its own.

Why isn't my scheduled pop-up showing yet?

First, check that the start time has actually passed in the timezone you selected. Next, check where the pop-up sits in your priority order: only one pop-up is shown per page view, starting with the highest priority, so a scheduled pop-up can go live exactly on time and still wait its turn behind another one. On the Pop-ups list, set Sort by to Priority (highest first), click Change priority, and drag your pop-up to the top if it should come first. Then open Edit display rules and check its Pages and Trigger conditions — if you combined several conditions with AND, a visitor has to meet every one of them before the pop-up appears. And remember that pop-ups don't appear in the Shopify theme editor preview — test on your live store, ideally in an incognito window.