Want to add urgency to your storefront and help customers take action before time runs out? ⏳

That’s exactly what the Hoppy Countdown Timer is built for.

With this app, you can create countdown timers for:

• 🛍️ Product Pages — Show urgency directly on product detail pages
• 🛒 Cart Page & Cart Drawer — Encourage buyers to complete checkout
• 💳 Checkout Page — Add urgency at the final step (Shopify Plus only)
• 🌐 Top/Bottom Banner — Display a site-wide countdown bar
• 📄 Landing Page & Custom Positions — Target specific collections or custom placements

This guide walks you through the essential setup steps so you can get your first countdown timer live quickly 🚀

📍 Available Countdown Types

Depending on your campaign, you can choose from several timer behaviors:

• Countdown to a date — Ends at a specific date and time
• Fixed minutes — A fixed-length countdown for each visitor session
• Daily recurring timer — Repeats on selected days (e.g., every weekday 9 AM – 11 AM)
• Interval timer — Multiple scheduled start and end times (up to 7 intervals)
• Session timer — A unique countdown that starts fresh for each visitor

The type you select changes which timing options appear in your setup.

⚠️ Before You Begin

Before creating a countdown timer, make sure:

• The Hoppy Countdown Timer app is installed on your Shopify store
• You have access to your Shopify Admin

Enable the App Embed

For countdown timers to appear on your storefront, the app embed must be enabled inside your Shopify theme.

Go to:

Shopify Admin → Sales Channels → Online Store → Themes → Edit Theme → App Embeds

Then:

• Find "Countdown Timers"
• Toggle it ON
• Click Save

💡 If you skip this step, your published countdown timer will not be visible on the storefront.

Shopify Plus Requirement for Checkout

If you want to place a countdown timer on the Checkout Page, your store must be on a Shopify Plus plan. Non-Plus stores will see a plan warning when attempting to create a checkout page countdown.

🛠️ Step 1 — Create a New Countdown Timer

Open the Hoppy Countdown Timer app from your Shopify Admin.

Then:

→ Click Create New Countdown

→ Select the placement type that matches where you want the timer to appear:

• Product Page
• Cart Page
• Cart Drawer
• Checkout Page (Shopify Plus only)
• Top/Bottom Banner
• Landing Page
• Custom Position

Once selected, the setup editor opens automatically with default settings tailored to that placement.

⚙️ Step 2 — Configure the Content Tab

After opening the setup page, you’ll land inside the Content tab.

This tab controls:

• 🏷️ Countdown name and messaging
• ⏱️ Countdown type and timing
• 🔚 What happens when the timer ends
• 🌍 Translations (for supported placements)

🏷️ Countdown Name

This field is used for internal reference only — customers will never see it.

Use a recognizable name such as:

• Summer Sale Timer
• Black Friday Countdown
• Flash Sale Urgency Bar

💡 Using clear internal naming makes it easier to manage multiple campaigns later.

📝 Title & Subheading

• Title — The main message customers see (e.g., "Hurry up\! Sale ends in {timer}")
• Subheading — A secondary line shown below the title on most placements

ℹ️ On Cart Page and Checkout Page timers, you can use the dynamic variable {timer} inside the title to display the live countdown inline.

🔘 Call-to-Action Button

For Top/Bottom Banner, Landing Page, Cart Page, and Cart Drawer timers, you can choose what happens when customers interact with the countdown bar.

Set the CTA action type to:

• No call to action — The bar displays text only
• Button — Adds a clickable button below the timer
• Make entire bar clickable — Turns the whole bar into a link

ℹ️ If you select Button or Make entire bar clickable, the Button Text and Link fields appear automatically so you can configure where customers are directed.

⏱️ Countdown Type

Choose how your timer should behave:

Once you select a type, the relevant timing fields appear automatically:

• Date → Start date and end date pickers appear
• Fixed minutes / Session → A Minutes field appears
• Recurring → Day selector and start/end time controls appear
• Interval → Multiple start/end date pickers appear (up to 7 intervals)

ℹ️ Cart Page, Cart Drawer and Checkout Page placements use fixed timing modes and do not show the Countdown Type selector. For Cart and Checkout, you set the duration in Minutes.

🕐 Timer Start Settings

For Countdown to a date timers, you can choose when the timer starts:

• Right now — The timer begins immediately when published
• Schedule to start later — Set a future start date

If you choose "Schedule to start later," an additional Start date field appears.

ℹ️ This option is not available for Cart Page, Cart Drawer, or Checkout Page placements, which use their own timing controls.

🔚 Once It Ends

This setting controls what happens when the countdown reaches zero.

Available options depend on your placement and countdown type:

For most placements:

• Unpublish Timer (Hide) — Hides the countdown automatically
• Show custom message — Displays a custom title/message you define
• Extend timer — Adds extra time and shows an extended message
• Do nothing — Leaves the timer visible at zero

For Cart Page, Cart Drawer, and Cart Standalone:

• All of the above, plus:
• Restart Countdown — Resets the timer automatically
• Delete cart products — Removes items from cart when the timer ends

For "Fixed minutes" type on other placements:

• Also includes Restart CountdownFor Checkout Page:

• Unpublish Timer (Hide) only
• Do nothing

ℹ️ If you select Show custom message or Extend timer, additional text fields appear automatically so you can enter the message content.

📍 Step 3 — Configure the Placement Tab

Next, open the Placement tab to control where the countdown appears and who can see it.

🎯 Select Pages or Products

The available targeting options depend on the placement type you chose in Step 1\.

🛍️ Product Page

• All products — Show on every product page
• Specific products — Hand-pick individual products from your store
• All products with specific tags — Target products matching tags you define
• All products in specific collections — Show for products within chosen collections
• Custom position — Place manually using the Countdown ID or Liquid snippet

🛒 Cart Page & Cart Drawer

• At the top of the cart — Default placement above cart items
• Custom position — Place manually using the Countdown ID or Liquid snippet

🌐 Top/Bottom Banner

• Show on every page — Site-wide visibility
• Show on home page only — Restrict to the homepage
• Show on all product pages — Appear on every product page
• Show on specific product pages — Hand-pick individual products
• All products in specific collections — Target products within chosen collections
• Show on all collection pages — Appear on every collection page
• Show on specific collection pages — Hand-pick individual collections
• Custom position — Place manually using the Countdown ID or Liquid snippet

📄 Landing Page

• All collection pages — Show on every collection page
• Specific collection pages — Hand-pick individual collections
• Custom position — Place manually using the Countdown ID or Liquid snippet

💳 Checkout Page

• Custom block placement — Add via the Shopify Checkout Editor

ℹ️ If you select Custom position, the app provides a Countdown ID and a Liquid code snippet after saving. You can use these inside your theme editor or code to place the timer exactly where you want.

⏳ Time-on-Site Targeting

Choose when the countdown should appear:

• Always Show — Displays immediately when the page loads
• Show after a while — Delays appearance by a set number of seconds (1–300)

👤 Customer Targeting (Optional)

You can refine visibility based on:

• Login status — Show to all customers or only logged-in customers
• Show bar to — All customers, customers with specific tags, or customers based on lifetime spent
• Hide bar from — Exclude specific customer tags or lifetime spent ranges

ℹ️ These settings are optional. For most setups, the default Show to all customers works perfectly.

🌍 Geolocation Targeting (Optional)

By default, your countdown is visible worldwide.

If you want to restrict it to specific countries, select Specific countries and choose the allowed locations from the country selector.

🎨 Step 4 — Customize Design (Optional)

Open the Design tab to change how your countdown looks.

You can quickly apply a pre-made template or manually customize:

• Position (top or bottom)
• Background color or gradient
• Timer style (flip clock, tiles, plain numbers, and more)
• Fonts, spacing, and button styling

💡 If you’re in a hurry, start with a template and fine-tune later.

For a full breakdown of every design option, see the Design & Styling documentation.

💾 Step 5 — Save Your Setup

Once your content and placement are configured:

→ Click Save

The save bar appears at the bottom of the screen whenever you make changes. Saving stores your configuration but does not make the timer live yet.

🚀 Step 6 — Publish the Countdown

After saving:

→ Click Publish

Once published:

• The countdown becomes visible on your storefront according to your placement and targeting rules
• A green "Published" badge appears next to the countdown name

⚠️ Important reminders:

• If the app embed is not enabled in your theme, the countdown will not appear — even after publishing
• For checkout page timers, only one published checkout countdown is allowed per store
• You can unpublish anytime by clicking the Unpublish button

✅ Final Step — Confirm It’s Working

After publishing:

1. Open your storefront in an Incognito or Private browser window
2. Navigate to the page where the countdown should appear
3. Verify the timer is visible and counting down correctly

If the countdown does not appear:

• Re-check that the App Embed is enabled and saved in your theme
• Confirm the countdown is published
• Try a hard refresh (Ctrl + Shift + R on Windows / Cmd + Shift + R on Mac)
• Check that your scheduling or targeting rules are not hiding it

🎉 Final Result

Once configured successfully:

✅ A countdown timer is live on your selected pages ✅ Customers see real-time urgency messaging ✅ The timer automatically hides or extends based on your end-action settings ✅ Your storefront feels more dynamic and time-sensitive ✨

A well-placed countdown timer can help nudge customers toward faster purchase decisions throughout their shopping journey 🚀

Updated on: 03/06/2026