Countdown timer

Setting a launch deadline, and why the time you type is the time every visitor sees.

Two templates have a countdown: Simple (as an optional section) and Countdown (where it is the centerpiece). Both use the same setting.

Set the deadline

1. Open the template in the editor.
2. Go to the Countdown category.
3. Tick Show countdown timer (Check to enable the countdown timer on Simple).
4. Set Launch date and time (on Simple, the date field just below the checkbox).

The field is a date and time picker. Pick the moment your store opens, or the moment a drop goes live.

Timezones

Type the time in your store’s timezone — the one set in your Shopify admin under Settings → General. That is what the app assumes you mean.

The app converts it to an absolute moment before the page renders, so a deadline of 9am in Denver counts down to 9am Denver time for a visitor in London, in Tokyo, and in Denver. Everyone’s timer hits zero together.

Daylight saving is handledThe conversion happens when the page is rendered, against your store's real timezone rules. A deadline several months out still lands correctly if a daylight saving change falls in between.

If your store’s timezone is wrong in Shopify, fix it there — the countdown follows it.

When the timer reaches zero

The timer gives way to a single word: LAUNCHED on the Countdown template, EXPIRED on Simple. Nothing else happens automatically: your page does not come down and your store does not open.

Launching is still the manual toggle on the Home tab. See Showing and hiding your page.

A stale countdown is worse than noneEvery template ships with an example deadline that is already in the past, so an untouched timer reads EXPIRED or LAUNCHED from the start, and that reads as an abandoned store. Either set a real date or untick the countdown.

Styling it

The Countdown category, with the timer's five color settings.

The Countdown template gives you full control of the timer’s appearance:

Setting	Controls
Timer numbers color	The digits
Timer labels color	The words days, hours, minutes, seconds
Timer card background	The panel behind each unit
Timer card hover background	That panel on hover
Timer card border color	The panel’s outline

On Simple, the timer inherits the page’s typography and font color instead — it has no separate color settings of its own.

Recurring drops

There is no repeat option. For a store that drops monthly, the workflow most merchants use is: set the next date, tick the visitor toggle a few days out, and untick it when the drop goes live. The template and its styling stay put between drops.

Still stuck?

Email [email protected] with your store's .myshopify.com domain and what you were trying to do. Most replies go out within one business day; over a weekend it can take longer.