Countdown

Countdown shows a timer to the end of a real offer, such as a seasonal sale, next to the products of a collection. Use it on the home page or on a landing page for the sale, and set the date the offer actually ends.

Set the end date and time

Under Timer, write the End date as YYYY-MM-DD, for example 2026-11-30, and the End time in 24-hour format, for example 18:00. The time is read in your store’s time zone, as set in Settings > General in your Shopify admin. Without an end time, the offer ends at 23:59.

The timer counts down to that moment and never restarts. What customers see depends on the date:

• No date, or a date written in the wrong format: no timer, only your caption, heading and text. In the theme editor a notice tells you when the date isn’t valid.
• A date in the future: the timer, together with the end date written out in full.
• A date that has passed: the timer and the date disappear, and the section says “The offer has ended.”

There is no default date, so a new Countdown section shows no timer until you set one. Remember to update the date, or remove the section, when you run the next sale.

The timer shows days, hours and minutes. Show seconds adds seconds; without them the digits change only once a minute, which is calmer for customers who are reading. Screen readers announce the time left in words, such as “3 days”. With JavaScript turned off, customers see the end date written out instead of a live timer.

Show the products on sale

Under Products, choose a Collection. The section shows up to Maximum products to show products from it, in the collection’s order, with Products per row on desktop setting the columns on computers. The cards are the same as on collection pages.

The button links to the collection and shows only when you choose a collection and fill in Button label.

Without a collection, the text takes the full width of the section. If the section has neither a valid date nor products, customers don’t see it at all, so it never announces an offer that doesn’t exist.

Countdown and scheduling

The countdown and Schedule visibility do different things. The end date tells customers when the offer ends, and the section stays visible afterwards with “The offer has ended.” Scheduling decides when the whole section is shown. To remove the section at the end of the sale, turn on Schedule visibility and set End date and time to the same moment as the countdown. You can also set a start, so the section appears only when the sale begins. See Scheduling.

Settings

Settings: Countdown

Setting	Type	Default	Options
Caption	Text	Limited-time offer	—
Heading	Text	Seasonal sale	—
Text	Multi-line text	Tell customers what is on offer and until when.	—
Timer
End date Use the format YYYY-MM-DD. Leave empty to hide the timer. The timer disappears once the date passes.	Text	—	—
End time Use the 24-hour format HH:MM, in your store's time zone.	Text	23:59	—
Show seconds	Checkbox	Off	—
Products
Collection	Collection	—	—
Maximum products to show	Slider	3	2–8, step 1
Products per row on desktop	Slider	3	2–4, step 1
Show vendor	Checkbox	Off	—
Button label	Text	Shop the sale	—
Layout
Use full page width	Checkbox	On	—
Vertical spacing	Drop-down	Regular	Compact Regular Spacious
Color scheme	Color scheme	scheme-1	—
Schedule
Schedule visibility	Checkbox	Off	—
Start date and time Use the format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM, in your store's time zone. Leave empty to show it right away. Shown when Schedule visibility is on	Text	—	—
End date and time Use the format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM, in your store's time zone. Leave empty to keep showing it. Shown when Schedule visibility is on	Text	—	—