6 Best Countdown Timer Apps for Shopify

Psychologist Robert Cialdini is called, and justly so, by many ‘a father of the modern science of persuasion’ and his quotes and citations are all over schools, colleges and, of course, e-commerce coaching courses. Professor of Psychology and Marketing, and on the whole an esteemed authority on everything related to conversion optimization, formulated 6 principles of persuasion which are in one way or another usually form the foundation of any marketing strategy: reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity.

Today we’re going to talk about the last one, scarcity, and how to use it to boost conversion and earn money. Tell us, do you think that one teeny-weeny line of text on the landing page of your store could lead to a significant increase in sales? Fantastic and unbelievable at first glance, but according to the results of the numerous tests, a very real scenario. This magical phrase, which allowed to increase the conversion rate by 9%, turned out to be a simple timer, showing how quickly a client must fill an order to get his purchase the next day. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the prime example of what the power of urgency can do to people.

The timer instills a sense of urgency in-store customers, which, in turn, fathers a well-known psychological phenomenon, namely a sense of scarcity and a fear of missing something important, or FoMO (fear of missing out). Our typical reaction to scarcity hinders our ability to think rationally and pushes act to act now, which is why smart marketers can make us part with our hard-earned money and leave us feeling good about while they’re at it.

FoMo explains the fear of missing any opportunity or social engagement, which is actually the reason for numerous folks who just keep checking and rechecking email and pages on social media page every 5 minutes. A timer acts as a trigger, which intensifies this feeling of urgency.

First of all, it’s specific. Unlike the generic phrase ‘offer with a limited duration’, the timer looks more realistic and maybe even a little frightening.

Secondly, it is not static. Our brain is constantly on the lookout for both opportunities and threats, which, in our minds, are always dynamic.

The timer is considered by many marketers as a tired approach and a cliché one at that, but you know what? This particular cliché is a great way to create a stir around your offer.

Since we’re positive that by now you’re convinced that your store might benefit from the use of a timer, let’s get down to looking closely at the choicest apps, that are proven not only to bring in more visitors but also radically increase sales.

It’s not a ranking, and we liked all of them for several reasons, so just sit back, relax and prepare to pick the best of the best.

Everyone knows that urgency is one of the easiest tactics to increase sales. Essential Countdown timer is the perfect Shopify app to encourage buyers to act and boost revenue. It’s great for any type of promotion, flash sales, discounts, and even pre-orders. Whenever you need to add a countdown timer to your Shopify store – Essential Countdown timer is your choice!

Essential Countdown app works incredibly well with Shopify OS2 themes which means you can effortlessly add a countdown timer as an app block anywhere in your store. Most commonly used placements of a countdown timer include: Product Page below the Add to Cart button to add that extra urgency and push buyers over the edge to convert; Top-bar countdown to announce a special promotion across the whole store; or any other page like Home Page, Password Page, Collection Page, etc.

Essential Countdown timer has everything you might ever need: a possibility to set up unlimited countdown timers, 20 high-converting countdown timer styles, a possibility to auto restart the countdown after it ends or change the countdown timer title, and the cherry on top is that it is 100% mobile friendly! It also takes just a glance into their review section to see that it all comes with truly exceptional support. Last but not least, it’s FREE! A truly premium Shopify countdown timer app available to everyone!

Strengths

• Free
• Possibility to add timer anywhere in your store
• Highly customizable
• Multiple timer types and styles

Pricing: Free

Dear e-store owner, we’re very sorry to inform you, that a mass murderer just walked into your establishment and he’s on a killing spree, so watch out for your conversion rates. We’re in earnest here and kid you not, because customer hesitation can be lethal. All those ‘ah, maybe later’, ‘do I really need this, hmm’ and ‘why not tomorrow’ pave the way to a lot of bad things, worst of all a chance for a competitor to lure those waverers away. You have only one gun at your disposal, which is urgency, and we (pardon us for the pun) urge you to use it.

However, how to create urgency without being pushy or irritating? By using awesome Ultimate Sales Boost app, which can lift up sales, increase conversion and urge you, clients, to move. This app can do everything you can think of and more besides to influence your shopper on every stage of the purchasing process.

Can you place the countdown timer on the collection page? Check. What about message label on the collection page? Yes, sir. The get-it-by timer on a product page? Roger that. Warning about the low stock warning on a product page? Of course. What about social proof, I want everyone to see ‘Viewing Customer’ counter and Trust badges on the product page! Already done. All this and number of other useful sweeties, including ‘Recently sold’ counter and ‘Reserved’ timer. There’s also… Ah. Already installing it. Well, good to know.

Strengths

• Ease of use
• Flexible pricing (choose the plan depending on your requirements)
• Versatility

Pricing: free plan available, then $9.99/month and $29.99/month

‘Great app. Love the simplicity and how you can choose between timer or item countdown WITHOUT a random bold and distracting logo on your page’

‘A very easy to use scarcity timer! very powerful tool!’

‘This is a must-have app for anyone wanting to maximize their average order’

What’s this? Just three out of many comments that SMART Scarcity users posted to thank the developers for their great work. Here’s an app, which’s all about urgency and scarcity and pulling all stops to increase conversion rates in a way which doesn’t require any special technical skills from you (note how people like the ease of use in their testimonials).

SMART Scarcity allows you to easily increase revenue and average visitor value by leveraging the psychological effect of scarcity threat for your products in an easy, eye-pleasing and clear way. It offers plenty of features and many of them let you do many things at once, like the complex configuration of timers, which means you don’t have to set up each one individually.

SMART Scarcity likes to offer you choices on every turn, including the choice between evergreen and regular timers, multiple templates to fit any kind of business model, and employing the counter for individual items or entire collections of products. We’re also sure that you’d like the unique sticky timer feature, that will constantly remind customers about the urgency of sale and scarcity of the products.

Strengths

• User-friendliness
• Sticky timers
• Easy color customization

Pricing:  $37 one time charge

Everybody in the e-commerce world knows the terms ‘urgency’ and ‘scarcity’. While many merchants have a rather vague understanding what those two mean, they’re just not aware of how much they’re missing in terms of improving sales, conversion, and trust. What can be achieved, if you hone those marketing blades, which can cut away procrastination, hesitation, and delay, in other words, three mortal enemies of any e-store owners?

Urgency can strengthen engagement, better conversion rate, lend a helping hand with mobile conversion optimization and even work on customer loyalty. Ultimate Countdown Timer does all that, is designed to create urgency by displaying timers almost anywhere, including product page, landing page, and home page. All timers are extremely customizable and can be used for announcing the beginning and end of sales and promotions.

Using behavioral psychology, this app nudges customers toward deals and campaigns, reminding them about the time limit, and shows them, other happy buyers, displaying the number of people who have already bought a product. You can play around with timer design and change color and size, making the most of syncing it with the brand or using the contrast to maximizing the impact.

All this for free. Does it get any better? You bet. The app supports text in any language and you can display customized messages or buttons to offer coupon or discount code.

Strengths

• Price
• Extremely customizable
• Vast choice of useful feature
• Mobile responsiveness

Pricing: free plan available

Did you know that on average the online merchants are losing approximately 67% of sales due to a cart abandonment? Why not try to minimize the impact simply by adding a sense of urgency to your checkout flow? Conversion Plus helps you achieve this. People all too often browse the products, add things to their cart and just leave it there. Why? Because mostly there’re no motivators or drivers at work, which would compel them to finish the checkout.

Conversion Plus changes the process by adding a configurable ‘timer’ to the cart and instills the sense of urgency. Here you’re able to attach a customizable message, that starts playing together with the timer starts. This app allows you to choose the duration of time for which the products will stay reserved. Conversion Plus boasts multi-language support, ease of use and customization, mobile responsiveness and more.

Strengths

• Price
• Number of customization features
• Multi-language support

Pricing: free

Nothing puts visitors in the mood to buy more efficiently than a little FoMO. By offering sweet looking promotions and spicing things a bit with a little fear by adding a timer, you give a customer an incentive to act now, which can boost your conversion rates up to 25%.

Shoppers like to reflect and think, but the longer they think, the less likely they will convert into actual shoppers. Urgency, Social Proof & Timers can give them a nudge and only you control how gentle or persistent this push is going to be.

Use checkout timers, stock warnings, view and order counters, and many other supported features to make your reminders that nothing (least of all your stocks) stays the same forever

In this app, you can effectively direct the attention of customers to whatever you consider important with banners, that appear at their expected place (at the top), which adds to their efficiency. Use them to display info about special offers, sales, discounts, promotions, etc. and mix them with ‘low stock’, ‘number of current viewers’, and ‘recent order’ counters to maximize the impact.

Strengths

• Completely customizable
• A-B test feature
• A number of supported languages
• Intelligent social proof feeds

Pricing: free plan available. Additional charges may apply

Summing it up

Urgency works for a simple reason. Studies show that deep inside human beings fear loss more than they desire to gain. We are just made to act when threatened with scarcity or the potential loss of a valuable resource. That’s why countdown timers are perceived as an unobtrusive hint and do not irritate the customers, which is helped by an attractive design that all apps in our list possess.

However, if the look and feel of a counter are not to your liking, it’s easily corrected by a little tweaking, since all of them are very easy to configure and offer a sufficient number of configuration options to change them any way you deem fit. Make your clients more focused on the sale at hand and less inclined to be distracted, thus turning the purchasing process into an obstacle-free path to their satisfaction and your success.