How to Create a Countdown Timer to Boost Sales in Magento 2
Vinh Jacker | 3 days ago
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Let’s learn how to easily create, customize, and display a countdown timer in Magento 2. Maximize your store profits, increase conversion rates, and enhance promotion strategies with eye-catching and motivating timers.
Why create a countdown timer?
Countdown timers can be a powerful tool for online stores to boost sales and user engagement. Here are some reasons why you should create a countdown timer for your store:
-
Create a sense of urgency: Countdown timers create a sense of scarcity, which can motivate customers to complete their purchases before the time runs out. This can be particularly effective for limited-time offers, flash sales, or product launches.
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Increase conversion rates: By highlighting the limited time available for a specific offer, countdown timers can nudge customers who are on the fence about making a purchase to take action.
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Boost excitement and engagement: Countdown timers can add a sense of excitement and anticipation to your website, which can keep customers engaged and coming back for more.
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Highlight product availability: Timers can be used to indicate when a product will be back in stock or when pre-orders will close. This can be helpful for managing customer expectations and generating interest.
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Improve perceived value: By emphasizing the limited time of an offer, countdown timers can make your products or services seem more valuable.
Notes when using countdown timers
- Be transparent: Make sure the timer accurately reflects the remaining time for the offer. Don’t use misleading tactics.
- Use them strategically: Don’t overuse countdown timers, as this can lose their effectiveness.
- Target the right audience: Use timers for offers that are relevant to your target audience.
- Combine with a strong call to action: Clearly tell customers what you want them to do before the timer runs out (e.g., “Add to cart” or “Shop Now”).
How to create a countdown timer on Magento 2?
The Magento 2 Countdown Timer extension enables store owners to easily customize and display attractive discounts on various pages, naturally motivating shoppers to place more orders in a short period of time.
To create a countdown timer, first and foremost, you need to download the extension, then log in to the admin panel, and follow the instructions below.
Navigate to Mageplaza > Countdown Timer > Manage Rules
. This is where you make a new timer and edit created ones.
Now, click the Add New
button on the top right corner.
General section
In the first part, you need to fill out these fields.
- Name: Provide a name for your timer (mandatory)
- Status: Choose
Enable
to display it in the storefront - Store Views: Select the store in which the Countdown Timer is displayed (you can choose one or multiple stores)
- Customer Groups: Pick the customer group that can see the timer (you can also choose various groups at the same time)
-
Apply for: Decide how the Countdown Timer will be applied. There are 4 options:
- All Products with Special Price: Countdown Timer is displayed on all products with special price at Frontend.
- Specific Products with Special Price: Choose to apply to each product with special price. When choosing this, the system will show another section called
Conditions
. Here, you can set conditions to identify the products you want to apply the timer.
- Inherit condition from Catalog Rules: The system will automatically inherit previous conditions you made from the catalog rule and show another field: Select
Catalog Price Rule
field. Now, you can quickly choose any option without having to configure it from the beginning.
- None Product Base: not applicable based on product, the position to show the clock will depend on where you put the widget. If you choose this option, 2 more fields will be shown:
- Start countdown date
- End countdown dates
- Priority: The default value is 0, which is the highest priority level. In this case, the smaller the number, the higher its priority when showing at the frontend.
Display section
- Display On: Choose where you want to display the timer in frontend: Category or Product Page
-
Snippet Code: display the code segment.
- CMS Page/Static Block: Copy and paste the code into the page in which you want to display the Countdown Timer
- Phtml file file: Copy and paste the code into the .phtml file in which you want to display the Countdown Timer
- Layout file: Copy the code and insert it into Magento’s .xml file or other extensions you want to display Countdown Timer.
- Before Starting Countdown:
- Select
Yes
in theEnable
field to allow displaying the countdown timer before product promotion starts. - Choose 1 of 5 available timer types: Simple, Circle, Square, Stack, and Modern.
- Template on Product View: Insert the variables , & , allow showing countdown timer at Product View before sales with the default template: ```
<div class="mp-countdown-message">Hurry up!</div> ```
- Template on Category View: Insert the variables , & allow showing countdown timer at Category View before sales with the default template: ```
``` * : Show clock * : Show discounted amount * : Show discounted percentage
- Then, just choose the color you want for the title, message, background, number, and text
- Time Remaining Countdown
- Select Yes to display the Countdown Timer while the product is on the discount program
- The rest are similar to Before Starting Countdown
Here’s how a countdown timer looks like on storefront:
Wrap up
A successful campaign is not just about offering great deals but also how you attract people to notice your incentives. A countdown timer, designed with appealing visuals can absolutely draw customers’ attention. Moreover, the strong message in the timer would be a great motivation as well.
So, why not take advantage of countdown timer right away?