The Countdown and Ticker elements bring motion and urgency to your storefront. A countdown displays the time remaining until a deadline; a ticker scrolls text, logos, or badges horizontally in a continuous loop.
Insert a countdown or ticker
Open the Insert panel from the left sidebar.
If the panel is showing templates, click Switch to elements.
Open the Advanced category and expand Interactive.
Click or drag Countdown or Ticker onto the canvas, then select it to configure it in the design panel.
For cart urgency messaging, Instant also has a Cart countdown preset under the Shopify category, inside a Cart layout. See Cart countdowns.
Configure a countdown
Select the Countdown layer and open Set ending time in the design panel to choose how the timer runs:
Due date — count down to a specific date, time, and time zone. Use this for a sale that ends on a calendar day.
Time — count down a fixed duration set in Hours (0–99) and Minutes (0–59). Use this for evergreen urgency.
For a Time countdown, the Reset option controls whether the timer restarts:
Yes — the countdown resets each time someone loads or reloads the page.
No — the countdown starts on page load and does not reset on reload.
Inside a Cart layout, Reset ties to cart events instead of page loads. See Cart countdowns for cart-specific behavior.
Use Digits to show One or Two digits, which controls leading zeros on the numbers.
The countdown holds Days, Hours, Minutes, and Seconds groups, each with a number and a Label. Select them in the Layouts & layers panel to style the numbers, labels, and separators independently.
Configure a ticker
Select the Ticker layer to adjust its scrolling behavior:
Direction — scroll Left or Right.
Align — vertical alignment of the repeated items.
Gap — spacing between repeated items.
Speed — how fast the content moves.
Pause — set to On hover to stop scrolling while the visitor hovers, or No to keep it moving.
The ticker repeats its child content automatically, so anything you add inside it — text, logos, or badges — loops seamlessly. Use the Preview control in the design panel to step through items while you edit.
Where to use them
Countdown — sale banners, launch pages, and event deadlines.
Ticker — shipping announcements, brand slogans, partner logos, or promotional one-liners in a header strip.
Design tips
Pair a countdown with a clear call to action — the timer creates urgency, but visitors still need to know what to do next.
Keep ticker text short; long sentences are hard to read while scrolling.
For a Due date countdown, remember that a midnight deadline in one time zone is still afternoon elsewhere.
On mobile, give countdown digits enough spacing and a readable font size.