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Cart page and cart drawer timers

A per visitor countdown on the cart page and in your theme cart drawer, shown only while the cart has items, with a title that holds the clock where you put it.

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Category
Timer guides
Updated
26 September 2026
Applies to
TreStack Timer, Growth and Professional

What a cart timer does

A cart timer is always a fixed minutes countdown, 15 minutes by default, kept per visitor in their browser. It shows only while the cart holds products from your store, on the cart page and in the cart drawer of your theme. Products that other stores sell through yours do not count. When the cart empties, the countdown is forgotten, so the next time that shopper fills the cart it starts again.

The title carries the clock. Put {timer} where the countdown should appear. The default title already ends with it. The title accepts a small set of formatting tags, such as bold, italic, and underline. Anything else is removed, both when you save and on the storefront.

The cart drawer

Themes build their cart drawers differently, so the app looks for the drawer in a general way rather than per theme. It listens for Shopify's standard cart event, watches the cart requests your theme makes, and puts the timer back when the theme redraws the drawer after an item is added or removed.

If the timer shows on the cart page but not in the drawer, your theme drawer is one the general search does not recognise. The app embed has a Cart drawer selector setting for exactly this: enter the CSS selector of your drawer element, for example #my-cart-drawer. If you do not know the selector, write to us with the store URL and we will find it.

When it runs out

Hide removes the timer for that buyer and is the default. Repeat starts the countdown again. Delete all the items in the cart removes your products from a real shopper's cart, leaving products other stores sell through yours, so choose it only when the timer stands for something true, such as stock you genuinely hold for a limited time.

Setting up a cart timer, in four steps.

In order. Each step assumes the one before it is finished, so skipping one is how the last step fails for a reason that looks unrelated.

  1. Step one

    Create a cart timer

    It is always fixed minutes. Set the minutes the countdown should run.

  2. Step two

    Write the title

    Put {timer} where the clock goes. Keep it to one line so it fits a narrow drawer.

  3. Step three

    Choose what happens at zero

    Hide for the buyer, repeat, or delete all the items in the cart.

  4. Step four

    Test with a real cart

    Add an item, open the drawer, then load the cart page. Remove the item and check the timer goes.

Settings reference

The controls this page touches, with what each one does and the default the app ships where there is one.

Minutes
15 by default. Counted per visitor, from the moment they first see the timer with items in the cart.
Title
Holds the clock at {timer}. Bold, italic, underline, and a few other formatting tags are kept.
Once it ends
Hide the timer for the buyer, which is the default, repeat the countdown, or delete all the items in the cart.
Placement
At the top of the cart, which covers the cart page and the drawer, or custom position with the app block.
Cart drawer selector
On the app embed in the theme editor. Only needed when the drawer is not found on its own.
Plan
Growth or Professional to publish. Any plan can build and preview one.

If this does not work

The failures most likely on this procedure, with the check that resolves each one. If none of them fit, we would rather have the store URL than a guess.

Send us the store URL
The timer is on the cart page but not in the drawer

Set the Cart drawer selector on the app embed to your drawer element and save the theme. If you cannot find the selector, send us the store URL.

The timer does not show at all

Check the cart has items first, since an empty cart shows no timer by design. Then check the app embed is on and the timer is published.

The countdown started again for a shopper

Either the cart was emptied, which resets it, or the timer is set to repeat, or the shopper is on another browser or device. Each of these starts a new countdown by design.

Keep reading

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