Use case
Countdown timer for abandoned cart emails
An abandoned cart flow sends the same email to people who left at different moments. A countdown to a calendar date gives one shopper five days and another a few hours. What works is a window that belongs to each shopper: “We are holding your cart for 24 hours.”
The timer to use
Personal timer
Each shopper’s countdown starts at their first open of the email and does not reset when they reopen it.
Set it up
In tikio, click Get code, choose In an email and pick Personal timer. Set the window — 24 hours is the usual choice for carts — and choose your email platform so the code carries its subscriber ID tag. Paste the code into the first email of your abandoned cart flow and wrap it in the link back to the cart if the code is not already wrapped in a smart link.
<img src="https://t.tikio.io/e/a1b2.gif?uid={{ person.id }}" alt="Your cart is saved for 24 hours" width="480" style="border:0;max-width:100%;height:auto;" />Decide what happens at zero
A shopper who opens the email a week later should not see a live offer that is gone. On the link, choose to hide the timer or show an image such as “Your cart has expired”, and add a smart link that sends clicks after zero to your shop instead of the cart. Both settings apply to emails already sent.
Keep the window honest
If the cart really is released after 24 hours, the countdown is a reminder rather than a trick. If nothing actually expires, use a softer line in the copy or skip the timer — shoppers notice when a “last chance” comes back the next day.
Change the window later
Testing 12 hours against 48? Edit the timer on the link page. Emails already sent pick up the new length within minutes, measured from each shopper’s same first open.
Last updated: 2026-09-30.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Does the timer start when the flow sends the email?
A personal timer starts at the shopper’s first open; for Apple Mail readers the image is fetched at delivery, so for them it effectively starts when the email arrives. If the window must start at the send for everyone, use a deadline from the send time instead: set the link up through the REST API or MCP with offset_seconds: 86400 and put your platform’s send-time tag in target= — Klaviyo {% now 'U' %}, Mailchimp *|DATE:U|*.
What if my platform has no subscriber ID tag?
Use the email address tag as the key — it is stable per person. Without any key, the timer restarts on every open.
Can I show the cart contents in the timer?
No. The timer shows the countdown only; keep product blocks in your ESP’s own cart content.
Using something else? See all email platform guides.
Pick the timer, paste the code
Free during early access — no watermark, no credit card. Your first countdown is live in a couple of minutes.
Create your free countdown