10 Limited-Time Offer Examples + Templates to Help You Craft Yours

In this post, we’ll show you 10 examples of how ecommerce brands use urgency and scarcity to drive sales. Plus, we’ll provide templates that will help you promote your own limited-time offer.

Limited-time offer wording ideas

Limited-time offers outperform regular promotions because they play into human psychology — our fear of missing out (FOMO) and the desire for exclusivity.

Based on these principles, limited-time offer wording usually features phrases that emphasize urgency and scarcity.

Time restriction

These phrases highlight a limited window of opportunity, compelling shoppers to act immediately:

• “Today only!”
• “Valid through midnight!”
• “Ends tomorrow!”
• “Last day to save!”
• “48-hour sale!”
• “Exclusive weekend sale — ends Sunday!”
• “Limited-time deal: 25% off sitewide!”

Time-based phrases work especially well in promotions tied to specific events, like flash sales or seasonal campaigns.

Supply restriction

These phrases emphasize scarcity, triggering FOMO and pushing hesitant shoppers to act:

• “While supplies last!”
• “Limited quantities available!”
• “Get it before it’s gone!”
• “Only X left in stock!”
• “Hurry — selling out fast!”
• “Shop now — items going fast!”

Supply-focused wording is most effective for physical products or high-demand items, as it creates an urgency tied to availability.

Depending on your business niche, you can use either of these or even both. For instance, Black Friday is one of those days when both types of restrictions are relevant due to the huge volume of sales happening in 24 hours.

But it’s not just the wording you can play with when crafting a limited-time offer. You can also use different approaches and add variety to your promo campaigns. In this article, we’re going to review several limited-time offer examples and break them down to see why each tactic works.

1. Limited-time offers paired with a countdown

As the name suggests, these offers include a countdown timer to emphasize urgency and encourage immediate action.

Countdown timers can be added to specific website pages, pop-up promos, and promotional emails.

Let’s see some examples in action.

Home Glow Australia effectively uses a countdown timer on its website during a Black Friday promotion. The timer is prominently displayed on the home page, showing the exact days, hours, minutes, and seconds left before the sale ends.

Combined with the phrase “Limited Time Only & While Stocks Last!”, the timer creates a strong sense of urgency, nudging visitors to act quickly.

💡 You can recreate a timer like this one on your website, for free, using GSC Countdown Timer if you’re on Shopify or HurryTimer plugin if you’re on WordPress.

Blue Apron takes a different approach by adding a countdown timer to an exit-intent popup. When a visitor is about to leave their website, a message pops up offering $50 off their next two orders — but only if they claim the deal within 30 minutes.

This tactic combines urgency with a personal incentive, encouraging users to sign up on the spot.

Samsonite uses countdown timers in its promotional emails to highlight a limited-time holiday deal. The timer, displayed at the top of the email, immediately draws the recipient's eye to the urgency of the promotion.

You can create similar email countdown timers to add urgency to your promotional campaigns.

Pair a timer with phrases like “Limited Time Deal Event” and “Shop Now” reinforce the time constraint and ensure customers don’t miss the deadline.

2. Category sales

If you have multiple product categories on your website and you want to promote specific product types, start a category sale. Limited-time offers on selected categories are a great way to boost the slow-moving stock.

Let’s consider the Top Deals section of Bed Bath & Beyond, one of the biggest domestic merchandise stores.

There is a unique promo offer for each product category, all with a mix of urgency and scarcity. Some of them imply limited inventory, while others are valid for a short period of time. The idea is that these select top deals will get you the most value for your money if you make haste.

3. Sitewide limited-time sale examples

If promoting select categories is not relevant in your case, a limited-time sitewide sale might be a good idea. Here's Tobi, a fast-fashion retail store for women, announcing its 50% off sitewide deal.

Notice that their offer takes up the entire landing page — it’s literally the first thing you see when you open the website.

As an alternative to designing a new page, you can add a fullscreen website overlay or a sticky bar that will feature the details of the offer and help visitors navigate to the right page or copy the discount code for checkout.

This is how it looks on Tommy John’s website.

4. Flash sales

When you run a flash sale, you greatly drop prices on selected products for a very short period.

Flash deals push visitors to impulse buy your products and help you sell your surplus stock.

Because a flash sale may last as little as a day, it’s important to use all communication channels to promote it. Your goal is to ensure all customers get a chance to take advantage of your offers.

If you have a list of emails or, better yet, phone numbers of your customers, that would be your go-to channel to promote your limited-time offer. Here are examples from Mixed by Nasrin and Milk Makeup, notifying customers about their flash sales via SMS.

Note how the wording of these messages implies that the product is in demand, and you have to be quick if you want to get it.

SMS marketing is quite efficient for promoting flash sales because customers tend to have a faster reaction to SMS than to emails. According to Michael Melen, co-founder of SmartSites marketing agency, SMS drives a 98% open rate and a 30% click-through rate, on average, which is significantly higher than email.

That said, a flash sale calls for a dedicated newsletter, too. If you’re looking for inspiration, we have a detailed guide to crafting flash sale emails. Alternatively, you can get started with one of the email templates below.

5. Seasonal clearance

A seasonal clearance is a sale held only several times a year and anticipated by the customers. The difference between a flash sale and a seasonal sale is in the products that are participating in the promo. In the latter case, it’s typically the products that were most relevant in the season that has just passed or is about to end.

Let’s see how brands announce seasonal sales to drive their customers’ attention.

Faherty Brand, a clothing and lifestyle brand, promotes a winter sale with a floating bar at the top of the page that matches the website’s colors.

The clickable light-brown announcement bar at the top of the webpage is always in view and remains visible regardless of where you click on the website. And the copy, as simplistic and concise as it is, gives visitors a good idea of what to expect.

While an onsite banner works for store visitors, it’s crucial to ensure that your past customers and subscribers know about the event as well. To achieve that, you might want to craft an eye-catching promo email, like Little Rooms did in the example below.

Two things make this email particularly efficient. First, it highlights the important details about the sale at the very top: the discount percentage, the minimum order requirements, and the date when the sale ends. Second, in addition to the featured image, Little Rooms added product cards to spotlight the products that are most likely to pique the subscribers’ interest and encourage them to click through.

6. First purchase discount

According to Capital One Shopping's 2025 research, 80% of American shoppers would be open to purchasing from a brand for the first time if offered a discount. This makes first-purchase discounts one of the most effective strategies for customer acquisition.

As a rule, it’s more difficult (and expensive) to sell something to newcomers rather than to your existing customers. So, using limited-time offers aimed exclusively at those who hear about your brand for the first time is a strategy worth trying.

Look at how Lola Blankets uses this tactic to encourage first-time visitors to sign up for a first-order discount.

This email popup is created in Getsitecontrol

The best part here?

The Lola Blankets team kills two birds with one stone. This limited-time offer popup appears a couple of seconds after a first-time visitor lands on their website, and it helps the company get more email subscribers, too.

As new shoppers become subscribers, the brand can maintain engagement by sending new offers and promotions via email.

How to roll out your limited-time offer

Limited-time offers work because they create urgency, drive action, and inspire purchases. Whether you're running flash sales, seasonal clearances, or exclusive discounts, the right messaging and design can make all the difference.

Now that you've learned what makes each of them work, here's how to roll out your campaign.

Step 1. Plan your offer

Start by choosing the offer type that aligns with your goal (inventory clearance, customer acquisition, etc.). Set clear conditions: discount amount, duration, minimum purchase requirements, and exclusions.

Step 2. Create your promotional assets

Next, design popups, banners, and email templates with consistent visuals and messaging. Consider adding countdown timers and scarcity signals (“Only 10 left” or “Ends in 24 hours”). Prepare compelling, consistent copy that emphasizes urgency and value.

Step 3. Set up your channels

Research shows that consumers discover deals through multiple touchpoints. According to Capterra's Coupon Preferences Survey, 68% of shoppers find coupons on coupon websites, while 61% discover them through company emails.

This data reinforces why a multi-channel approach is essential. Set up promotional popups and announcement bars on your website to capture on-site visitors. Schedule email campaigns for your subscriber list, and if you're using SMS marketing, prepare text messages for mobile-first customers.

Step 4. Launch simultaneously

Ensure messaging is consistent across every touchpoint and activate all promotions at once across email, SMS, and your website.

Step 5. Send strategic reminders

For promos lasting 48+ hours, it’s a common practice to send mid-campaign email check-ins, a 24-hour warning to create urgency, and a final hours push (“Last chance – ends tonight!”).

Step 6. Close strong

If relevant, send a final reminder 2-3 hours before the deadline. Then, remove all promotional materials immediately when the offer ends to maintain credibility.

Plan your limited-time promo campaign with Getsitecontrol

You don't need a dedicated landing page or developer to make this happen. Getsitecontrol provides everything you need to launch limited-time offers quickly: promo popups, sticky announcement bars, and email templates designed for promotional campaigns. It's built specifically for ecommerce stores that want to implement the tactics in this guide without technical complexity.

With Getsitecontrol, creating and promoting these offers is quick and seamless. Start experimenting today and see how urgency can turn visitors into customers.