As time goes on, it’s becoming more and more evident that live data updates are not just nice features to have; they are essential when it comes to business profit. 80% of brands say that they have more brand awareness and more social media engagement when using live data as well, showing how powerful it can be.
Live Counters as a Website Feature
If you want to incorporate real-time data into your website, then there are a lot of ways you can do this. The first way would be for you to use live counters as a website feature. Social proof like this, which shows when hundreds of people are viewing a product, implies both trust and popularity. Shopify in particular allows merchants to do this, along with notifications and built-in features that can be sent out when stock is low. Things like this can also showcase urgency if the offer is time-sensitive. It’s not just retail that this can apply to, either. If you look at the digital entertainment industry, with games like Jackpot King games, you will notice that there is a constantly updated total that increases as people place bets. As the jackpots are progressive, they increase through a network of games. By showing the data in real-time, the prize pot remains transparent, with “must drop” conditions attached to each tier. Counters like this are not just valuable, but essential to engagement.
Countdown Timers in Website Design
Another example would be countdown timers. This works because it creates a deadline, which can trigger decisions. Countdown timers, as used by Amazon during flash sales, also communicate urgency. Things like this work very well during early-bird pricing, and even for live offers. Countdown timers can be used in promotional banners, as well as in checkout pages and landing page combos. Animated timers work best, and as a general guide, it’s wise to use contrasting colors as they visually pop. If you try to convey artificial urgency, however, then this can backfire, especially if you are using fake numbers.
As an additional website feature, live purchases also work well. Having notices ike “James from Texas just bought this” and having it connected to your real product this helps to add a sense of activity, and when done right, it shows that your product is moving. It also helps you to build credibility in a way that static content can’t do as well. Consider having pop-ups at the bottom of the screen here, or having a sidebar during the checkout process. With mobile apps, it’s important to take a bit of a different approach, possibly with a push-style banner as explained by SendBird. Again, having real purchases or at least using anonymized data is crucial. You don’t need to give the real names of the people who are buying your product, but you do need to make sure that you are at least not simulating them dishonestly.
All in all, incorporating real data in combination with live updates is a very good thing to do. It’s also a great way for you to make sure that you are providing a transparent experience, something that is essentially sought after in 2025.