Inline messages

Inline messages

Product-page social proof next to the buy button: purchases, views, add-to-cart, and low-stock signals.

What inline messages do

Inline messages appear on product pages where purchase decisions happen. Instead of a floating popup, a single line of proof sits near the buy button:

  • “12 customers bought this product in the last 24 hours”
  • “47 people viewed this in the last 3 hours”
  • “Only 3 left in stock”

Messages are product-specific: they always refer to the product on the current page, not store-wide activity.

How it works

  1. Recently tracks views and add-to-cart events via a web pixel, and receives purchase events from Shopify webhooks.
  2. Activity is aggregated server-side with credibility thresholds so low-traffic products do not show inflated or sparse numbers.
  3. The selected message is written to a product metafield for instant server-side rendering: no extra browser request on page load.
  4. The theme app block reads the metafield and renders the message in Liquid.

Install the theme block

  1. Open Inline messages in the Recently admin.
  2. Click Open product page in theme editor.
  3. On the product template, add the Recently Inline message app block near the buy button.
  4. Save the theme.

See Install for full setup steps.

Theme editor

In the Shopify theme editor the block always shows one fixed sample:

Placeholder: 8 customers bought this product in the last 24 hours

That sentence is for layout and typography only. It is not this product’s activity, and it does not mean shoppers will see a purchase count. On the published store the same block shows a real message only when the product clears a credibility minimum, and it stays blank until then.

Typography and layout are set on the block in the theme editor, not in the Recently admin:

  • Text preset (heading levels, paragraph, custom)
  • Font (body, subheading, heading, accent theme fonts)
  • Size, line height, letter spacing
  • Color, width, background, and border

Which message types appear and how many events are required are configured in Inline settings. New shops start in Automatic mode.

When a message appears

Recently counts purchases, views, and add-to-carts in rolling windows from the last hour through the last 7 days. A line is published only when the count for that type and window meets the minimum for the shop’s selection mode. Sparse counts stay hidden.

When more than one type qualifies, the storefront can rotate them. Recently ranks them in this order:

  1. Purchases, using the shortest window that qualifies
  2. Add to cart
  3. Low stock, when inventory is at least 1 and at or below the threshold
  4. Views

If nothing qualifies, the live product page renders no sentence. See Automatic minimums for the default numbers.

Data & privacy

  • View and add-to-cart counts use anonymous session identifiers: no personal data in the displayed message
  • Purchase counts come from real Shopify orders for that product
  • Low-stock uses live inventory from Shopify webhooks
  • Counts are rolling-window aggregates, not live totals: labeled as “in the last X hours/days”

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