With this plugin you can set up a countdown timer – or even multiple – on a page. The timer will count down until the given date and show the alternative content.
This plugin is great for use on sales pages and product launches or discounts, it gives a sense of tension to the visitor.
This plugin does not use an admin page, everything is done with a few simple shortcodes.
Usage:
<pre><code>[countdown date="18:00:00 08/30/2009"]
This page goes live in about: [counter]
[after]
Enter your secret content here
[/countdown]
</code></pre>
Note that dates are UTC and that alternative content is not send to the browser until the date passed.

WordPress Countdown Plugin

Add a countdown timer to any page hiding content until the date passes.

James Golovich

<a href="http://www.woothemes.com/woocommerce/" rel="nofollow ugc">WooCommerce</a> doesn’t remove an item from inventory until someone actually buys 
that item. This plugin can reduce the “virtual” stock quantity of an item without actually modifying the item 
inventory, so there should be no problems with missing data if somehow the cart data is deleted. This plugin isn’t for 
everyone, but people that are selling specialty items will find it useful and hopefully eliminate some customer 
support nightmares.
The plugin can automatically expire items from the cart (disabled by default) with a configurable expiration time. 
Expiration times are plain english using whatever types php’s strtotime can support (Examples: 10 minutes, 1 hour, 6 hours, 1 day) 
Per item expiration time can be configured by adding a Custom Field to each item using the configured 
‘Expire Custom Key’ (default name is ‘csr_expire_time’).
Expiration can be enabled independently of reducing the cart stock, so this plugin can also be used to expire items at 
other intervals than the default WooCommerce cart/session expiration.
An issue was opened on the <a href="https://github.com/woothemes/woocommerce/issues/5966" rel="nofollow ugc">WooCommerce issue tracker</a> regarding 
this problem and someone posted on Facebook about it, which caught my attention.
Please submit bug reports, feature requests, and pull requests via the <a href="https://github.com/jamesgol/woocommerce-cart-stock-reducer" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub repository</a>
<h3>TODO</h3>
<ul>
<li>Look into adding ajax and mini-cart notices</li>
<li>Take some screenshots for wordpress.org</li>
<li>Add some kind of indicator to cart so you know what items will expire</li>
</ul>
<h3>Thanks</h3>
<ul>
<li>Bob DeYoung of <a href="https://github.com/bluelotusworks" rel="nofollow ugc">BlueLotusWorks</a> for testing, feedback, and support</li>
</ul>

WooCommerce Cart Stock Reducer

I use both virtual stock reduction and cart item expiration. Both work exactly as promised.

I was also able to:
1. Add a "Quantity reserved" column to my product list in admin
2. Localize the countdown text for cart expiration
thanks to the excellent code in thus plugin.

Just fantastic - a must at sometimes busy stores

We needed a ticket-sales like cart capability where a ticket is 'blocked' once added to a cart preventing others from purchasing for a set-time, but then needed to return the item to the cart automatically after the timeout.

This plug-in worked perfectly with the latest Woo Commerce plugin, additionally displaying a count-down timer nicely in the cart. When the timer expires the item is removed from the cart automatically.  

Nice work!

Using for a cart-timer so that items return to inventory after timeout

Allow WooCommerce inventory stock to be reduced when adding items to cart and/or expire items from the cart

WordPress Countdown Plugin vs WooCommerce Cart Stock Reducer