According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), nearly 158 million Americans will celebrate Halloween this year, whether it's via dressing up in costume, passing out candy, throwing parties, or decorating their homes. Some other trends include:
Decreased Spending (compared to 2012): According to the survey, total spending on costumes, treats, festivities and decorations for 2013 is expected to reach $6.9 billion, a slight decrease from the $8 billion last year.
- Costumes: 43.6% of people plan to dress up for Halloween, spending nearly $1.04 billion on children's costumes, $1.22 billion on adult costumes, and nearly $330 million on pets (13.8% of people!)
- Candy: Consumers are expected to spend $2.08 billion on candy alone.
- Greeting Cards: Greeting cards are expected to bring in around $360 million in sales.
- Decorations: Consumers are expected to spend another $1.96 billion on decorations, while still reusing some from last year.
Waiting to Buy Until October: According to the survey, 32.8% of consumers began shopping before September 30, with the majority of people beginning the first two weeks of October (43.6%) and towards the end of the month (23.6%).
Inspiration Comes from Online & In-Store: The NRF found that a similar number of consumers will find inspiration for Halloween costumes on the Internet (32.9%) as they do in-store (32.8%), while nearly 20.8% of consumers will seek advice from friends and family members.
Economy Impacts Spending: According to the survey, nearly a quarter of consumers (25.2%) claimed that the economy would impact their spending this Halloween, with 86.1% spending less money overall.
Have you found these statistics to be true for your business compared to last year?
by Samantha Warner
Marketing Extraordinaire