Halloween spending is expected to reach an all-time high this year.
The National Retail Federation (NRF) has released survey results that have revealed that Americans plan to go above and beyond with candy and costumes for this year’s Halloween celebrations.
According to the NRF’s annual survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, total spending for Halloween is expected to reach $8.4 billion, an all-time high in the survey’s history.
U.S. consumers are expected to spend an average of $82.93, up from last year’s $74.34, with more than 171 million Americans planning to partake in Halloween festivities this year.
“After a long summer, families are excited to welcome the fall season celebrating Halloween,” NRF president and CEO Matthew Shay said. “Retailers are preparing for the day by offering a wide variety of options in costumes, decorations and candy, while being aggressive with their promotions to capture the most out of this shopping event.”
According to the survey, consumers plan to spend $3.1 billion on costumes (purchased by 67% of Halloween shoppers), $2.5 billion on candy (94.3%), $2.4 billion on decorations (70%) and $390 million on greeting cards (35.4%).
When it comes to preparation, 71% of consumers plan to hand out candy, decorate their home or yard (49%), dress in costume (47%), carve a pumpkin (46%), throw or attend a party (34%), take their children trick-or-treating (30%), visit a haunted house (21%) or dress their pet(s) in costume (16%).
Searching for the perfect costume inspiration will lead consumers to sources such as online (35%) and in-store (29%). Social media is the fastest-growing influencer for the perfect costume, particularly Pinterest (17%), which has seen 133% growth since 2012. Some other places for inspiration include friends/family (19%), Facebook (17%), pop culture (16%) and print media (14%).
“Consumers are eager to celebrate Halloween, especially given that eight in 10 Americans will shop by mid-October. That is the highest we have seen in the survey history,” Prosper Insights principal analyst Pam Goodfellow said. “Americans will enjoy taking advantage of early-bird promotions both online and in-store as they kick off the fall season.”
When it comes to where consumers will shop for the season, 47% of shoppers will visit discount stores to buy their Halloween-related items this year and 36% will visit a specialty Halloween/costume store, up from 33% last year. In addition, 26% of customers will visit grocery stores/supermarkets, 23% will visit department stores and 22% will shop online.
The survey asked 6,791 consumers about Halloween shopping plans. It was conducted September 6-13 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.2 percentage points.
