NRF: Halloween spending to hit $11.6 billion, most popular costumes are...
Early demand for ghouls, ghosts and other Halloween items continues to grow.
Early Halloween shopping is on the rise, with 47% of consumers beginning their shopping before October, up from 37% five years ago and 32% in 2014, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics.
Those taking part in the spooky season plan to spend an average of $103.63, about $4.62 less than last year’s record of $108.24. Total Halloween spending is expected to reach $11.6 billion, after last year’s record-setting $12.2 billion.
Discount stores (37%) remain the top destination to buy Halloween items, followed by specialty Halloween/costume stores (33%) and online (33%). Across spending categories, candy remains the most popular with total spending expected to reach $3.5 billion. Total spending on decorations is expected to hit $3.8 billion, followed by costumes ($3.8 billion) and greeting cards ($0.5 billion).
“Interest in early Halloween shopping continues to be dominated by the 25-34 age group, with 56% of shoppers in this group kicking off their shopping before October,” Prosper executive VP of strategy Phil Rist said. “Their love of the holiday is a key factor in this trend, with nearly half of this segment sharing that they plan to shop early because Halloween is their favorite holiday.”
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Costumes
• Consistent with last year, total spending on adult costumes is expected to reach $1.8 billion, while spending on children’s costumes is anticipated to hit $1.3 billion. Interest in pet costumes remains steady and is projected to reach $0.7 billion.
• The leading sources of inspiration continue to be online searches (38%), within a retail store or costume shop (28%), and friends and family (20%).
• This Halloween, 2.6 million children plan on dressing up as Spider-Man, 1.8 million as a ghost, 1.7 million as a princess, 1.6 million as a witch and 1.5 million as their favorite superhero.
• Among adults, 5.8 million plan on dressing up as a witch, 3 million as a vampire, 1.6 million as a cat, 1.5 million as Batman and 1.4 million as a pirate.
• Popular costumes for pets include a pumpkin (10%), a hot dog (6%), a bat (4%), a ghost (3%) and a bumblebee (3%).
• In other findings, 72% of consumers plan to celebrate Halloween this year, consistent with last year’s record of 73%.
The survey asked 7,945 consumers about their Halloween shopping plans. It was conducted Sept. 3-8 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.1 percentage points.
