An American tradition, Halloween has continued to grow in popularity each year in the UK. Seemingly taking over the British Guy Fawkes Night, in 2017 research suggests that more than half of people in the UK spent money on Halloween. In 2018, it is expected that this will rise by an average of 5%, taking the total to £419m according to market research firm Mintel. So what does this mean for e-commerce retailers? Well for those that are selling Halloween specific items such as sweets, chocolate and costumes, this is a key opportunity for a surge in sales. An occasion traditionally celebrated by trick or treaters, surveys have suggested that adults are now spending big on Halloween with parents planning Halloween parties and older Millenials investing in experiences and costumes. Due to this shift in the consumer market, companies are now focusing on campaigns that are targeted at adults with big players such as ASDA and Superdrug pushing make up and adult costumes.
With all of the focus around products, it seems that many retailers whose offerings aren’t targeted to this particular festival may be missing out. However, online retailers can use this period to really help boost their brand awareness whilst the pre-Christmas organic traffic is starting to peak. Retailers have used this time of year to help create user generated content through social media and engage with their audience over the spooky period. Posts can range from a simple “Happy Halloween” to a “what costume are you wearing for Halloween, send us your pics?” Many have used promotional codes off certain products with a slight Halloween twist whilst traffic is high and also pushed for newsletter subscribers so they can promote to them later over the Christmas period.
Here at Vertical Plus we are always driven by growth and new ideas to make each year better than the last. While Halloween has often taken a back seat when developing an overall strategy, we understand the importance of using this festival to help drive traffic and leverage brand awareness for all of our e-commerce Partners. Using innovative strategies and software to monitor the effectiveness of our e-commerce Partner’s campaigns, we predict that Halloween will continue to be a key event for all e-commerce websites.
Sources
www.marketingweek.com/2017/10/27/why-halloween-is-now-crucial-to-some-uk-brands/
beeketing.com/blog/halloween-marketing-ideas/
news.sky.com/story/half-the-uk-population-will-spend-money-on-celebrating-halloween-11540552