By Ed Avis
Halloween is a giant event for the costume industry, and this year the holiday falls on a Saturday, the best possible day. But with COVID upending the world, how will Halloween 2020 go?
That question is on the minds of many NCA members, and we hope to provide some guidance in the coming months. Here is how we will do that:
Webinar – On June 25 at 10 a.m. Central we’ll hold a members-only webinar and forum discussion on the topic of planning for Halloween. The webinar will include info on estimating product needs, the likelihood of a “normal” Halloween happening, and other issues that costume shops want to know. Unlike some of the events we held during the COVID crisis, this webinar will be limited to NCA members. Anyone will be able to register using the link below, but non-members will be required to join (or renew) before the webinar. Click here to register: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_nE7axkWgQECJlRMThJTe4A
Articles – Over the next few months, we’ll research and write about Halloween trends and issues related to Halloween in the COVID era. The idea behind these articles will be to help members get a good handle on their Halloween orders, sales and marketing efforts.
Do Trends Matter?
Let’s look at some Halloween trends in the past few years. These numbers are interesting…but of course COVID has changed everything, so it’s probably not wise to think that the trends of the past few years will continue in 2020. Nevertheless, here is what happened over the past five years, according to the National Retail Foundation:
In 2019, Americans spent $8.8 billion on Halloween; of that, $3.2 billion was for costumes and $2.7 billion was for Halloween décor. Interestingly, 17 percent of consumers – mostly millennials – said they were going to buy costumes for their pets, so don’t miss out on that market!
Those figures for 2019 look solid, but actually the numbers have trended slightly down since 2017. In 2017 Americans spent $9.1 billion on Halloween, and in 2018 they spent $9.0 billion.
But the 2019 numbers were still ahead of 2016 ($8.4 billion) and way ahead of 2015 ($6.9 billion). So the slight downward trend in 2018 and 2019 is not all that bad.
“Spending hasn’t changed much over the past few years, but we are seeing a noticeable increase in consumers whose Halloween purchases are inspired by their friends, neighbors and even celebrities on social media,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay in a press release.
Shay said the NRF survey showed that online searching is the number one way people choose costumes; it was cited by 35 percent of consumers surveyed. However, good news for bricks-and-mortar stores - browsing in stores was the second most popular way to choose a costume, at 28 percent. Ideas from friends and family was third at 20 percent. Inspiration from social media has increased across several platforms since 2015. Pinterest was cited by 18 percent, up from 13 percent in 2015; 14 percent cited both YouTube (up from 8 percent) and Instagram (up from 7 percent).
The five most popular costumes for adults in 2019 were a witch, vampire, zombie, pirate, and superhero. The most popular for children were princesses, superheroes, Batman, Spider-Man, and an Avengers character.