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This Halloween promises to be scary good for retailers, according to research conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics for the National Retail Federation (NRF). Total spending for the holiday will reach $8.4 billion, the highest ever in the history of the annual survey.
More than 171 million Americans are planning to celebrate Halloween with the average consumer spending $82.93, up from $74.34 in 2015.
“After a long summer, families are excited to welcome the fall season celebrating Halloween,” said Matthew Shay, president and CEO of NRF, in a statement. “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.”
Discount stores are the top choice for consumers shopping for the holiday with 47 percent planning to visit. Specialty Halloween/costume stores were next at 36 percent (up from 33 percent in 2015). Supermarkets (26 percent), department stores (23 percent) and online (22 percent) were also listed as destinations.
The usual suspects top the list of items that consumers plan to buy for the holiday including costumes ($3.1 billion), candy ($2.5 billion) and greeting cards ($390 million).
Costume shopping has become a social media event in recent years. According to the survey, social media is the fastest growing place consumers go in search of the right costume(s). While online (35 percent) and in-store (29 percent) still lead as sources of inspiration, 17 percent said they would check out Pinterest this year, a 133 percent increase since 2012, while a like percentage said they would go to Facebook.
While consumers may wait until the eleventh hour to shop for other holidays, the same isn’t true of Halloween, according to the survey’s results.
“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,” said Pam Goodfellow, principal analyst at Prosper Insights & Analytics. “Americans will enjoy taking advantage of early-bird promotions both online and in-store as they kick off the fall season.”