Total spending for Halloween this year is expected to reach $8.4 billion, an all-time high, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics.
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 Matthew Shay says. “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 pets in costume (16%).
“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,” notes Prosper Insights Principal Analyst Pam Goodfellow.
“Americans will enjoy taking advantage of earlybird promotions both online and in-store as they kick off the fall season,” she adds.
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, NRF reports.