Spring 2007
Halloween: Stoking Spirited Sales By Poornima Apte

Invest in Halloween

Martha Evans remembers when she last saw a 90-year-old woman dressed as a witch.

A friend hosted a “Witchy Woman” Halloween party in town and 100 women showed up, all dressed in elaborate witch costumes. “It was the most fun thing, and so creative. There was punch in a silver pumpkin bowl and cookies shaped like fingernails,” she says. The owner of BA Evans Home House in Lagrange, GA, says the light-spirited nature of the celebrations is precisely why Halloween is increasingly becoming a hit not just with candy-hungry kids but with adults as well. “It gives you permission to be funny and silly, to break loose and have fun,” she says.

Fun factor

Philip Rist agrees. In fact, according to him, Americans have been having so much fun every Halloween that the yearly retail numbers in the category have steadily been trending up. A survey conducted last year by BIGResearch, a research firm based in Worthington, OH, where Rist serves as vice president of strategic initiatives, showed that spending on Halloween increased from $3.29 billion in 2005 to $4.96 billion in 2006. This number includes candy, costumes and decor.

On Halloween decor alone, buying jumped from 840 million to 1.31 billion dollars, with consumers’ average spending also spiking up. The numbers are getting vendors to sit up and take notice. With an assortment of decorative witches, jack-o’-lanterns and bats, an increasing number of wholesalers are offering upscale products for Halloween home decor.

Witches, goblins and other spirits

Rist says he has seen Halloween decor expand to include a variety of products. “Used to be you hung a couple of towels on the stove with Halloween motifs, but now you see so much more home decor, like fancy candy dishes and things for outside the home. You really have to give the merchants credit for coming up with these things,” he says.

These “things” include candleholders, candy dishes, party platters, mantelpieces and a host of other products. Leanne Antonucci, senior buyer at Giftcraft, a wholesale company based in Ontario, Canada, says the company’s ghouls, bats and string lights do especially well.

Melissa Colucci, vice president of sales marketing at ESC Trading Co., based in Westerville, OH, says vintage-inspired trends remain strong in Halloween decor. Color is also important. “Traditional Halloween colors of black and orange will always remain prominent color trends, just as red and green for Christmas,” Colucci says. ESC wholesales licensed designs by established folk artists. Midwest, a wholesale company based in Cannon Falls, MN, accentuates the sinister in its Halloween lines, by focusing on silhouettes. Ingrid Liss, vice president of design and creative services, says the lines have been very popular. “We use cutouts and a simple graphic approach, a witch flying over a moon or a black cat. It’s very striking and very visual,” she says.

Running scared from tacky decor

Sure, Halloween is all about having fun and being silly, but if gruesome gargoyles have you running scared from Halloween decor, you are not alone. “If your customer has a great living room with an avant-garde red leather couch, you don’t want to stick a weird orange pumpkin in there,” Liss says. She adds that a sense of whimsy and humor are vital to Halloween decor. While some retailers worry that the merchandise can get a bit tacky, James Carroll of Jeremie Corp. a wholesale company based in Atlanta, cautions against letting the sentiment ruin the chance at some good sales. He suggests that upscale and slightly lower-end goods can come together at Halloween “in a similar fashion as children and adults get together, let their hair down, and just enjoy themselves.”

Colucci of ESC reminds retailers to stock at all price points, because customers might pick up stuff for their children or grandchildren while shopping for decor. “The ‘tacky’ items may just be the last minute pick-me-up items that add a little extra profit,” she says.

The grinch who stole Halloween?

Retailers, industry experts and consumers complain about it every year—yet it happens. Christmas has been slowly encroaching on fall celebrations. In a holiday shopping survey commissioned by the National Retail Federation in mid-October last year, 40.4 percent of consumers said they would start their holiday buying before Halloween. It’s a number not many retailers can afford to ignore. Carroll sees this trend too. “It is human nature to push the envelope a bit and go with what works,” he says. “Christmas is the bulk of sales in the fall and there is a tendency to want to get it out before your competition.”

Martha Evans, too, admits this can be a problem, but she says there are ways it can be solved. “It’s a matter of training your customers and conditioning their mind-set to not skip over the fall holidays. Make it fun for them. Call it a season of celebration,” she says. For Halloween and fall, along with other merchandise, Evans stocks hundreds of clay jack-o’-lanterns and pumpkins made by a local potter that retail for $35 to $40. Every year, Evans hosts an open house in the fall. She sends postcards to customers on her mailing list, announcing: “The Pumpkins are here!”

Terri Carlson owner of Milfleur, a home accents store in Pleasanton, CA, says she sees Christmas encroachment happening every year. Still, she gets more “wear” out of her Halloween merchandise by mixing it with more general fall-themed decor.

The fall-themed decor also helps keep the season going when witches and cats are out the window. Cindy Lowry, president and owner of Blossom Bucket, a wholesaler of home decor products based in North Lawrence, OH, says her company has concentrated on more generalized fall themes with pumpkins and scarecrow motifs. The company, Luke Adams, headquartered in Norwood, MA, also wholesales colorful glass pumpkins as part of its fall lines.

Party time

Particularly when it comes to selling Halloween decor, success for retailers requires strong merchandising and marketing skills. “You want to create a cohesive display. Even if you have a few items, use them together well. You can create layers using a fall theme with pumpkins and other materials, and then take those in or out as you see fit,” says Liss, of Midwest.

Carroll, of Jeremie, says it’s probably wisest to start with a fall theme. “Let Halloween and Thanksgiving blend in and be supplements to a good thing, and increase your display as the seasons get closer,” he says. Carroll reminds retailers to start early. “Used to be school started in September, now it starts in August. To stay competitive, Halloween needs to be on display in early September.” “It’s all in how you market and merchandise a season,” Colucci says. “Do a Halloween Open House or a Witches’ Night Out. Invite customers to come dressed as witches to shop. Put on an annual witches’ costume contest.”

Carlson, of Milfleur, draws attention to her store by leading a “ghost walk” with children through Pleasanton.

Liss emphasizes that Halloween is all about mixing age groups and taking a break. “Everyone is so scheduled out and harried, with a million activities. This is a secular holiday that acknowledges adults’ need to play,” she says.

Retailer Martha Evans agrees. As she puts it: “Halloween allows an adult to be a child again.” It allows a 90-year-old woman to dress up like a witch.