Perhaps no other traditional holiday has benefitted more from a shift in marketing recently, than Halloween. Long viewed as a children-only holiday, retailers have enjoyed a surge in profits by expanding their target market beyond the youngsters. In the early 1990s, retailers made the holiday fashionable for adults, as the costume party became a widespread social event. This led to more elaborate costumes and decorations, which resulted in speciality retailers popping up such as Party City.

Now retailers have starting going after the family pet. Party City says that so far the most popular choice for fido is Darth Vader. However, while Party City only offers costumes for pets, traditional pet supply stores such as PetSmart are offering a much wider selection of products. As one PetSmart manager says: “I think there’s an overall trend toward humanization of pets,” and she adds that most costumes sell out well before Oct. 31st.

In fact, most retailers report that their costumes, whether for kids, adults, or pets, all sell out well before Halloween arrives. This has led to a boom in…..you guessed it…..online costume retailers offering OVERNIGHT costume delivery! Websites selling Halloween costumes online such as http://acoolplanet.com/ and http://24hr-shopping.com/ are reporting their strongest online sales ever this year. Overall, the National Retail Federation is predicting a 5 percent increase from last year — $20 million more, which would make this Halloween season the best ever for retailers.

Filed under: Uncategorized