1. Halloween spending could top £700m in 2023
2. Confectionery sales saw a 50%+ YOY rise on the Saturday before Halloween 2022
3. Halloween 2022 is about affordable (trick or) treats
4. Home baking sales grew 60% in Halloween 2022 versus ‘non-event’ weeks
5. Tuesday is spooksday for 2023 – suggesting a bumper Halloween weekend
6. The rolls category got a Halloween boost in 2022
7. Don’t forget about the adults this Halloween
1. Halloween spending could top £700m in 2023
Are you ready to slay on the tills this Halloween?
The Autumnal occasion has grown into a monster event this side of the pond with sales creeping up annually in recent years. Having analysed Mintel’s historical Halloween spend estimations, Finder.com has calculated that the projected spend for Halloween 2023 is £777m.
And whether c-stores go all-in with scary seasonal fun, or simply shrug and get the themed sweets out, there’s no argument that the annual Christmas for spooks is here to stay.
“Halloween has quickly established itself as one of the biggest retail events of the year and shows no signs of slowing down,” says Clare Newton, trade marketing manager at Swizzels.
“[It’s] cemented itself as one of the biggest shopping events for retailers, alongside Christmas and Easter.”
Julie Kaur from Jules Convenience Store in Telford is certainly rising to the occasion. “I’m already going out to get banners and novelties to make the store look Halloween-y,” she says.
“This year we’re running a competition for the ‘best dressed child’. All the local kids can bring their parents and pick up a Halloween bag of sweets if they’re in fancy dress. It definitely increases sales and helps us do something for the community.”
Lynn Kent, from Morrisons Daily Evington in Leicester, is also pushing the boat out for the local village. “We have a bowl of sweets for children coming in that have fancy dress and a colouring in competitions for the little ones,” she says.
“We sell Halloween make-up, cloaks and what-nots for mums who are doing a last-minute shop – and we always decorate the store with spooks.”
2. Confectionery sales saw a 50%+ YOY rise on the Saturday before Halloween 2022
While October 2022 saw the introduction of HFSS location restrictions and a drop in confectionery sales, according to retail data app Reapp, Saturday 29 October saw peak sales with a 52.11% increase on Year-on-Year sales.
“Sweets are definitely the main seller as people are looking to give them out to trick or treaters,” says Julie. Her store isn’t impacted by the HFSS rules, giving her freedom to position sweets in prime locations.
“Premier normally has really good deals on bagged sweets like Haribo and Swizzels. We have them in three different locations to catch shoppers’ eyes: our main display, on the end of an aisle and then a few bags on the counter. You really need to shift the Halloween-themed sweets quickly to maximise sales.”
Kathryn Hague, head of marketing at Hancocks, underlines the importance of a decent display to get stock flying out faster than a possessed broomstick.
“Halloween continues to grow year by year for retailers, offering an unmissable opportunity to drive sales,” she says.
To meet the occasion, Hancocks has an arsenal of devilish treats. These include Bonds Candy Cups retailing in Dracula Teeth, Scary Pumpkins and Spooky Mix plus new Candy Realms products including Skull Mallow Pops at a £1 RRP.
Meanwhile, Swizzels hasn’t been slow on Halloween-themed fun either. Its range features Mummy Mix, Trick or Treat Mix and Monster Treats, including a selection of its traditional favourites.
“We have found free standing POS displays help retailers sell product, but overall, the retailers that put the most into the season have the biggest impact at that time of year,” says Mark Roberts, marketing and trade manager at Perfetti Van Melle.
“The retailers that do it best are those who make the event their key focus, cultivate in-store theatre and earmark key space as a ‘one stop shop’ for everything the customer might need, including decorations and other cross-merchandised goods.”
3. Halloween 2022 is about affordable (trick or) treats
Like a brain-starved zombie lumbering towards its prey, the cost-of-living crisis is sure to haunt Halloween 2023. And yet, it didn’t seem to dent the impact of last year too much.
“Despite consumers being challenged by a cost-of-living crisis in 2022, retailers still had a very successful season, as sugar confectionery is the most popular category during Halloween and it’s seen as affordable treats to share with your community,” says Newton.
‘Affordable’ is the watchword here. Even shoppers scaling down their plans won’t be adverse to pocket money-friendly sweets for their little ghouls. Elsewhere, some retailers are re-thinking their offer to support cash-strapped shoppers.
For example, Julie is thinking twice about having a pumpkin selection. “I think many parents are struggling with bills,” she says. “The last thing they need is the kids wanting to buy a pumpkin for four pounds. I’d rather they bought sweets instead.”
4. Home baking sales grew 60% in Halloween 2022 versus ‘non-event’ weeks
Don’t ghost your customers when it comes to Halloween baking essentials. They might not command acres of aisle space, yet demand for last-minute creepy cakes could send bakers your way.
“Halloween is the second biggest over-indexing week in the home baking calendar, with sales +60% higher that week vs. non-event weeks [Circana],” says Jen Johnson, head of marketing (cake & dessert) at Dr Oetker UK.
“The occasion itself is worth an incremental £4.3m [ibid]. A lot of this is driven by seasonal ranges, and aside from Christmas, this period sees the largest number of season-specific ranges launched.” Circana 52 w/e 31 December 2022
This includes Dr Oetker’s latest collection, which features The Spooks of Halloween baking cases and colourful sprinkles. Unsurprisingly, Johnson says that grisly food colouring options like red and green are big-hitters in the category this time of year. Plus, novelty kits can make the occasion less frightening for novices.
“Novelty kits are becoming increasingly popular as people want to bring the fun of the Halloween event to their bakes, and social media trends also feed into this demand, as home bakers want to recreate the latest trends they have seen on Pinterest, TikTok, Instagram or Facebook,” she says.
5. Tuesday is spooksday for 2023 – suggesting a bumper Halloween weekend
Getting the timing right for Halloween can be terrifying. Go in too early and products can sit around – but enter too late and everyone will already have stocked up.
The fact Halloween is on Tuesday this year might mean a sales surge over the preceding weekend, as Nicola Randall, head of marketing at Brothers Drinks Company, suggests.
“Interesting displays act to both prompt direct sales near the event itself and work to put down a marker in advance, operating as a memory-jogger reminding shoppers that Halloween is on the horizon,” she says.
“With Halloween falling on a Tuesday this year, outlets will see sales build significantly over the preceding weekend; we’d suggest that a three-week run-up to the 31st would offer sufficient time to both build in-store awareness before the event and maximise sales over the whole period.”
Julie says that when schools go back is the perfect time to start plotting.
“We like to get back to school done first – then we start buying the sweets and picking up decorations,” she says. “In the past we’d start it before the kids went back. But then we’d have three shelves of Halloween sweets that wouldn’t move for a while. The last two weeks before Halloween are the time when people buy.”
6. The rolls category got a Halloween boost in 2022
Halloween is about more than pumpkins and sweets – other items can enjoy a seasonal sales bump in the night too. Take rolls for instance.
“The rolls category grew 12% in the two weeks to Bonfire Night when compared with the previous two weeks, adding more than £1.6m to the sector [Nielsen]. Baker Street demonstrated a similar sales spike over the same period, growing 12% [ibid],” says Mark Frossell, senior national account manager at St Pierre Groupe.
“Halloween and bonfire season are the peak of ‘big night in’ each year and consumers are looking for ways to make the most of at-home events, with a particular focus on handheld eating.”
Look to the light(ers) for incremental sales too. Customers might well need some means beyond witchcraft to illuminate their pumpkins as dusk falls on All Hallow’s Eve.
“Against the backdrop of a tough economic climate, people really want to make the most of family focused celebrations such as these,” says Gavin Anderson, sales and marketing director at Republic Technologies (UK) Ltd.
“As matches and lighters take up limited shelf space, retailers can really boost seasonal sales of these highly affordable, but high-margin products.”
7. Don’t forget about the adults this Halloween
Halloween isn’t all about the kids. Once all that trick or treating is done the adults might well need something harder than a Haribo stolen from their sugar-crazed child to take the edge off.
“When it comes to boosting Halloween sales, the absolute key single piece of advice we’d give is ‘Don’t forget about adults’,” says Randall.
“While trick-or-treating is obviously central to Halloween activities, convenience retailers should be sure to also give prominence to drinks that appeal to adults, as they seek their fair share of the Halloween fun and want to enjoy the celebrations too. Nowadays, Halloween isn’t only about pumpkins, witches’ hats and random knocks at the door – it’s a bonus opportunity for convenience retailers looking to secure incremental autumn sales.”
She adds that Brothers sold 58% more volume in October than September last year (Kantar). And that’s partly down to Brothers Toffee Apple flavour cider, which she says is “our biggest-selling variant and synonymous with Halloween”.
So, as October 31 approaches retailers are advised to get in the Halloween novelties quick. Because, for shoppers set on a good time, there’s nothing scarier than an out of stock.
“With convenience stores being the go-to outlets for all the last-minute items required to make Halloween a success, independent retailers can benefit by being well prepared for the annual sales uplift,” says Randall.
No comments yet