Halloween may not be able to compete with the winter holidays when it comes to sales, but it can still yield considerable profits. As an e-seller, it’s important that you develop a strategy for wooing Halloween shoppers, and make sure to start early so that you have time to put your plan in action. 

Products such as Halloween candy used to be the domain of brick-and-mortar stores alone, but Amazon’s candy sales for October 2017 were up over the previous year. In fact, according to One Click Retail, Amazon US candy sales grew by 38% in just one month from September to October.

But that’s not all that’s selling well online. Other popular Halloween items include:

·         Kid costumes

·         Adult costumes

·         Halloween crafts

·         Face makeup

·         Wigs

·         Pet costumes

·         Life-sized Halloween décor and inflatables

·         Pumpkin carving kits

·         Flameless candles

·         Halloween CDs

·         Scary movies


 If you’re looking to cash in on Halloween sales, here are a few tips: 

·         Launch an email campaign. Provide consumers with information about holiday discounts and special offers. If you haven’t tapped into the power of email campaigns yet, use the holiday as an excuse to tidy up your email list. That way, you’ll be ready when the winter holidays hit. 

·         Leverage social media. Boost your Halloween offerings on social media channels.  Encourage user-generated content.  For example, hold a contest and invite customers to post Halloween-themed pictures. If you have a new product that you would like to promote, give it away as the prize for the contest.

·         Give freebies. People love to get a little more than they paid for. Consider enclosing a free gift with each Halloween-related product order. The gift doesn’t need to be big or expensive; a small gift carries the same sentiment. 

·         Launch a Pinterest campaign. Studies show that people who use Pinterest are willing to pay more for products than those who frequent other social media sites.  Pinterest is custom-made for visually-appealing products. Start by creating a special business page on Pinterest. The platform will provide you with a number of handy tools, including a “pin it” button for your website. This will help you pin visual data from your site. 

·         Write a “Halloween gift ideas” blog. In the lead-up to the holiday, this is a very popular search phrase. Draw people to your website by incorporating it into your blog. Make sure to include links for your Halloween-related products. 

 

Back to school shopping is done, and Black Friday is still weeks away, but Halloween can bolster your sales if you make it count.