Last year, consumers spent $12.2 billion on Halloween. Learn how to sell your spooky products during this wicked holiday with unique ideas that will drive more sales.

Promote your products on popular marketplaces to get noticed by buyers. Also, learn how to use product suggestions on the product page.

Target Last-Minute Shoppers

Despite Halloween being a relatively new holiday in many countries, it is a huge opportunity for global ecommerce. In 2023, Americans spent over a billion dollars on costumes, sweets, decorations and more. This massive amount of consumer spending reflects the enormous potential for profit when a merchant’s marketing strategies and product inventory are well-aligned with what shoppers are looking for.

In the lead up to Halloween, consider creating product collections for each of your main selling categories. This will make it easy for customers to find all the items they need in one place. In addition, it will encourage the purchase of complementary products. For example, if you sell children’s costumes, try adding matching accessories like masks and hats. You can also create special collections for your most popular brands or products to drive a higher average order value.

Another way to improve the customer experience is to offer free shipping. This is especially important for last-minute shoppers who are buying their Halloween merchandise close to the holiday. To maximize this opportunity, be sure to promote this perk on your website and social media channels.

Finally, offering free gift wrapping for Halloween-related products is a great way to delight customers and increase conversions. In addition to reducing cart abandonment, this will boost satisfaction for customers who are buying for themselves or others.

If you have a lot of shoppers who visit your site but don’t complete their purchases, use AIQ’s abandoned cart retargeting tools to target them with Halloween-specific messages that nudge them toward completing their transactions. This is a great opportunity to encourage repeat sales and drive long-term loyalty. AIQ’s real-time reporting also makes it easy to keep an eye on key metrics and quickly make any necessary adjustments to achieve your goals.

Offer Discounts on Halloween-Specific Items

With consumers seeking affordable ways to celebrate Halloween without spending too much, you can help them make smart decisions by offering deals on products that align with their buying preferences. For example, stocking popular costumes like Luigi from Super Mario or Princess Leia will appeal to shoppers looking for costume inspiration. Similarly, stocking bulk packages of frozen candy or a Halloween-themed gift basket will be appreciated by customers who are on the hunt for affordable options to fill their trick-or-treat bags.

Boost sales during the Halloween season by creating an exclusive collection of limited-time discounts and promotions. Offer spine-chilling coupons like “SPOOKY20” for 20% off Halloween costumes or HAUNT20 for 25% off decorations that are only available for a short period of time. This creates a sense of urgency and instills FOMO, which increases sales and product awareness during the holiday season.

Promote the special collection through email, social media, and in-store to capture a wider audience of potential customers. Consider implementing a loyalty program during this time to encourage repeat purchases and improve brand engagement. With a solution like Locad, you can also bundle products in inventory ahead of Halloween to increase saleability and reduce the number of items needed for pick and pack.

Optimize your retargeting campaigns with Halloween-specific ads to drive more conversions and prevent cart abandonment. Serve these ads to visitors who add items to their shopping cart but don’t complete a transaction. Use AIQ’s Abandoned Cart and Retargeting tools to serve them with messages that nudge them to finish their Halloween shopping or make another purchase. Offer incentives such as a free gift voucher or a discount code to encourage them to return and convert.

Create a Halloween-Inspired Website

A little Halloween-themed flair can go a long way to entice shoppers and boost conversions. Create a custom website template that captures your brand’s spirit, and use it across your online channels. This ensures a consistent, integrated experience for your customers.

Choose a dark color palette, spooky fonts, and eerie images to create a scary atmosphere. You can also add eerie sounds and subtle animations to your site, but be careful not to overdo it, or you may distract visitors from finding and purchasing your products.

Consider implementing product filters that make it easy for shoppers to find the items they want, or even better, surprise them with new products and accessories they didn’t know they needed. This is a great way to encourage cross-selling and up-selling, which are always important for driving sales.

Offer exclusive Halloween discounts to your email subscribers and social media followers. This will make them feel special and encourage them to act fast.

Promote your Halloween discounts using a notification bar on your website and on your social media accounts. This will help you increase your visibility among last-minute shoppers and reach a wider audience.

Create a special checkout sales funnel for Halloween-specific products that will help you maximize your profits. This will help you reduce cart abandonment and optimize the customer journey.

Encourage a sense of urgency and immediacy with flash sales. Run limited-time time offers like “Midnight Madness” or “Scream at the Savings,” and promote them to your audience with engaging content and enticing copy. This is a sure-fire way to get your shoppers’ hearts racing, and will drive up your sales. This is a great idea for retailers with high-ticket items, or for those who have a lot of stock they need to move before the holiday.

Encourage User-Generated Content

Whether they’re searching for Halloween-specific keywords or browsing for a new look, shoppers are in a shopping mood. Taking advantage of this by positioning your shop’s content around seasonal promotions is a sure way to get people in the mood for buying.

Creating Halloween-inspired customer experiences can help you boost sales and build loyalty. You can do this by hosting virtual events, such as product showcases, costume contests, and Halloween-themed workshops. These events not only entertain but also allow you to encourage shoppers to embrace creativity and keep the Halloween spirit alive with your unique offerings. In addition to providing entertainment, these events can also be used for targeted email marketing and social media promotion.

Customers also want to see that others have had positive shopping experiences. You can encourage this by displaying product reviews, ratings, and testimonials prominently on your website. This will build trust and encourage customers to make a purchase decision. It’s also worth considering a video maker to create engaging content that’s easy to edit and share on social media.

Another strategy is to use product suggestions to encourage cross-selling and up-selling. For example, when someone goes to buy a Halloween lantern, you can suggest that they also purchase decorative fairy lights to complete the look. This increases the average order value and boosts sales.

Finally, consider offering bewitching discounts that are too good to pass up. These can include coupons, buy-one-get-one offers, and bundle deals that offer savings on a combination of products. This can be a great way to attract last-minute shoppers and drive a frightfully large number of purchases. Last year, US consumers spent a record $12.2 billion on Halloween-related products. By implementing a spooktacular marketing strategy, you can ensure your business makes a boo-tiful profit this year.

Run Contests

Halloween is a great time to run contests. Using contests to drive engagement can help you capture leads and build your email list for future marketing campaigns. Consider a Halloween-themed giveaway where customers can win a product of their choice, or a sweepstakes where they can win a prize that could be useful to them during the holiday like a discount coupon code or free shipping.

Make the most of this spooktacular opportunity to increase sales by offering seasonal coupons and discounts to your online shoppers. Offer time-sensitive promotions, such as a “screaming good deal” or a special “limited-time only” discount that will run until October 31. Create a sense of urgency and fear of missing out to encourage shoppers to take advantage of your offers before it’s too late.

Embracing the spirit of Halloween provides a unique marketing opportunity for ecommerce sellers, and you can tap into this opportunity by using advanced segmentation to create targeted marketing messages that will resonate with your shoppers. Millennials are the largest segment of consumers spending on Halloween, so try marketing messages that appeal to them by stirring up nostalgia (promoting retro candy and costumes) while also reflecting their current spending habits and interests.

Make it easy for your shoppers to purchase your products during Halloween by leveraging a streamlined ordering and fulfillment process. Use a merchandising solution like Locad to add Halloween-themed labels for your inventory and product categories. Bundle items together in a single cart to save your shopper’s time, and enable them to track their order status with shareable live tracking. This can help you improve customer service, reduce the need for manual follow-ups and support requests, and boost overall order value.