Halloween is increasingly proving a goldmine – but can sales continue to grow? And what tactics are the retailers using?
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Focus On Halloween
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Forget black and orange – the predominant tone for this year’s Halloween is gold. At least according to retailers and brands, who believe October’s event will be a goldmine of sales opportunities.
“Last year we saw incredible excitement for Halloween,” says Adam Zavalis, vice president of creative at Asda. “Spend was up year on year, with customers turning to simple efforts like trick or treating, affordable décor, and sweet treats, and families the main participants. We expect this Halloween to be bigger than ever, in line with the participation and engagement we’ve seen in seasonal events so far this year.”
“We expect this Halloween to be bigger than ever, in line with seasonal events”
Indeed, last year’s rampant inflation barely dented demand for what is becoming an increasingly popular event. Halloween volumes only dipped 0.5%, according to Kantar’s read of the market, covering all grocery retail. Meanwhile, inflation helped drive up value by 12.2% to £549m.
This year, all the signs are pointing towards an even better performance. Not only is the cost of living crisis easing, but shoppers are increasingly splashing out on premium own label lines. Spend on these lines has shot up by 12% [Kantar 52 w/e 9 June 2024] – nearly double the 6.9% growth in total own label.
That’s been driven by retailers doubling down on their premium offer. Asda launched its Exceptional range in May, Waitrose relaunched No.1 in June, and in July Tesco CEO Ken Murphy set a goal of growing annual Finest sales from £2bn to £3bn.
So, how are retailers and brands planning to make the most of the opportunity? And to what extent will the premiumisation trend extend to Halloween?
“Halloween is a great theme for incremental sales and it makes perfect sense to achieve higher premiums where possible,” says Sentinel Management Consultants CEO David Sables. “Whilst the trick or treat cheap bags of sweets is the first thought, the opportunity goes way beyond. The parties and the gifting take you into a much more lucrative world of consumer occasions.”
M&S Food is one of the retailers forecasting a bumper year. “We’re starting to see the mood of the nation improve,” says product development director Kathryn Turner. “Although shoppers are generally still being fairly cautious, we are expecting people to feel more comfortable spending a little more – particularly for special occasions.”
To cater for that demand, M&S is launching premium products such as a £6.50 ‘Glow in the Dark Ghost Train’, comprising a “glow in the dark decorative tin filled with spooky milk chocolate passengers”.
It’s also innovating in sugar confectionery, one of two Halloween categories to deliver volume growth last year [Kantar]. The M&S lineup will include new “zingy” Toxic Toads jellies (£3 for 180g), alongside “customer favourites” like its Percy Pig Petrifying Party, launched last year.
It’s a tactic that could play well. First appearing in M&S in 1992, Percy is old enough to evoke memories in the key Halloween demographic of 16 to 34 years – and nostalgia is a shrewd way to boost appeal in confectionery, according to Mintel.
Meanwhile, Co-op sees an opportunity in bakery – the other category in volume growth last year [Kantar]. “There are multiple new entries that ‘scream’ quality alongside great value,” says Emily Cieslar, Co-op commercial buyer for cakes. They include Halloween Cupcakes with green and purple frosting and witches’ hats, plus Halloween Poison Apple Brownies, topped with sour apple jam, a sour apple frosting and a chocolate leaf.
- Despite the cost of living crisis, Halloween volumes only dipped 0.5% in 2023. Value rose 12.2% to £549m in the two weeks ending 29 October 2023, driven by a 12.8% increase in price.
- Across the four Halloween categories measured by Kantar, the only volume growth came from sugar confectionery and bakery, up 2.9% and 2.3% respectively. Chocolate confectionery volumes, meanwhile, were down 7.1%, while pumpkins took a 17.3% hit.
- Sugar and chocolate confectionery were also the categories to see the steepest price rises. Both were 19% more expensive than a year earlier.
- “Overall, Halloween categories in 2023 provided a substantial £83m uplift compared to average fortnightly sales,” says Kantar strategic insight director Thomas Steel.
- Consumers mitigated the rising prices by trading down to own label. Brands dropped from 57.3% to 56.9% of total value sales. It was the third consecutive Halloween of decline for brands, which made up 61.1% of sales in 2021.
- As shoppers looked to save money, value retailers Poundland and B&M overtraded the most. However, supermarkets remained the top channel.
More than price
As Cieslar suggests, value remains a key attribute for Halloween shoppers. But on this occasion, Aldi and Lidl aren’t necessarily the ones to beat. Having won Halloween in 2022, the discounters’ share began to slip last year due to “increased channel” variety, according to Kantar’s Retail Halloween Viewpoint report. The top four best-performing retailers – M&S, Home Bargains, Lidl and Co-op – took spend from the supermarket, discounter and convenience channels in 2023, it found.
“Our Halloween offering must be accessible – but also give a sense of this being a ‘moment’”
In the wake of that shift, Asda is keen to focus on more than price. It remains a key objective, says Zavalis – as shown by the launch of Asda’s Aldi and Lidl price match campaign in January, which “focuses on the weekly essentials which customers are putting in their baskets week in, week out”.
However, Zavalis stresses retailers should also give “a sense of this being a ‘moment’”.
That sense of excitement at an affordable price is also the mantra at Superdrug, whose Halloween opportunity mainly comes through fancy dress make-up, make-up remover and costumes. Spend is “100%” expected to be higher this year, says Superdrug own brand director Jamie Archer. It’s looking to capitalise on that with “innovation at an affordable price”.
“We’ve done a lot of research into the US market, which really leads on Halloween,” he says. “They’re a few years ahead of us but we know it’s getting bigger every year, including Halloween parties and trick or treating.
“We’re building this range out both from an own brand perspective, and we’ve also we’ve got our [third party] Marketplace which gives us a great chance to bring costumes and other opportunities to life as well. But it’s more about making sure we’ve got fun, excitement, innovation, that’s still affordable,” Archer adds. “Premiumisation plays more into the year-round offer.”
Green Halloween
With this growing opportunity comes a growing responsibility, though. Increasingly, retailers are expected to stop Halloween goods winding up in landfill the next day.
Consumers are ever more concerned about the environmental impact of Halloween staples such as costumes and pumpkins. In fact, volumes of the latter fell 17.3% last year [Kantar] amid rising awareness of food waste.
On that front, Hubbub’s ‘Eat your Pumpkin’ campaign is going all out. Launched in Oxford in 2014, it encourages consumers to eat the flesh of their pumpkins. The message reached 18 million people last year – 28% more than in 2022 – while the number of uneaten pumpkins fell from 22.2 million to 12.2 million, Hubbub says.
“Our website includes recipes – including for pumpkin seed – to help minimise waste”
Co-op plans to support the campaign again this year with recipe inspiration. Similarly, the Waitrose site will host a number of recipes – including for pumpkin seeds – to help minimise waste. “This will tie in to the food lovers’ view, and a celebration of autumnal food more widely,” says a spokesman.
More widely, Waitrose will showcase a number of “tips and tricks online for customers to channel their creativity and to be more sustainable”, he adds.
For Asda, “pumpkins were a key area of outperformance last year, so we plan to maintain that momentum into 2024,” says Zavalis. The retailer also plans to offer “ edible pumpkins with inspiration on how to use them [at the] dinner table… something new for Asda”.
These sustainability efforts don’t just apply to pumpkins. Sugar confectionery market leader Haribo is looking to cut the amount of plastic associated with trick or treating.
“Halloween is a time when portion-sized products are in high demand… we have recently changed the size of our Haribo mini bags and multipacks, which will cut over 160 tons of plastic packaging this year alone,” says Haribo UK & Ireland MD Jon Hughes.
It’s part of a multi-pronged strategy; the brand will also be hoping to evoke a sense of nostalgia by urging adults to enjoy “moments of childlike happiness” in its multichannel ‘Monster Approved’ campaign, which first launched last year.
Meanwhile, Mondelez International-owned Maynards Bassetts is launching two new limited-edition products – Spooky Gums and Liquorice Mix (rsp: £1.35/130g pack) – in a tie up with Warner Bros’ Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, in cinemas from 6 September.
- Inflation wasn’t the only thing that boosted Halloween value sales last year. Younger people and families also played a part
- Three-quarters of families with kids under 18 bought Halloween products in 2023, versus 49% in 2022.
- Spend by 16 to 34-year-olds hit an average of £141, up from £102 in 2022.
- Retailers can further engage the age group by “leveraging the sense of nostalgia people feel at Halloween”, says Mintel retail analyst Emily Viberg. “Retailers should be strengthening the emotional connection younger generations have during this time with products that help invoke past memories around popular activities such as pumpkin carving and trick-or-treating. For example, launching popular confectionery from the ’90s when this generation were kids, but with updated flavours or textures.”
- Stores could also create themed meal and baking kits to “encourage new reasons to cook or bake together, [appealing] to this generation’s social nature, which is heightened at Halloween,” adds Viberg.
- There’s an opportunity for retailers to boost their sustainability credentials, with waste a “key concern” for shoppers at Halloween, she says.
HFSS scares
Where sweets are concerned though, there’s another scare at play: the rules on where HFSS goods can be displayed. They came into force around Halloween last year, putting high-footfall locations off limits to high-sugar items.
Perfetti Van Melle, owner of brands including Chupa Chups, Mentos and Fruittella, is mindful of those regulations. As such, it’s launched an HFSS-compliant ‘bag in bag’ Fruitella format called Out at Night.
“We think this could be the year when people want to celebrate that bit more”
“It’s perfect for Halloween,” says PVM’s Baker. The 15-20 bags inside a larger bag are “good for portion control” and can be recycled via soft plastic collection points found in many supermarkets, Baker assures.
The innovation is gearing up for what PVM expects to be a strong Halloween. “The last few years have been one thing after another – Covid, the energy crisis, the cost of living – and we think this could be the year when people just… want to celebrate that bit more,” says Baker.
Bel UK also has HFSS restrictions front of mind. The supplier is pinning its hopes on its compliant GoGo Squeez fruit smoothie snacks. “We know that health is becoming an increasingly prominent driver of snacking,” says Justine de Monès, marketing manager for the brand. “Each 100% fruit pouch is gluten-free and contains one of your 5 a day, with no added sugar, artificial colours, or preservatives.”
It’s a formula that might just strike gold in an ever more health-minded Halloween.
Enthusiastic influencers offer brands serious clout
With 16 to 34-year-olds a key demographic when it comes to Halloween spending, brands and retailers can ill afford to ignore the power of social media influencers such as Princess Andre (pictured above) and Megan Penney.
Of the age group, 69% believe social media to be useful for Halloween inspiration, according to Mintel insights.
It’s particularly important when matters come to fancy dress and make-up.
Influencers are “fundamental” to an effective Halloween marketing strategy, says Superdrug own brand director Jamie Archer.
“If you row back a decade, all you had to do was put a product on TV and that would do the job for you. Now that whole marketing landscape has totally changed.”
For Halloween 2023, Superdrug worked with influencers including Megan Penney and Aisha in the ‘Dolls After Dark’ push.
“It was an amazing campaign that really brought to life all the different styles and looks through the decades,”Archer says.
But brands need to be selective for maximum effect, since consumers can tell when an influencer is “being paid to implement a product that they don’t believe in”, Archer adds. “Many other brands will just put their products out to influencers and get the reach that way, but we really try to partner with people who are truly fans of our brand.”
Superdrug has been selective “because we know that customers are savvy”, Archer says. He points to Princess Andre, who reached out to Superdrug last year. “We knew she loved our own label products. She’d already told us about two or three she was currently using.”
The result has been “an authentic relationship that we built together” based on a “genuine love of our products”, he says.
“We make sure that she will only endorse a product that she truly believes in.”
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Guide To Halloween
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He’s responsible for covering the discounters and retail property, and for commissioning and editing The Grocer’s analysis features. He has over 20 years' experience as a journalist, during which his by line has appeared regularly in a range of national newspapers.
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