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A Spooktacular Halloween Guide for Retailers: 5 key steps to follow
26 September 2023
The back-to-school rush has passed, and now it’s time to prepare for the spookiest celebration of the year – Halloween! While we can’t conjure up a magic spell for boosting your sales, we can offer you concrete tips, advice, and creative ideas to make the most of this eerie occasion. Get ready for additional sales, new customers, and a surge in social media “likes” with our comprehensive Halloween retail guide.
Lea Pillot
1. Curate Bewitching Product Collections
Consider offering product collections selected in advance to make the shopping experience smooth for your customers. By curating special Halloween collections, you make these items easy to buy and also encourage the sale of complementary products.
You’ll first need to research current trends and analyse your sales data from previous years to do this successfully. For inspiration, check out our collection of brands selected especially for Halloween on Ankorstore.
Next, identify the relevant products most likely to attract your customers’ attention during this period: Think sweets, fancy dress costumes, decorations, accessories, and makeup. Focus on stock that is relevant for each category.
Don’t forget to offer options for young and old customers alike! Halloween shopping is often a family affair, so don’t neglect the adults when making your selections.
2. Focus on Spine-Chilling Offers and Discounts
In the run-up to Halloween, offer your customers vouchers valid until 31 October. For example, “receive a €X voucher on your next purchase if you spend €X or more”. This will encourage them to return to your shop.
You can also offer special Halloween deals on relevant products: “Buy a Halloween costume and get X% off decoration items”.
Highlight offers in your shop with special Halloween banners or labels. If you’re an online business, promote these offers using banner images or pop-up windows.
Sharing these offers on your social networks is a simple way to raise awareness or keep customers informed. Remember to make regular posts highlighting your promotions if you’re running your own social media accounts.
“Trick or treat!” Everyone loves a little unexpected, sweet surprise! Add a special touch at the checkout counter with complimentary Halloween candy. It’s a guaranteed way to make your customers smile!
3. Spookify Your Store Decor
a) For a physical store
The spookiest holiday of the year is the perfect opportunity to set your shop apart from competitors with tasteful yet fun decorations.
Stick to the classics, from cobwebs and pumpkins to witches’ hats and bats! Opt for traditional Halloween colours like black, orange, purple and red. Adding these decorations can be particularly bold in your window display, but don’t hesitate to spread them throughout your shop.
Take the atmosphere up a notch, adapt your playlist and play themed music throughout your Halloween campaign. You can easily find these ready-made playlists on platforms such as Spotify or YouTube.
Here are a few suggestions on how to tailor decorations for different types of shops:
🎃 Delicatessens can display pumpkin-flavoured treats or sweets in cauldrons.
📚Stationery stores can turn stacks of books into spell-binding grimoires.
🧛 Children’s shops can dress up their mannequins in fancy dress costumes.
🔮Perfume and skincare shops can have displays with a nod to elixirs with enchanting properties.
The best way to bring a Halloween vibe into your store is to dress up your team! Why not have some fun with fairies and elves or witches and wizards? Adding makeup and wigs are sure ways for everyone to get into the spooky spirit!
b) For online shops
Quick, easy and effective – themed banners and other visuals can be the perfect accessories for promoting your seasonal offers. Take it one step further with clever copywriting: “monster discounts, magical products, scary-low prices”, etc.
4. Host Halloween Events and Workshops
Halloween is the perfect opportunity to attract new and existing customers to your shop with workshops and themed events. Whether aimed at children or adults, they can help boost your visibility and provide an opportunity to showcase your products.
Here are a few ideas for events/workshops for different types of shops
- Beauty, hair and skincare shops: Think along the lines of monster makeup tutorial or a special Halloween hairdressing workshop.
- Grocery or specialist food shops: Organise Halloween-inspired cooking classes with pumpkin recipes or even special Halloween cupcake decorating lessons.
- Interior shops: Have a bit of fun with a paper bat garland workshop or a pumpkin carving workshop.
- Stationery and bookshops: Host a scary storytelling evening with drinks and Halloween-themed snacks.
Get your community involved by setting up competitions or tombolas in partnership with other retailers in your town. Organise the prizes in advance and pool your efforts to make your town centre the place to be in the run-up to Halloween.
5. Advertise Your Special Spooky Offers
Your shop’s success depends not only on the quality of your products but also on your ability to communicate effectively with your customers. When it comes to Halloween, strategic communication to attract enthusiastic customers is essential.
Turn the curious passersby into loyal customers with the following communication:
- Social networks: publish content (ideally video) to showcase your decorations, announce your workshops and share your offers and promotions. You can also use seasonal hashtags like #halloween2023 to increase your visibility. Finally, encourage your subscribers and customers to share their photos of your shop or their experience of your workshops by tagging your account.
- Email: create themed email campaigns to inform your customers about your offers and upcoming events in your shop. Using striking visuals adapted to the season is a good idea to ensure you make a lasting impression. And why not offer an exclusive promotional code to encourage more newsletter subscriptions?
- SMS: if you’re a fan of SMS communication, consider sending a campaign to your contact base to inform them of your special Halloween offers. Top tip: These messages should be short and punchy!
- Posters/flyers: old but gold! Use the classic strategy of posters and flyers to promote your Halloween offers. Place them strategically in high-traffic areas of your town (schools, cafés, bakeries, town hall forecourt, etc.).
As you prepare for the howling full moon of Halloween, remember these five essential strategies:
- Curate Halloween-themed product collections
- Offer enticing vouchers and special discounts
- Transform your store with spooky decorations
- Host engaging events and workshops
- Communicate and promote your Halloween offerings
🎃 We wish you a spine-tingling Halloween season and monstrously successful sales! 🎃
Ps: Need some inspiration for your Halloween assortment? Check out Ankorstore’s special selection!
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