Halloween spending tops $9B this year
With a strong economy and more than 179 million Americans expected to partake in Halloween celebrations this year, consumer spending is expected to reach record highs once again.
Americans are expected to spend nearly $9 billion this year, mirroring last year's record of approximately $9.1 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. Americans have been progressively spending more and more on Halloween over the last decade, with consumers spending only $3.3 billion in 2005.
Despite a slight decrease in overall spending, per-peson spending is predicted to increase from $86.13 to $86.79.
The anticipated spending breakdown will be about $3.2 billion on costumes, $2.7 billion on decorations, $2.6 billion on candy and $400 million on greeting cards.
Despite the reported decline of brick and mortar businesses due to the rise of ecommerce, Halloween spending is largely done offline. When buying costumes and Halloween supplies, only 24 percent of consumers are expected to make their purchases online.
According to Proper Insights, the firm that administers the National Retail Foundation's Halloween spending survey, the largest area of growth in spending will be on pet costumes, with nearly 20 percent of survey respondents saying that they planned to dress up their pets for Halloween.