Reports ID hot trends for Halloween

With under a week until Halloween, families are loading grocery carts with last minute candy and costumes. Two reports break down what stores can expect from these shoppers.

by Kristina Knight

First, the National Retail Federation suggests the total Halloween spend will push past the $8 billion mark; if that happens, it will mark the highest-spending Halloween since they began surveying shoppers for the holiday. On average, shoppers are expected to spend just over $82, that is an increase of about $8 over 2015 spending.

"After a long summer, families are excited to welcome the fall season celebrating Halloween," NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. "Retailers are preparing for the day by offering a wide variety of options in costumes, decorations and candy, while being aggressive with their promotions to capture the most out of this shopping event."

As to what shoppers will be spending their money on, $3.1 billion will be spent on costumes, $2.5 billion on candy and $390 million on greeting cards.

Meanwhile, HookLogic is breaking down the Halloween spend even farther. They've looked into how American shoppers are searching for Halloween goods and services; their data finds that traditional candy favorites - like M&Ms, Reeses and Twizzlers are likely to pull in the most Halloween candy dollars.

As for costumes, HookLogic's data suggests that traditional costumes - witches and vampires - won't be as popular this year as superheroes. For example, researchers found that in the top 15 costumes are superhero Deadpool, Cinderella, Ariel, and the Frozen characters.

Tags: ecommerce, ecommerce trends, halloween spending, HookLogic, National Retail Federation