Is Halloween the Real Start of the Holiday Season?

Over the weekend (and over the next couple days for some procrastinators) consumers have been rushing to buy last minute costumes, filling their shopping carts with candy, and buying “just one more” pumpkin to decorate the front porch with.

This sure feels like holiday chaos, doesn’t it? Technically, the Holiday season officially begins November 1, but the consumer confidence displayed over Halloween is a good indication of what we have to look forward to in the coming months.

According to the National Research Federation’s annual Halloween Spending survey, 2018 Halloween spending should come close to last year’s record setting $9.1 billion.  Shoppers will spend an average of $87 on costumes, candy, decorations and cards. Fun fact: men spend an average of $14 more than their female counterparts do on Halloween.

Forrester released their Online Retail Holiday Sales Forecast for 2018 earlier this month. It appears that the positive Halloween numbers are right on track with the expectations for 2018 Holiday sales. Despite some shaky moments for the global economy in recent months, there are a number of positive factors contributing to predictions for another record breaking year:

• consumer confidence remains at an 18-year high,
• unemployment is nearing an all-time low, and
• wage growth is healthy at 3.5%.

These factors are empowering consumers to spend, spend, spend. That there are 33 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas day this year, the longest possible amount of time, means consumers will have even more time to buy gifts. All of this is expected to result in holiday sales of $151 Billion this year, a 14% increase over 2017.

Is your company feeling the fright of the looming peak period? Send us a note to find out how PFS’s scalable operations can successfully support you through your busiest season. Keep an eye on this space for a recap of cyber week in December.