Insight: Halloween now viewed as start of Holiday Shopping Season – Bazaarvoice

With just under eight weeks until Christmas Day, Halloween is now viewed as the start of the Holiday Shopping Season, according to stats released by software-as-a-service (SaaS) company Bazaarvoice, helping brands and retailers transform earned media into increased sales.

Star Wars costumes are also the most popular on Halloween according to the data – for humans and animals Bazaarvoice delved into its network of brands and retailers for the latest spooky shopping stats about the much-loved holiday:

 

• Halloween is now well and truly the start of the Holiday Shopping Season. The first big spike in online shopping traffic takes place on Halloween, with 260% more online traffic than normal, with steady increases and large spikes taking place in the lead-up to Christmas.
• Black Friday (620%) and Cyber Monday (420%) see the next largest spikes, before the peak in the week before Christmas during which time there is 800% more traffic than normal.
• People start planning their costume about six weeks before Halloween, with increased pageviews for costumes starting around the third week of September.
• Online shoppers’ favourite costume is Captain Phasma from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  Pets are also getting in on the Halloween act – the most purchased pet costumes in 2016 were Star Wars Ewok andWonder Woman.
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is the most popular zombie film at Halloween, with more DVD and bluray pageviews than any other.