Online retailers saw a significant increase in online Halloween sales, bolstered by the event (31 Oct) falling during school half-term as well as coinciding with Diwali, according to data from Wunderkind, an AI-driven performance marketing solution.
Data from Wunderkind’s Marketing Pulse, which analysed over 59 million digital shopping journeys, showed that Halloween 2024 delivered a +32.2% boost to UK retailers’ online sales compared to last year.
Digital revenues also rose +4.64% week-on-week during the seven days preceding Halloween (25 – 31 Oct vs 18 – 24 Oct 2024), and +16.8% week-on-2-week (25 – 31 Oct vs 11 – 17 Oct 2024). Meanwhile, web conversions also increased +19.4% in the week preceding Halloween.
On the High Street, data from the Sensormatic platform, which captures over 40billion shopper visits globally each year, showed that total footfall on Halloween (31st Oct 2024) rose +17.7 percent year-on-year, with the biggest boost coming on Tue 29th Oct when shopper traffic rose +43.6 percent on the daily average for October.
As UK shoppers increasingly embrace ‘spooky season’, consumers were thought to have spent £1.07billion on Halloween last year. This year, Gen Z and Millennials were expected to lead the Halloween cash-splashing, with an estimated budget of £40GBP per person projected to be spent on ghoulish goods and seasonal fare. School half-term, which fell a week earlier this year than in 2023 – as well as spending on gifts and celebrations for Diwali (31 Oct – 01 Nov), which now represents a $22billion global retail event – also helped drive up demand and revenue.
Wulfric Light-Wilkinson, International GM of Wunderkind, commented: “Halloween is a huge sales opportunity for retailers, and in some cases a useful bellwether for broader ‘Golden Quarter’ success. Retailers who capitalise on increased traffic and demand at Halloween – particularly by capturing prospect email addresses and other zero and first-party data – can subsequently use this data to fuel their 1:1 retargeting and engagement strategies for Black Friday and Christmas campaigns.”
Wunderkind’s data reveals that, whilst Halloween online revenues and conversions rose significantly YoY, retailer page views also rose, but only marginally, increasing +0.51% week-on-week leading up to Halloween. This, Wunderkind suggests, might signal a trend towards more decisive and impulse-led shopping behaviours, prompted by consumers feeling less constrained by cost-of-living pressures.
“Last year, consumers exhibited high caution and consideration, browsing more pages before deciding. Now, we observe greater decisiveness and less hesitation in shopping journeys—a positive trend for retailers aiming to engage and convert shoppers ahead of the peak trading season,” Light-Wilkinson noted.
