halloween may delight you or simply gives you the creeps. however, there’s no denying that the spooky holiday can surges sales for small businesses, and that’s pretty sweet. in fact, an estimated 8.4 billion dollars will be spent by americans on halloween this year according to the national retail federation (nrf) – an all-time high in the nrf’s 11-year survey!

what will people be spending most of their money on come october 31st? according to this stellar infographic by the shelf, customers will be splurging on the following:

• costumes – $3.1 billion
• candy  –$2.5 billion
• decorations – $2.4 billion
• greeting cards – $390 million

and don’t think that costume stores are the only businesses that come on top – although americans will be spending a total of $8.4b, most customers will still be shopping for discounts. this is evidenced in the breakdown below:

• 46.7% of customers will shop for their halloween needs at a discount store
• 25.7% at a super market
• 10.3% at a thrift shop
• 9.4% at a drug store
• 7.1% at a local business

download our free retail customer loyalty success guide to learn how to drive customers back 2x more.

so how can your small business partake in some of this sweet spending? take a look at the infographic below for more marketing tactics and tips. and be sure to schedule and send halloween promotions to your various customer groups asap.

need some halloween promotions ideas in a pinch? check out this article, 13 frighteningly easy halloween promotion ideas  – they’re sure to be scary effective. in fact, businesses who sent a promotion via the fivestars promotion tool in october last year, won back 100,000 “lost” customers (those who haven’t been back in 30, 60, 90+ days)!

check out more info below: