Halloween is one of the most opportune times for e-commerce. As it’s coming closer, people get excited about trick-or-treating, costume parties and decorations. Are you?

Last year alone, 172 million Americans celebrated Halloween, which resulted in $8.8 billion in sales. The average buyer spent over $86.27 on purchases.

*Note: Not all of those celebrating are buying anything. That’s why “Total Spending” is less than “Average Spending” times the number of “Americans Celebrating.”

Source: thebalance.com

Consider the opportunity cost

Yes, Halloween is big and presents a heck of an opportunity to earn good money. But before you get down to business, remember to weigh the opportunity cost.

Some of the ideas that you’ve encountered might be great for your store, but they all come at a certain price. Evaluate if you’re on the level with these ideas and whether it makes sense business-wise. Maintain a level-headed approach and pursue only the opportunities within your budget.

After all, most things bought for Halloween are only used for one or two days a year.

Now when that’s out in the open and out of the way, it’s time to get your creative juices flowing.

Here are 12 e-commerce ideas to spark your Halloween campaign

1. Offer themed products

Limited edition products are a proven way to generate excitement and are used by the world’s biggest brands.

Halloween products will ignite the Halloween spirit in your visitors, create hype and generate higher demand. We have a huge range of products in our catalog ready and waiting to be customized. We stock everything from kids tees to AOP shirts, to shower curtains, and of course, face masks. All of which with the right designs will make fantastic personalized Halloween gifts!

There are so many ways to incorporate witches, pumpkins, ghouls and other spooky characters onto our products and it has never been easier to do so than now. You just need to pick the age group of your target market and let your creativity do the rest.

Also, limited edition items are perfect for Halloween bundles, promotions, contests, and giveaways.

2. “Halloweenify” your store and social channels

Most shop owners decorate their stores to resemble the look and feel of every upcoming holiday, so why don’t you do that for your online shop?

It doesn’t take much effort. Add elements like spiderwebs and spooky fonts, redesign your hero image with skeletons and pumpkins, write an appropriate call to action and there you have it – a Halloween-ready storefront.

Halloween look

If you can, give your site an exclusive Halloween look that gets your customers into a festive mood. Focus on decorating flexible elements that are noticeable and catchy. But don’t go for an entirely new theme. It may be beautiful, but it can also be costly and cause issues with your back-end. It’s just not worth it if you’re going to use it for only a few days.

Also, don’t forget to “Halloweenify” your social media channels as well. Add pictures and cover photos, promotional content and other decorations that will make your customers’ visit more pleasant.

3. Re-engage last year’s shoppers

If you have your data from previous years’ shopping, this is a no-brainer. Your past customers already know your brand, so if they are happy with the service, they are likely to take that chance again.

Besides, there are always customers who can’t wait to get started with holiday purchases. Those are the people who are more susceptible to early promotions. Imagine how nice it would be for them to receive early access to your holiday sale or a coupon for the categories they are interested in. Use historical data to identify and re-target these segments.

4. Greet your customers with a trick or treat

Here’s a neat idea! Whenever a visitor lands at your storefront, make a pop-up that invites them to get a discount, a freebie, a coupon or free shipping.

You can design it into a game: ask your visitors to choose between a trick or a treat. Make one of them a free shipping and the other one a discount. It’s a win-win either way!

5. Organize a Halloween contest or giveaway

Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or other social media platforms you’re using are great for contests. People love to get stuff for free, and they will be delighted to participate in the best costume or scary story competition. Come up with a unique idea and use a hashtag to find all the relevant posts.

Dunkin’ Donuts does a great job when it comes to organizing contests. In previous years, they utilized Instagram for an epic Halloween fancy dress competition. Fans got a chance to be featured on the Dunkin’ Donuts Times Square billboard and win $2500 worth supply of coffee for a year for sharing an Instagram picture of their fancy Halloween dress tagged with #DDHalloweenContest.

Source: Instagram

If you’re in a good mood and need to increase your social following, you can plan a giveaway. Just make sure to give away something that your followers will like and appreciate.

6. Create special Halloween bundles

Halloween is perhaps the finest time to upsell and cross-sell. If clients are buying from your store, they don’t buy just one piece of decoration or costume. They need a full matching set.

You can help them out by preparing special promo bundles and offering them at a discount. Providing more relevant goods at a lower price will save money and time for your clients and help you to sell more.

Another way to tackle it is to add a freebie for purchases above a certain price level. It might be a small thing, but little things have the power to turn your Halloween campaigns from good to great.

7. Send Halloween gift cards

Send your customers gift cards that will become active during a specified period of your sales campaign. It’s a proven and straightforward approach.

It also doesn’t necessarily mean email. You can engage new customers via social media or even PPC ads.

If you have many local customers and the budget, you may even want to send out some physical gift cards to your most generous buyers. In an increasingly digital world, receiving something tangible in your mailbox is a pleasant surprise.

8. Record a spooky video or a song

Video is one of the most effective ways to spread your brand’s message. Halloween presents a chance to be creative, memorable and eerie. It can captivate your audience for good.

A few years back Ford created its viral Halloween car wash prank, which was a hit at the time. Another slightly more expensive, but also memorable example is LG’s “So Real it’s Scary” campaign, whose participants were tricked into thinking that their elevators’ floor is falling.

YouTube and other video hosting platforms are great for Halloween promotions. Many people love a funny joke or a scary story. Besides, creating a prank video can be a lot of fun. The only risk is you can go viral.

9. Launch a spooky Halloween email campaign

Effective Halloween email campaigns boost sales and lure customers to your shop. You don’t even have to sell Halloween costumes or other party supplies to make the best of it. Instead, you can package your products with a “Halloween-ish” spin in a subject line.

For example, if you’re selling t-shirts, you can always write something like “Bloodcurdling Halloween shirt deals that will make you jump out of your skin!”

Before you send out your Halloween emails, check if they:

Have a catchy subject line

Are clear and concise

Have an irresistible persuasive element

Are personalized

Lead to clear calls to action

A surefire way to make the most of your email marketing is A/B testing. Test your emails with a few different customer groups and see what works best.

10. Share your team or yourself in costumes

Authentic brands are never afraid to show behind the scenes, and people love them for it. Seeing that they’re dealing with real people lets your customers feel empathy and form a deeper connection.

Thus, get into your Halloween costumes and share the playful side of your business. Take fun pictures, videos, stories and post them on your social channels. Letting your customers know you better is beneficial to your business.

11. Create time-sensitive offers

Halloween is a limited period, which gives it a time-sensitive factor. Do you know what works best with that?

Source: Touch Body Works

Flash sales and time-limited offers. They are suitable for nudging people. When visitors see a deal that will end soon, they experience the fear of missing out (FOMO), which drives them towards the purchase.

An effective way to increase urgency on your store is to add a countdown timer for products on sale. This results in customers making their decisions faster.

12. Give great Halloween ideas or advice

This article is a perfect example of it. If your business can’t afford any freebies, discounts, free shipping or other costly promotions, a safe option could be handing customers useful Halloween content. It can be anything relevant to your target audience – ideas, tips, advice or some other information within your area of expertise.

British retailer ASDA takes it one step further and even has a website section dedicated entirely to Halloween ideas, decoration tips, games, recipes, and goods. Such a comprehensive campaign means that customers are more likely to associate ASDA with Halloween in the coming years.

To get the most out of content marketing, write your ideas as a blog post, and tease them all over your social media channels. It will establish you as an expert, and your followers will enjoy the helpful and interesting content. Most importantly, it will bring your followers where you want them to be – back at your website.

Halloween is one of the most exciting holidays for both businesses and customers. Hopefully, these ideas have inspired you to be creative and get the most out of your Halloween campaigns!

Key t akeaways

Consider the opportunity costs and pursue only the opportunities within your budget.

“Halloweenify” your store and social channels by adding graphic elements, such as spiderwebs, pumpkins, skeletons, spooky fonts, etc.

Re-engage last year’s shoppers and use pop-ups to grab new visitors’ attention.

Run themed merchandising and marketing campaigns, including creating a special Halloween collection, sending out gift cards, offering themed products, etc.

Take advantage of content marketing by providing relevant content to Halloween shoppers.