Halloween Social Tricks Mean Treats for Retailers
Retailers can translate social media engagement into seasonal sales, because most Halloween celebrants look for costume ideas from social media.
Retailers can translate social media engagement into seasonal sales, because most Halloween celebrants look for costume ideas from social media.
It’s time for retailers to chime in on some social media ‘tricks’ in order to drive their businesses with some ROI ‘treats’, because Halloween celebrants are turning to platforms such as Twitter and Facebook for their costume ideas, more than they have ever done before.
In a Halloween Shopping survey conducted by Savers, which owns the Value Village chain of second-hand stores, 70 percent of costume-wearers were found to search for outfit inspiration via social platforms.
The survey also found that Halloween celebrants are likely to post an average of 10 images on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. Meanwhile, 40 percent of costume-wearers are more inclined to put extra effort into their outfits in order to look as ‘cool’ as possible for potential photos posted on social networks.
Savers wanted in on some of the Halloween social fun and have been encouraging consumers to tweet photos of their in-store thrifty costume experiences, using the hashtag #ThriftorTreat. As of October 31, roughly 158 mentions were tweeted. Here’s just a couple of examples of some of the conversation that’s been happening.
#thriftortreat pic.twitter.com/Hm5PnQCdac
— Courtney Livingston (@courtlivingston) October 25, 2013
Love my costume #thriftortreat #halloween @SaversVVillage pic.twitter.com/ax8VUEecFz
— Jeni (@JennKiss) October 23, 2013
But it isn’t just Savers that is realizing the benefits of online activity around holidays. xAd, a local mobile ad network, also conducted a Halloween survey which reveals that a mere 36 percent of consumers get costume ideas in-store. Conversely, 34 percent of Halloween-related mobile searches occur a weekend before the holiday, while 23 percent of mobile searches still happen just hours before October 31 itself. Of course, social media is prevalent on the evening of Halloween too, according to xAd, as party-goers post photos of themselves and their dressed-up counterparts on sites such as Facebook.
xAd’s survey also found that during mobile driven Halloween planning, the most used location-based key words include:
Savers’ and xAd’s findings bode well for retailers – as the evening of Halloween commences, retailers still have an opportunity to trick-or-treat online consumers into sharing their brands and buying their products, as much as they want to. Muuawahahaha!