2020 has been a little…scary. We weren’t sure whether or not to write a Halloween special blog, because the world doesn’t need more scary things! 

But we saw so many retailers doing awesome things to connect to their customers online, we had to give some of them a mention. 

We’re predicting that overall, the focus is shifting to Christmas, with an elongated Black Friday and squeezed consumer spending resulting in customers shopping earlier for Christmas gifts. But amongst the early promotions and turkeys on diets, we’ve spotted some great spooky scenes. 

Read on…if you dare.

John Lewis

Family favourite John Lewis is focusing its Halloween promotion on home baking. Knowing that children around the country will not be able to go trick or treating, John Lewis have focused on ‘thrills without the chills’, encouraging customers to celebrate inside. They’ve combined this with a seasonal 20% off homeware offer, doubling down on this best selling category. There’s some nice pieces of content too, with suggestions on how to have a Halloween party at home, and some neat eCommerce categorisation on Halloween themed food and alcohol gifts.

Topshop

High street favourite Topshop is keeping it low-key with their Halloween promotion, when the retailer would normally be doing well in costume sales. They’ve created a blog, which features instagram pictures from influencers, and linked it through their social media and to promote items that are ‘pumpkin-spiced latte themed’, appealing to their Gen Z audience.

Boots

2020 is the year of creative hobbies, with everyone learning to bake sourdough bread or taking up paint-by-numbers. But with the nation not going out, cosmetics sales have suffered. This Halloween, Boots is tapping in to our creativity with promotion on Halloween makeup. From fake blood to make up tutorials, they’re also taking advantage of Pinterest to drive promotional offers. This shift to content as footfall declines is taking place across Retail, as brands look to connect with their customers across channels. 

Asda

The UK Grocer has been focusing on community engagement this Halloween, with sponsored posts from social media influencers, and a hashtag for user-generated content. They’ve combined their clothing brand with the focus on home decoration, recipes and baking.

We had a quick chat with some industry experts from Retail Week and Salesforce on Twitter, and the commentary was: “whether brands do a lot for Halloween depends on whether consumers do… and consumer activity is reduced in several areas (but sustained in others).”. “From my observations the big push is the December holidays with Halloween and Thanksgiving scaled back. [American brand] Lowe’s put out their Christmas and Halloween decorations out at the same time, but the Christmas decorations were more prominently displayed”. 

So, it looks like this Halloween could be less spook-tacular for retailers, who are likely to instead be focusing heavily on the upcoming Christmas season. 

There is some positive news: sales of Halloween confectionery are already up 8.6% on last year. And with no trick-or-treaters, looks like we’re all bedding in with a scary film to eat our weight in novelty chocolate. 

Trigg Digital are Salesforce platform specialists. When we’re not carving pumpkins, we help retailers large and small to connect to their customers and increase revenue. With over 50 years in-house experience at brands like eBay, Ralph Lauren and Crabtree & Evelyn, we can help you optimise and manage your data. To find out more, get in touch with us today. We’ll send you some Halloween sweets if you do.