Retailers Scare Up Traffic and Halloween Sales

As Halloween approaches, many turn to the Web and specific shopping sites to purchase costumes for the festivities. Data from Shopping.com and Hitwise detail top search trends for users this holiday.

Halloween costume sales increased 88 percent over last year according to the shopping aggregator site. Sales of adult Halloween costumes rose 84 percent, while children’s costumes sales through the shopping engine rose 150 percent.

Adults are looking beyond the basic gear; the search term “sexy Halloween costume” surged 30 percent over last year, with an increase of 180 percent in just the past two weeks.

The sexy costume trend is echoed on the Web. Hitwise data rank “sexy Halloween costumes” the third-highest search term containing “costumes” for the four-week period ending October 15. The one and two ranks belong to the more generic “Halloween costumes” and “costumes.”

Relevant sites placed high on search results pages, as suggested by favorable success rates under each search. “Halloween costumes” returned a 91.5 percent rate of directing users to appropriate sites. “Costumes” only offered an 87 percent success rate.

Top Costume Web Sites by Visits, Week Ending October 15, 2005
Rank	Web Site	Market Share (%)
1	Buycostumes.com	31.26
2	Oriental Trading Company	22.14
3	Costume Express	6.93
4	AnniesCostumes.com	5.79
5	Costume Craze	5.16
6	Costumes Universe	4.12
7	Halloweenmart.com	3.72
8	Zoogster Costumes	2.64
9	Costume Idea Zone	2.16
10	Robin’s FYI	2.11
11	HalloweenStreet.com	2.08
12	HalloweenCostumes4u.com	2.07
13	anytimecostumes.com	1.94
14	Costumes 4 Less	1.83
15	Star Costumes	1.82
16	Costumes Inc	1.55
17	The Costumer’s Manifesto	1.33
18	ExtremeHalloween.com	1.33
Source: Hitwise, 2005

The top sites for the four-week period ending October 15 include BuyCostumes.com (20.6 percent); Halloweenmart.com (13.73 percent); and CostumeExpress.com (4.75 percent). For the one-week period ending October 15, the order changed only slightly. BuyCostumes.com maintained the top rank with 31.26 percent; Oriental Trading Company placed second with 22.14 percent of traffic. CostumeExpress.com ranked third for the week with a 6.93 percent market share over Halloween costumes.

Top Clicked Sites for “Halloween Costumes,” September 18-October 15, 2005
Rank	Domain	Volume (%)
1	buycostumes.com	20.06
2	halloweenmart.com	13.73
3	costumeexpress.com	4.75
4	halloweenstreet.com	4.31
5	halloweencostumes4u.com	3.93
6	robinsfyi.com	3.61
7	extremehalloween.com	3.54
8	oriental.com	3.30
9	costumeideazone.com	3.19
10	bizrate.com	1.98
Source: Hitwise, 2005

Shopping.com collected data across organic and paid search results on the site. Hitwise.com tracked clickstream data from Internet users at the ISP level.

Top Search Terms Containing “Costumes,” September 18 – October 15, 2005
Rank	Search Term	Volume (%)	Success Rate (%)
1	halloween costumes	19.25	91.46
2	costumes	3.94	86.95
3	sexy halloween costumes	1.48	94.36
4	adult halloween costumes	1.42	93.62
5	holloween costumes	0.94	60.77
6	kids halloween costumes	0.90	93.55
7	sexy costumes	0.62	93.53
8	homemade halloween costumes	0.54	91.33
9	toddler halloween costumes	0.50	96.38
10	star wars costumes	0.46	95.28
11	cheap halloween costumes	0.45	88.71
12	infant halloween costumes	0.45	95.97
13	adult costumes	0.43	91.60
14	haloween costumes	0.41	57.02
15	baby halloween costumes	0.41	91.96
16	plus size halloween costumes	0.38	93.40
17	kids costumes	0.29	93.83
18	teen halloween costumes	0.29	97.53
19	disney costumes	0.29	87.50
20	childrens halloween costumes	0.28	85.71
Source: Hitwise, 2005