Coronavirus has changed a lot of things in the world and that includes how US consumers are shopping this Halloween. Research from Pattern has revealed some interesting insights showing how COVID is changing holiday purchasing and Halloween fancy dress costume searches are a lot lower than last year.
The insights:
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Halloween:
- In 2019, 18 of the top 100 search terms related to Halloween, but in 2020 that number dropped by almost half, to just 10.
- Similarly, in 2019, 638 of the top 10,000 search terms related to Halloween and in 2020 this dropped by 30% to just 448.
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Baking:
- Baking was the number 2 searched term in 2019 but dropped all the way to 5,000 in 2020, indicating that interest in baking for Halloween has gone down possibly due to concerns about spreading COVID, and overall fatigue around at-home cooking.
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Candy:
- As a search term, Halloween Candy went from number 48 in 2019 to 76 in 2020, as fewer people are getting candy in preparation for Halloween, indicating there will be less trick or treating.
- However, though there may be less trick or treating, it looks like people are now trying to celebrate with more decorations. In 2020 the top Halloween search terms were Halloween decorations, Halloween decoration clearance, and Halloween lights. In 2019 the top 3 search terms were Halloween, Halloween Costume for Women, and then Halloween Decorations.
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Fancy dress:
- Interestingly, in 2019 the top specific costume searches were: dog costume, spiderman costume, witch costume, alien costume, baby costume
- In 2020, the top specific costume searches were dog costume, Harley Quinn costume, dinosaur costume, Spiderman, plague doctor costume (very 2020)
- There are only 264 costume searches ranking in the top 10,000 for 2020 but this was much higher in 2019 at 497 searches in the top 10,000 Amazon searches.
