When the clock strikes midnight, the last day of September passes and the first day of October arrives, bringing in the holiday season! Yes, it’s the start of the best three months of the year, when the biggest holidays start coming up, and many come together to celebrate and have fun! It’s a time of parties, games, and probably some empty wallets by the end of it all.
The holiday season is an important time when retail shopping starts to increase, and many have to prepare for the events ahead, starting with Halloween. While the season may start in October, retailers have been selling Halloween staples earlier each year, to the point that many call it a retail phenomenon: “Summerween.” Whether you plan to get a costume, decor, or candy, it can all feel immensely fun and exciting to join the festivities!
Preparing Ahead
Halloween is one of the few times a year when anyone can dress up to be a totally different person, or even a creature! There are tons of options available, from witches and pirates to superheroes and clowns, and even our furry friends can join the fun too by becoming a pumpkin or dragon!
While there are many options to choose from, consumers often have favorites for what they purchase, and even trendy movies, music, and TV shows can change the numbers or what gets made and bought. It’s why forecasting what will be popular and trying to ship ahead can be a difficult endeavor.
When shipping for major events and holidays, businesses try to forecast what will be popular as accurately and quickly as possible. This has become a bigger priority, especially after the early 2020s COVID pandemic slowed operations for many years. Since most costumes are made in places like China and Mexico, it takes a long time to get them from the factory floor to brick-and-mortar stores and online retailers.
2021 showed this with the sudden rise and popularity of Netflix’s Squid Game, where many were eager to dress up in green tracksuits, but most companies couldn’t produce anything so close to the holiday. With these sudden events, along with overseas wars, rate increases, and weather events increasingly getting more chaotic, shippers have decided to ship earlier, making their plans steadier, and creating more infrastructure to support nearshoring. This means factories sourcing fabrics and materials sooner and companies deciding earlier what to have manufactured.
Getting Costumes and Decor Made
Costumes are expected to be the biggest commodity sold, with experts estimating the total expected spending to be around $4.4 billion; however, a close second will be decorations! They are similar to costumes, as they take 1 to 2 years to design, and both also ship from overseas.
However, unlike costumes that are smaller and can fit way more easily in a shipping container, decorations are way bigger and are often bulkier. This means that a manufacturer will be able to ship way more costumes than decor overseas.
They both start at the factory where manufacturers house hoards of fabrics, threads, and materials to create these items. Designers will send the design tech pack over to factories, where it shares the blueprints of what the item is made with, how it’s put together, and what it should look like put together, along with other important details. This is basically the product bible for what the factory makes, following every step as closely as possible. Without it, there would be no brand or quality consistency.
Once everything is put together, factories will then ship the product to retailers and sellers. Since most of these items are made overseas, companies will often order these items far ahead of time during summer. Earlier deliveries allow customers to buy ahead of time, give companies a longer sales window for the holiday, and lessen the potential of the product selling out and having to expedite more shipments.
Working with Candy
While costumes and decorations really put Halloween together, it just isn’t the same without some candy! Experts forecast that consumers will purchase around $4.1 billion of candy for 2026. Whether it’s for trick-or-treating, parties, or just for munching on while watching some scary movies, the trip candy takes to get to these places isn’t as easy compared to costumes or decor.
The US is one of the top ten leading exporters of candy sweets in the world, sitting well at number 8, being outmatched by countries like Turkey, China, and Germany! Some of the biggest candy companies, like The Hershey Company and Mars, Inc., are headquartered in the US and manufacture much of their candy in states like Ohio, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. This means that, for the US, shipping candy to sellers will be easier, and most of it will be done within national borders, without having to worry too much about waiting for a cargo ship to come.
Once the candy itself gets made, it will have to be stored at cool temperatures for the entire duration of travel. It’s why temperature-controlled trucks play a crucial role when shipping candy. Without it, food becomes less safe to transport and is more likely to spoil, at best losing you money, and at worst getting people sick. This is done for most Halloween foods, even hardy ones like pumpkins, another Halloween favorite! Candy is shipped far ahead of the season and makes the long journey to retailers, where you can then pick it up and buy it!
This trend of preparing for the holidays early doesn’t seem to be slowing anytime soon, especially since it lets companies stay ahead of last-minute tweaks and trends. For Halloween, this helps retailers get ahead of costume and candy trends while keeping a strong inventory of traditional Halloween staples like pumpkins and decor.
So when you see Halloween merchandise piled up in stores in August, know that this isn’t a case of retailers being too quick on the draw. It’s a precise, calculated shipping strategy that ensures everyone can enjoy Halloween this year!
