Tips For a Successful Halloween Promotion in Your Newsagency

Halloween is a wonderful seasonal opportunity for newsagents. By embracing the season you can connect with the community spirit, the shared experience and achieve some excellent sales as a result.

Halloween is regarded by most as an American tradition.  Wikipedia suggests that it has its roots in a Celtic festival. Regardless, Halloween is growing in popularity in Australia.

Google keyword reports tell us that there is, on average, in excess of 140,000 Halloween related search in Australia each month. These bulk up around August through October.  While this is only 1.5% of global searches it is growing.

newsXpress has been promoting Halloween in newsagencies for five years.  Check out the newsXpress blog for a bunch of Halloween display photos.  You can get some good ideas from these photos.  Many stores are achieving double digit growth from good margin product.  This year, GNS entered the season with a range of products for all newsagents.  These moves indicate that it is a season newsagents ought consider.

Here are tips for a more successful Halloween season based on my own experience of what has worked:

1. Connect with the community. Make it about more than selling product. Find a way to connect with the community. This could involve hosting an event, running a competition or somehow using your retail store to make Halloween more valuable for the community. A colouring competition is a good idea.
2. Offer something for nothing. Find a way to add value to the Halloween experience. Maybe free recipes for a Halloween dinner party, tip sheets for a fun light out, ideas on how to dress your home or a collection of locally written scary stories. Find ways to not only add value to to embrace your community while doing this.
3. Embrace theater in your store. Halloween is visual, use it as an opportunity for retail theater. From the front window to deep into the store, let Halloween own your space.
4. Halloween is all about impulse. Place Halloween product in the best impulse purchase location. This is a great basket building season.
5. Play music. Create a Halloween mix set and play this in store in the lead up to October 31. Music can help add to the theater you create in store.
6. Consider a sale. Consider remaining open for the evening, this provides a safe place and somewhere parents can have some Halloween hospitality with you.
7. Support a community group. Some kids may be challenged getting into Halloween because of tough circumstances. Offer free costumes and other support to help everyone in the community get into the Halloween spirit.
8. Give your time. Offer to take kids who do not have parents out trick or treating. You could also visit a local retirement home or similar place with older folks to give them some Halloween fun.
9. Educate. Take the opportunity to educate people about Halloween and where it started. This can add value to the experience.
10. Host an event. Consider hosting a pre Halloween party with some special offers and drinks to celebrate scary deals – before the big night.
11. Take the season down right away. Halloween is one of those seasons that once the night is over, people move on quickly.

Above all else with Halloween, have fun, inside and outside your newsagency.

Outside of the profitability and fund of the season, I like Halloween because it provides a nice segue into full-on Christmas.  I also like it because it has habit based elements and it fits with the model of being the go to seasonal retailer … something for the newsagency of the future model.