By now your sales floor should be set to full-on Halloween. It's the second biggest retail holiday, make sure you get your piece of the Halloween sales pie! Just in case there's still room on your events and promotions calendar, here are 13 spooky ideas to help you get started:
1. Halloween Party Open House. Hold the event in early October and provide demonstrations of how to make party invitations, decorations, and more. Customers who wear a costume get a discount on purchases.
2. Bob for Discounts. Set up a traditional apple bobbing station, but attach different colored ribbons to apple stems. Each color represents a different discount.
3. Trick-or-Treat Street. Parents are looking for alternatives to traditional trick-or-treating. Provide a safe environment by partnering with the other stores in your area with games, crafts, and, of course, candy.
4. Scarecrow Contest. Get your staff in the holiday mood by having each department create a scarecrow with just items from their section of the store. Set them out for customer judging.
5. Pumpkin Decorating Contest. Give away a limited number of pumpkins in the week leading up to Halloween. (You can set a requirement for receiving a free pumpkin. Buy a class, get a pumpkin. Any purchase over $25 gets a free pumpkin, etc.) Set a deadline for customers to return their creations, and let other customers vote for their favorites.
6. Bag Decorating Contest. Invite customers to make a creative trick-or-treat bag.
7. Guessing Jar. Place plastic spiders, eyeball marbles, or other creepy items in a jar. Let customers guess how many are inside.
8. Halloween Safety Seminar. Check with your local police department for trick-or-treating rules and safety tips, and then hold a free seminar in your store. Be sure to talk about all your glow-in-the-dark products that can add to costume safety.
9. Costume Contest. Hold a costume contest, but get creative with it. Categories for judging could include Best Costume on a Pet (or incorporating a pet); Best Homemade Costume; Best Use of Beads, Sequins, and other Sparkles; Best Use of...
10. Mask Seminar. Invite a make-up artist to show how to make a creative mask with face paints – an option that is safer than plastic masks. Make it like a Mary Kay party – everyone gets their own mirror and make-up tray.
11. Adults-only Costume-making Open House. Halloween is enjoyed by adults just as much as kids. Host an event to show off a variety of costumes they can make with items from your store.
12. Pre-Halloween Crop. Help your scrapbooking customers get their pages all set up for those costume photos by creating their pages in advance. Or invite customers to come in to have their costume photos taken in your store; then they return later to pick up the pics and crop them.
13. Take advantage of Twilight and Harry Potter mania. Host Twilight and/or Harry Potter events in your store. Both of these series are big with fans of all ages. Learn more about Twilight here, and more about Harry Potter here.
Need more ideas? Give us a call!
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