EsImports of Halloween themed merchandise typically start in May, peak in July and continue through September, ahead of the peak selling season in mid October. Panjiva data shows that seaborne imports Halloween merchandise climbed 8.4% year-to-date through September 30 vs. a year earlier, reaching the highest since pre-recession 2008’s levels. Retailers appear to expect the incremental spending to have gone on decorations, which are 14.7% higher than a year earlier while costumes are actually down by 4.0% to the lowest in over 10 years.
Source: Panjiva
That’s likely the result of a passing in the height of interest in all-things zombie following a series of hit TV shows in 2015. Since then imports have fallen 26.8% while staples such as vampire (unchanged) and wizard (up 1.5%) outfits have been more stable. The excellent news is that we are already past “ peak clown” despite this summer’s highly successful “It” movie, with a 38.8% slump.
The power of movie tie-ins normally works as a positive, with imports of “ Wonder Woman” costumes climbing 43.5% on a year earlier and 14x vs. 2015. The level of shipments was 2.2x that for clowns, proving there is good in the world.
Source: Panjiva
Other movie franchises are not doing as well. “ Minions” costumes fell 36.5% on a year earlier despite the release of a new movie in the “Despicable Me” franchise, though it is still the biggest import line in total. Among other franchises the “ Star Wars” range is gathering force ahead of the new movie with a 21.8% rise while are less keen on “ Frozen” (down 46.2%) having clearly decided to let it go.
Source: Panjiva
