Halloween 2022 is officially here and, according to Searchspring client search data, shoppers are ready to celebrate spooky season. With on-site searches for Halloween up nearly 200% compared to 2021, we went on a mission to uncover what online shoppers have been searching for to get ready for Halloween.
Popular Searches
According to Searchspring reporting, the most popular costume searches include:
Top converting searches include makeup to complete the costumes listed above, such as clown makeup and vampire makeup.
You can’t have Halloween without candy, right? In the weeks leading up to All Hallows’ Eve, a Searchspring candy store client has had over 3,000 searches for Halloween. What candy are shoppers sweet for? Sour and taffy come in at a respectable 2nd and 3rd place (though considerably lagging behind Halloween’s 3,000+ searches). Sour has around 1,800 searches, while taffy is at just over 1,400.
Of course, lingerie is always a big seller on Halloween. To quote our favorite Mean Girl, “the hardcore girls just wear lingerie and some form of animal ears.”
So, what are on-site searches for Halloween like for one of Searchspring’s lingerie clients? With 9,442 searches on their site between September 1, 2022 – October 26, 2022, it’s performing incredibly well. In fact, Halloween was the 2nd most popular search during that period and their best converting term is New Sexy Costume. And what is this sexy costume? If their third best converting item tells us anything, it includes a black corset top.
Even home decor brands are getting in on the Halloween fun. Halloween is the 3rd most popular search term on one of Searchspring’s home decor client’s site, with a whopping 43,791 searches performed. Not only that, but it converts at 4.47%.
What Did We Learn?
A lot is learned from data and it should be used to optimize and merchandise your ecommerce site for higher conversion rates.
Product Recommendations
A key takeaway from Searchspring’s Reporting is the importance of Product Recommendations. How can a shopper dress as a clown if they don’t have the correct makeup and accessories? Make sure these items are easy to find to give shoppers a better experience and to increase cart size.
Most ecommerce platforms offer blanketed product recommendations – that is, the same suggestions to each customer – but to get the most out of them, it’s vital to personalize the shopper journey. Ecommerce sites that use Personalization tools typically have better success converting shoppers.
Best Sellers and Trending Items
Give the people what they want – and make it easy for them to find. When a product is hot, get it front and center. Through detailed Search Insights available with ecommerce Search Tools, you can leverage trending and best selling items by giving them a predominate spot on your homepage.
Landing Pages, Collections, and Campaigns
Beyond trending, best sellers, and product recommendations, you need a place to send shoppers to browse. This is where landing pages and collections come in. You also need to let shoppers know these pages exist and inform them of associated promotions. To do this, create Merchandising Campaigns and promote with Inline Banners. With Merchandising Platforms like Searchspring, you can actually drag and drop products and arrange them exactly how you want them on pages. Create holiday collection pages and make sure to merchandise so top searched products show up first.
Predictive Text
Use predictive text or autocomplete on your on-site Search to make things super easy for shoppers on your site. Features like predictive text take popular terms and uses science to figure out what visitors are searching for before they’re even done typing. With advanced Merchandising and Personalization solutions, you can control what displays to each shopper.
Take it a step further by displaying popular searches directly in the search bar to inspire shoppers immediately. Once a letter or two is typed in, the shopper will be guided to exactly where they need to be.
Consumers Are Using Their Purchasing Power for Fun
What’s the biggest lesson learned from this year’s Halloween data? It’s that consumers are using their purchasing power for fun. The year-over-year increase in Halloween related searches tells a story all on it’s own. After two years of uncertainty, people are ready to get lost in the magical time of year that is Halloween.
And, while dark corners, dead ends, the unexpected, and twist endings are exactly what you want and expect out of your favorite horror film, they’re the last thing you (or shoppers) want or expect on your ecommerce site. Invest in an ecommerce search, merchandising, and personalization tool to rid your site of anything that may be lurking and preventing conversions.
Data from September 1, 2022 – October 26, 2022 was used to compile reports for this story.
