Halloween 2016 is nearly upon us and with it comes haunted houses in virtual reality and a wave of Stranger Things costumes. Still, many online shoppers are reverting to classic sources of inspiration like movies, comics, and video games for their costumes. Data from Slice Intelligence shows that Star Wars characters are a popular option this Halloween season, as they account for roughly five percent of online costume spend through October 15th. Disney princesses and members of DC Comic's Suicide Squad -- which recently enjoyed their big screen debut -- are also trendy choices.
So which characters from a given movie franchise or superhero troupe are you most likely to see out trick-or-treating? Slice Intelligence dug into the data to find out.
Our key takeaways
- Kylo Ren is the preferred Star Wars costume, providing for 17 percent of total costume revenue on Star Wars items. Darth Vader is a close second at 15 percent.
- Queen Elsa from Frozen is once again the preferred option among Disney princesses. The Little Mermaid and Rapunzel round out the top three.
- Two members of the Suicide Squad -- Batman and Harley Quinn -- are the most purchased superhero getups online this year.
- And over half of costume revenue on Pokémon characters is driven by purchases of a Pikachu ensemble. It ranks as the second-most popular costume overall, just behind Batman.
Dressing up isn't simply child's play
Sales of adult-sized costumes accounted for 36 percent of online Halloween costume revenue since September 1. Nor is the Halloween spirit restricted to the human species either; nearly four percent of sales have been for pet costumes thus far. The lion mane look, in particular, seems to have won over many pet owners.
About this data
With a panel of over 4 million online shoppers, Slice Intelligence gives the most detailed, and accurate digital commerce data available, and is reported daily.
Slice Intelligence is the only service to measure digital commerce directly from the consumer, across all retailers, at the item level, and over time. Our retailer-independent methodology precisely measures commerce as it happens. By extracting detailed information from hundreds of millions of aggregated and anonymized e-receipts, Slice can map the entire Purchase Graph, connecting each and every consumer to all their purchases.
Slice gets its data from e-receipts – not a browser, app or software installed by the end-user – so its measurement reflects comprehensive shopping behavior across multiple devices, over time which are key in an increasingly omnichannel retail world. Slice Intelligence is the exclusive e-commerce data provider for the NPD’s Checkout Tracking e-commerce service.