Summer doesn’t officially begin for another week, but that doesn’t mean it’s too early to start thinking about Halloween.
 
While grocery, club and mass channels will likely the rule the roost when it comes to Halloween candy sales, Amazon continues to grow as a Halloween shopping destination.
 
One Click Retail, an ecommerce data and analytics firm, reports that Amazon’s sales of sweets and snacks grew by 22 percent year over year between November 2017 and April 2018, and that doesn’t include Halloween data. Last October, the online retailer’s candy sales grew by 46 percent year over year and 100 percent month over month.
 
Kathryn Johnson, One Click Retail account manager, said brands need to start preparing for Halloween as soon as possible by “optimizing product content, introducing seasonal items, tracking inventory and prepping promotions.”
 
“Last year, Halloween had already begun to impact search behaviors by the beginning of August, and capturing that initial wave of traffic reinforces a brand’s sales and search performance and widens the gap between them and their competitors,” she wrote.
 
Johnson cited relevant search terms, including “Halloween candy,” which began popping up frequently as early as the end of July. It remained the highest-ranked search term between August and October, with “significant increases” in late August and mid-September.
 
“This keyword search data reveals that many consumers are buying their Halloween candy early and in bulk,” Johnson wrote.
 
Johnson also suggested updating brand-related content on Amazon ahead of Halloween with seasonally-relevant titles and keywords.
 
“Keywords that appear in titles and in the top left of the product detail page carry more weight in Amazon’s search algorithm than the rest of the content, so making an explicit callout to ‘Halloween’ in these two places will drive search performance,” she wrote.
 
These are great tips, and hopefully, they don’t stress out any of our readers who are just now trying to get into the summer swing.
 
Nonetheless, it underscores the importance of taking a multi-pronged approach to retail. In-store displays and promotions are a must, but the ecommerce component — particularly Amazon — cannot be ignored, no matter the season.