EnHalloween spending in the U.S. may be continuing to grow. U.S. seaborne imports of Halloween-related products including outfits and decorations expanded by 1.5% year over year in the May-to-September import season, Panjiva data shows.
There was a bias towards decorations which expanded by 5.8% year over year, while imports of outfits actually fell by 8.1%.
There was also an earlier-than-normal peak in imports, potentially reflecting concerns over tariffs. China accounts for over 90% of imports, and while tariff increases have been delayed the U.S.-China trade war, as outlined in Panjiva’s research of Oct. 15, remains fierce.
Source: Panjiva
The growth, or otherwise, in imports of outfits appears to have been driven by the success of movie franchises in large part.
Imports associated with Toy Story saw the biggest success with a 156% year over year surge in imports in the five month shipping season to Sept. 30. That’s perhaps unsurprising given the launch of the fourth film in the franchise over the summer. By contrast the Aladdin reboot hasn’t helped imports of prince / princess outfits which dropped by 2.0% year over year.
Marvel outfits have also done poorly, with a 1.3% slide despite the final installment of the Avengers series, the Captain Marvel film earlier in the year and the more recent Spiderman film. That may reflect, however, the penultimate episode of the Avengers series a year earlier which boost imports of Thanos-themed outfits.
The second installment of the Harry Potter-linked “Fantastic Beasts” series hasn’t helped to sustain the prior year’s improvement in imports of wizard outfits. Thankfully clowns have fallen back out of favor after reboot of “It” led to a surge in shipments a year earlier. For those wanting something cuter, imports of pet outfits climbed 26.7%.
Source: Panjiva
