I have written plenty here about decoupling – newsagencies presenting as something else entirely, as presenting as not being a newsagency. Some owners are all in. Others want proof before they touch the fascia or the shop floor.
Halloween could be that proof, available for a small buy and a seven week run.
The numbers for Halloween in Australia are not small anymore
Last year Australians spent around $500 million on Halloween, up 11% on the year before, at an average of $103 per person celebrating. Around 4.8 million adults took part. Home decorating was close to 40% of the activity.
The fastest growing Halloween participation is among older Australians. The 50 to 64s and the over 65s are joining in bigger numbers each year. That is our existing customer base, the people already walking past your counter for a paper or a lotto ticket.
And this year, October 31 falls on a Saturday. Party night on a party night. Expect a strong year.
Where the gap is and where opportunity lies
The supermarkets and the discount variety stores own the low end. Bags of lollies, $3 spider webs, flimsy masks. They do it on price and they do it fine.
What most of them miss is the better end. Quality home decor people keep and bring out each year. The deeper party basket: table settings, props, lighting, the pieces that make a host’s house the one everyone talks about. A shopper planning a Halloween party on a Saturday night is not shopping on price. They are shopping for the look.
That gap is yours if you want it. Better product, curated, displayed with some theatre. Nobody expects it from a newsagency, which is exactly the point.
Do it fun or don’t do it
A half bay of packet decorations near the magazines proves nothing. That is a newsagency having a go at Halloween, and shoppers will read it that way.
Go the other way. Give it your window. Dress the team up in the last week. Build one display that makes kids drag their parents in. Post it, because Halloween content travels on social media like almost nothing else a local shop can make. Run something in-store: a colouring competition, a guess the lollies jar, trick or treat mapping for your town.
The product makes money. The theatre changes what people think your shop is. You want both, and the second one is worth more.
Why the risk is low
The buy is small next to a card or gift order. The season is short, so you learn fast. Sell through and you bank margin at a quiet time of year, right before Christmas floor moves. Left with stock? Core Halloween decor carries to next year without looking dated.
Compare that with the usual decouple questions: new fascia, new name, floor replan. Big decisions, big money. Halloween lets you test the underlying idea, that people will buy things from you they never associated with your shop, for a few hundred dollars.
Measure the right thing
Sales matter, but watch two other numbers. How many new faces the season brings in, and what else lands in the Halloween basket. If people who never shopped with you walk in because of a window, and they leave with decor plus a card plus a treat, you have your evidence.
That evidence is the answer to the question I hear most: would decoupling actually work for my shop, in my town?
Run the Halloween test, it’s low-cost.