About 29 million people plan to dress their pets in costume for Halloween this year, the National Retail Federation reports.
That amounts to 17 percent of those who intend to celebrate the holiday.
These are the most popular pet costume ideas among those surveyed:
- Pumpkin – 9.3 percent
- Hot dog – 7.2 percent
- Superhero – 7.2 percent
- Bumble Bee – 3.9 percent
- Cat – 3.2 percent
- Witch – 2.5 percent
- Lion – 2.2 percent
- Dog – 2.1 percent
- Devil – 2 percent
- Shark – 1.7 percent
Overall, shoppers say they will spend an average $86.27, down just slightly from last year’s record $86.79, according to NRF’s annual survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics. That works out to $8.8 billion in total spending, down from last year’s $9 billion.
This year’s total is expected to be the third-highest in the survey’s 15-year history, after the record $9.1 billion set in 2017. A total of 172 million people plan to celebrate Halloween – 68 percent of those surveyed – down from 175 million last year.
“Spending hasn’t changed much over the past few years, but we are seeing a noticeable increase in consumers whose Halloween purchases are inspired by their friends, neighbors and even celebrities on social media,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay. “Retailers expect to have another strong Halloween season and have stocked up on candy, decorations and the season’s most popular costumes.”
According to the survey, consumers plan to spend $3.2 billion on costumes (purchased by 67 percent of Halloween shoppers), $2.6 billion on candy (95 percent), $2.7 billion on decorations (72 percent) and $390 million on greeting cards (34 percent).
The survey of 7,419 consumers was conducted September 3-10 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.2 percentage points.