Tips for Encouraging Halloween Sales
Q: Do you have any ideas on how to scare up additional Halloween sales?
There’s no doubt about it, people love to decorate for Halloween. Homeowners use this fall event to kick off the October through December holiday season. Beginning in late September, Halloween decorations appear on front doors, and in yards and inside homes followed by Thanksgiving-themed decorations and then Christmas lights and ornaments. This is a great opportunity for garden centers to step up and become the go-to place for all the best holiday trimmings for these fall-through-winter celebrations. Here are a few ideas that may help.
Pump Up Pumpkin Sales
Since the pumpkin is the symbol of Halloween, offer your customers some fun and unusual alternatives to the standard orange New England pie pumpkin. Get in touch with growers who can provide you with pumpkins in all colors and shapes, such as the white Lumina or Casper varieties; reds like Cinderella, also known as Rouge Vif d’Estampes; or blue-green pumpkins such as Blue Max or Jarrahdale. There are miniature-size pumpkins such as Baby Bear, Jack Be Little, or Lil’ Goblin, and on the other side of the scale there are mammoth varieties such as Prizewinner or Atlantic Giant. There are also a wide range of squash and gourds in fun colors and sizes such as Blue Hubbard, Apple and Autumn Wings.
Encourage sales of these nontraditional pumpkins through some creative displays set up in your store and in photos used in your advertising. Stack graduated sized pumpkins from large to small to make topiaries. Use ornamental grasses and flowering plants to give the pumpkins added color and personality. Showcase indoor décor ideas as well such as quick and easy ways to use pumpkins as containers to create centerpieces for parties. Have a “How much does the giant pumpkin weigh?” contest for customers who stop by your store.
Boo-tiful Decorations
Some garden centers pride themselves in offering gift-quality decorations and specialty items that can’t be found in big box stores including ceramic pieces, door hangings, banners and energy-efficient LED lights. At one garden center, I picked up Halloween crows and black cats that were made from coconut husks that looked so realistic that visitors to my home couldn’t help but take a second look. Advertise the use of flicking LED votives in pumpkins and other outdoor decorations to save energy and make the displays safer than using candles.
Hosting Halloween Events
Hold weekend workshops for kids and their parents to make Halloween decorations. Rather than carving the pumpkins, use paints and craft supplies such as pipe cleaners and construction paper glued to the pumpkin. Or create 3-D faces with carrot noses, bean teeth and eyes. Invite a local artist to lead the workshop.
For a fun and different spin on Halloween decorations, hold a workshop on “Creeping Creatures” in the garden, and use the occasion to introduce children to the insects and wildlife that many people find “spooky” but are actually beneficial, such as bats, spiders, toads, praying mantis, snakes and dragonflies. Children can learn about the scary reputations often given these creatures and then hear about the valuable role they play in the garden. Show them what they can do to create a real life “Gothic Garden” that helps these forms of wildlife by planting beneficial plants, offering shelter, such as toad houses and using earth-friendly products.
If space allows, use your business to create a Fall Festival or co-sponsor the event with another organization such as the local parks and recreation department. Through the month of October, some centers turn their sites into a weekend amusement park for children with rides and games. Parents can browse and shop while their children enjoy a hayride, find their way through a pumpkin or cornstalk maze, and amuse themselves with games.
Invite community involvement and generate some publicity for your store by adopting a school and sponsoring a Pumpkin Carving contest. Encourage students to use their imaginations, and award prizes in different categories. Take photos of the winners and submit them to a local paper or work with a local TV station, and bring in the winners to showcase the students’ creativity.
Support a community front yard Halloween Decorating Contest. Invite a well-known local celebrity to be on the panel of judges. Create yard signs that announce the winners with your business name prominently displayed.
Autumn Gardening
And while you are ordering supplies and getting things set up for the Halloween season, you don’t need to wait for October to start generating fall sales. A trend that is catching on is to encourage homeowners to see autumn as a whole new gardening season. Just as people don new wardrobes when temperatures become cooler, gardeners can transform their flowerbeds and containers into a fresh array of seasonal plants.
To simplify the gardener’s life, there is a complete line of plants suitable for fall planting that includes herbs and perennials with colorful foliage and/or autumn blooms. These plants can take temperatures down to 28° F so they can withstand those cold fall nights (or days). These plants will provide your customers with something beyond the usual chrysanthemum and ornamental kale. In August and September, as summer annuals start to look a little sad, encourage your customers not to give up on color, but to replace their plants for the next season of beauty. Introduce them to the idea with weekend workshops, and show them how the plants can work in autumn holiday displays.
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