Halloween 2025

Darkness falls across the land, emails and texts are close at hand. Shoppers lurk for spooky steals, and triggered messages seal the deal. Apologies to music fans for that, and for the forced wordplay that’s about to follow. 

We might be in the height of summer and creeping into Q3, but forward-thinking marketers know that now is the time to get those Halloween campaigns ready. 

Halloween is traditionally the startling klaxon for the holidays and the most frenetic sales period of the year. A wicked 72% of U.S. consumers plan to celebrate Halloween in 2025—that’s more than Valentine’s Day, Father’s Day, or Mother’s Day (we’ve got tips for those events too). Total spending is projected to hit $11.6 billion, matching last year’s figure and marking a 60% increase over the past decade (Source: NRF). The majority of spend will be allocated to costumes, decorations, candy and greeting cards. 

The challenge, as ever, is rising above the marketing noise when consumers are savvier than ever with their spending, hopscotching between tabs, browsers, and accounts in search of the best deal. But fear not: with the right identity, triggers, and creative strategies, you can transform anonymous browsers into loyal buyers and conjure up revenue.

Ready to make Halloween 2025 your brand’s most profitable yet? Let’s explore five digital marketing “tricks and treats” that’ll bewitch your customers.

1. Don’t Ghost Your Sales: Snag Early Ghouls and Last-Minute Goblins

It’s not just kids who plan Halloween early—40% of consumers start shopping before October even begins. But there’s also a big group of last-minute shoppers scrambling for costumes and candy just days before October 31st.

To capture both audiences, launch campaigns in mid-September to engage early planners while keeping momentum with reminders as Halloween approaches. Leverage Wunderkind’s triggered messaging to tailor your approach: send early-bird campaigns highlighting new arrivals, and follow up with last-minute emails promoting “still in stock” items or digital gift options perfect for procrastinators.

2. Turn Spooky Browsers into Known Shoppers

Here’s a frightening stat: up to 95% of website traffic remains anonymous. That’s a lot of potential sales lurking in the shadows. With third-party cookies disappearing like ghosts, brands need a better way to identify visitors. Identity resolution unlocks the ability to recognize consumers across devices, browsers, and sessions, turning anonymous traffic into known shoppers.

You can then use this visibility to increase operational efficiency and reduce time to value, expand reach with real-time behavioral and identity data, and deliver consistent, personalized messaging across all channels to improve customer lifetime value. Brands working with Wunderkind have seen triggered emails deliver up to 9X more revenue than standard ESP sends—a real treat, no tricks.

3. Spook Up Urgency with Limited-Time Offers and Flash Sales

In this tariff-driven economy, consumers are hunting for deals more than ever. Exclusive data from Wunderkind’s latest Consumer Tariff Impact Report reveals that 40% of consumers are visiting websites directly to compare prices, while 24% use browser extensions to track discounts. Additionally, 26% are leaving items in carts hoping for a follow-up offer, and 23% are subscribing to texts or emails specifically to receive a discount code.

Consumers love limited-edition items—from collectible décor to exclusive candy packs and creating urgency is your best weapon against cart abandonment. To keep shoppers engaged, leverage “Back-in-Stock” and “Low-in-Stock” alerts for popular Halloween items. Run short flash sales in the final week of October to drive last-minute conversions, and deploy real-time text reminders for urgent deals. Wunderkind’s SMS campaigns alone can drive 5-10% of digital revenue, making them a powerful tool for capturing those spooky season sales.

4. Send Bone-Chillingly Good Texts for Real-Time Engagement

Text is more than just a smaller version of your email campaign, it’s the ultimate tool for immediate, personal connection. Halloween is the perfect moment to use SMS to create urgency and delight customers.

To make the most of SMS, send day-before reminders for flash sales or limited shipping windows, highlight digital gift cards for last-minute shoppers, and provide live tracking updates so customers know their costumes will arrive on time. Wunderkind’s clients often see SMS accounting for up to 10% of digital revenue, proving it’s a channel worth sinking your fangs into.

5. Cast Your Marketing Spells with Build with Wunderkind

Want power and flexibility in your marketing tech cauldron? Build with Wunderkind lets you brew up magic by casting Signals for real-time emails and texts, brewing SDKs to capture web and mobile behaviors swiftly, and summoning APIs to connect data seamlessly across systems. It’s built for brands big and small, helping conjure personalized experiences without tech bottlenecks—no hocus pocus required.

Every brand’s tech stack is unique. Some crave flexibility; others prefer simplicity. Build meets you wherever you are, empowering teams to increase efficiency, expand reach with real-time identity data, and deliver consistent, personalized messaging that boosts customer lifetime value.

Ready to Transform Your Halloween Marketing Strategy Into a True Revenue Monster?

From September through spooky season and beyond, every brand wants to haunt the top of mind, and the top of the inbox. But only those wielding a powerful identity foundation, real-time triggered messaging, and channel-specific spells will conjure true results.

This Halloween, don’t settle for ghostly traffic and phantom sales. The next wave of marketing is driven by identity, built on first-party data, and engineered for flexibility. And it’s already outperforming the old ways.

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