Online wholesaler sees a boost in Halloween spirit
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
MILWAUKEE
Consumers who were spooked by the recession last year are suiting up for Halloween in greater numbers this year. And many are heading online for their costumes.
Major retail chains such as Kohl’s department stores, Target, and Kmart have beefed up their costume offerings by using the Internet to sell large assortments of Halloween costumes that aren’t stocked in their stores. Much of that merchandise will be shipped from Buyseasons Inc., according to Jalem Getz , chief executive officer of the New Berlin, Wis.,-based division of Liberty Media Corp.
“If anyone is serious about the Halloween business this year, they’re working with us,” Getz said. “They use our expertise, our assortment, to cash in on Halloween.”
Buyseasons’ two Halloween websites — buycostumes.com, which focuses mainly on costumes for teens and young adults, and costumeexpress.com, which offers children’s costumes — account for as much as 50 percent of U.S. costume sales online, Getz said.
In addition to selling costumes directly to consumers, the company has become the largest online wholesaler of costumes, Getz said.
The program works like this: Retailers who operate websites contract with Buyseasons for Halloween costumes. Buyseasons owns the inventory and keeps it in the New Berlin warehouse. When a retailer makes a sale on its website, the item is sold by Buyseasons at wholesale to that retailer. The retailer takes a markup and sells it to the customer in a process that is invisible to the consumer. The item ships to the customer directly from the Buyseasons warehouse.
“That’s brilliant,” said Bill Emerson, head of Emerson Advisors, a Florida retail consulting firm. The retailers who use the Buyseasons program for their online Halloween shops don’t put any working capital into it and don’t use any floor space for what is a five-week business, he noted.
“This is the second year for a Halloween shop on Kohls.com,” said Julie Gardner, chief marketing officer for Kohl’s. “This year, we have made the site even easier to shop, adding more options to search by category, theme, age group and gender.”
Buyseasons supplies Kohl’s Halloween website.
Sonsi.com, a new plus-size women’s site that launched in June, is offering 250 costumes from Buyseasons, said publisher Jill Hutchison.
Sonsi is a division of Charming Shoppes Inc., which operates Fashion Bug, Lane Bryant, Catherines and Loop 18. All of those divisions also have set up Halloween costume sites for the first time this year by contracting with Buyseasons for drop shipping.
The National Retail Federation expects Halloween spending at all types of retailers to increase this year, back to 2008 levels, after a dismal season last year.
Total spending for the holiday, including costumes, decorations, candy, and greeting cards, is expected to hit $5.8 billion.
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