Korean retailers promote spooky sales ahead of Halloween

CU will start delivering Halloween-themed products to customers for free as a part of its Halloween promotion event. [CU]

Retailers in Korea are promoting Halloween-themed products as the sales of the holiday merchandise rise ahead of the country's first Halloween Day without social distancing measures in about three years.

Sales of Halloween-related products rose over 20 percent in the past three years, according to Emart on Tuesday.

Consumers of these products used to be mostly in their 30s and 40s, but has now expanded to all age groups. Consumers of such merchandise in their 50s and 60s rapidly rose from 3.5 percent in 2018 to 16.8 percent of the buyers in 2021, while the portion of spenders aged 30 to 40 dropped from 95.5 percent to 78.2 percent in the same period.

Convenience store chain CU also announced its sales of Halloween goods rose 33.5 percent in the last week of October last year, compared to the previous year. CU will hold a free-delivery promotion for Halloween merchandise, such as costumes, party items and snacks.

Emart will distribute coupons for discounts on chocolates and candies and operate a special pop-up at its Yongsan Branch with a Zombie Town concept.

Another retailer, Homeplus, will hold promotions on goods related to Halloween, including pumpkins, snacks and party items, from Oct. 20 to Nov. 2.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]