5 Killer Halloween Inspiration That Will Increase Sales

Illustration of a storefront decorated for Halloween with an orange and black striped awning, a cobweb, a ghost in the window and an OPEN sign, flanked by a carved pumpkin and a small pumpkin under a full moon with two bats

Updated September 2026

October is when people start looking forward to fall: cold air, pumpkin spice, and a lot of Halloween shopping. It isn't only for kids. Plenty of adults spend real money on costumes, decorations, sweets and party supplies, and they start shopping well before the 31st.

If you run a Shopify store, that makes Halloween worth planning for, even if you don't sell costumes. Below are five of our favorite Halloween campaigns from big brands, what a small store can borrow from each, and a simple plan for running your own.

Five Halloween campaigns worth borrowing from

1. Heinz "Tomato Blood"

Ketchup already makes decent fake blood. Heinz leaned into it with a limited-edition bottle relabeled "Tomato Blood": the same product, new packaging, and a lot more fun.

What to borrow: you don't need a new product for Halloween. A seasonal name, label, bundle or gift wrap on something you already sell can be enough. Put it in its own Halloween collection so it's easy to find and easy to retire on November 1.

2. Burger King #ScaryClownNight

Burger King offered free Whoppers to people who turned up at participating restaurants dressed as clowns, promoted with a creepy clown-filled video and a hashtag (watch it on YouTube).

What to borrow: a reward for taking part. A small store can run the online version: a discount or free gift for customers who share a photo in costume, or a giveaway entry for anyone who tags you. It gives people a reason to post about you, not just buy from you.

3. Škoda's pumpkin carving

Škoda's ad pairs a little boy carving a pumpkin with his grown-up self carving a face into the orange hood of a car (watch it). It's warm, not scary, and it speaks to the kid in the adult buyer.

What to borrow: nostalgia sells to grown-ups. If your customers are adults buying for themselves, a playful, memory-driven angle can work better than jump scares.

4. IKEA Singapore's "The Shining"

IKEA recreated the famous corridor scene from Kubrick's The Shining inside one of its stores, and invited viewers to spot products hidden in the video (watch it).

What to borrow: make people look closely. A "find the hidden pumpkin on our site" game, with a discount code as the prize, gets shoppers browsing pages they'd normally skip.

5. Booking.com's haunted hotels

Booking.com rounded up haunted places to stay and turned them into a Halloween feature for curious travelers (watch it).

What to borrow: curate. A "Halloween gift guide" or "spooky picks" page built from products you already stock is quick to make, gives your emails and social posts somewhere to link, and helps shoppers who don't know what they want yet.

Running your own Halloween campaign on Shopify

A good idea isn't enough on its own; it needs a plan and a finish date. Here's a simple October timeline:

A Halloween plan for a Shopify store: early October build the collection and schedule the discount, mid October tell your list and post, the last week add urgency and decorations, and November 1 switch everything off October plan OCT 1–7 Build it Halloween collection, gift guide page, discount with an end date set OCT 8–23 Tell people Email your list, post the campaign, run a contest or giveaway OCT 24–31 Add urgency Shipping cut-off banner, countdown, decorations, last reminder email NOV 1 Switch off Discount ends itself; remove decorations, note what sold for next year
Build early, tell people mid-month, add urgency in the last week, and switch everything off on November 1.
  • Make a Halloween collection in Products → Collections, using a tag like halloween so products join and leave it automatically. Our guide to smart collection conditions covers the details.
  • Schedule the discount. In Discounts, set the start date under Active dates and click Set end date, so the offer switches itself off. An automatic discount means customers don't need to remember a code.
  • Email your list. People who already bought from you are the easiest Halloween sale you'll make. Send an early preview, then a last-chance reminder a few days before the 31st.
  • Be clear about shipping deadlines. "Order by Tuesday for delivery before Halloween" in a banner does more work than any discount.
  • Dress the store. Small seasonal touches, like a Halloween hero image and a banner, make the campaign feel real. Keep them light so the store stays fast.

For store decorations, we make Holiday Decorations, a free app that adds seasonal effects such as falling emoji (pumpkins and bats work well), lights and fireworks, placed with app blocks on whichever pages you choose (Shopify App Store). Our older post on transforming your store for Halloween has more ideas.

Worth knowingWrite down what sold, which email worked and which products you ran out of while it's fresh. Next October's plan is mostly this year's notes.

Halloween is a chance to be a bit playful with customers, and that goodwill lasts longer than the sale. Pick one idea, give it an end date, and have fun with it.