It’s autumn, the night are closing in, and there’s a chill in the air. What better time to remind people why their home comforts matter? Retail strategist and author Clare Bailey explains why Halloween isn’t about pumpkins, it’s about selling the home – and that makes it a great opportunity for furniture retailers …
I’ll admit it. Halloween and furniture are not the most obvious retail bedfellows. Nobody wakes up on 1st October thinking, ‘I really must buy a new sofa for Halloween’.
For years, that has been enough justification for furniture retailers to ignore the occasion, apart from the occasional plastic pumpkin perched apologetically on a display table – but I think we’re missing a trick (or treat!).
Halloween has changed. What was once largely an American import involving children, questionable costumes and industrial quantities of sweets has become a sizeable retail occasion. Broader consumer-spending estimates put UK Halloween expenditure at around £779m in 2025, up 45% from £536m in 2020. GlobalData’s research also shows spending on decorations continuing to gain momentum, with the proportion of Halloween shoppers buying them rising significantly for the second consecutive year.
That should make all retailers – including those in furniture – sit up.
Halloween might not sell sofas directly, but it sells the idea of ‘home’. It marks the point when evenings get darker, people retreat indoors and thoughts turn towards entertaining, nesting and (dare I say it in October?) Christmas – so furniture and interiors retailers have an opportunity do something different now.
And you don’t need a showroom full of plastic skeletons. In fact, please don’t. Move away from the tat! Let’s think autumn rather than Halloween. A beautiful dining table dressed for a dark, decadent supper. Deep aubergine, burnt orange and forest green. Candles, glassware, throws and atmospheric lighting. A console styled with foliage, pumpkins and an oversized mirror.
You are still selling the furniture. You are simply giving customers a reason to see it differently. So the merchandising has to entice and engage, and sell the feeling, not the gimmick.
A dining table with six chairs tucked neatly underneath it is a product. Dress it for an autumn dinner with friends and suddenly it becomes a scene. Customers can see themselves sitting there, entertaining there, living there. Creating the vision and the lifestyle, the cosy nights together – all these autumnal scenes, with a dash of Halloween ‘magic’ helping it sell.
Your showroom is also your content studio. One strong seasonal installation can become a window display, social content and an email campaign. You barely need to accessorise – the product is what other retailers have to buy to present what they sell! Interiors retailers have an advantage – you already sell the beautiful backdrop everyone else is trying to create.
There is money to be made at the lower end too. The customer who is not ready to spend £3,000 on a sofa might happily spend £35 on a cushion, throw or piece of tableware. That smaller purchase gets them into your ecosystem and introduces them to your brand and larger ranges. Make them feel as special as you would a £3000 customer, get their contact details, and keep them engaged with your business, brand and ranges – today’s cushion buyer could be tomorrow’s sofa buyer.
Then there’s the really interesting bit – Halloween is only weeks away from when customers start seriously thinking about Christmas. Suddenly, that dining table that’s been ‘fine for another year’ looks rather less fine when 12 people are coming for dinner. The sofa that has survived another year becomes considerably less acceptable when the relatives announce they are staying. Spare bedrooms, seating and storage all come under scrutiny.
For retailers working with Christmas delivery deadlines, October is exactly the right time to start that conversation.
Halloween can even become an experience rather than a display. A seasonal decorating workshop, a styling event, or even a collaboration with a local florist gives people another reason to visit. Halloween becomes the hook. The commercial opportunity lasts beyond 31st October.
None of this means you have to go full haunted house. What matters is interpreting the occasion through your own brand. Go dark and sophisticated, embrace harvest and autumn foliage, or create a dramatic dinner-party setting. The style should fit the season and be on-brand as well. If plastic skeletons fit your customer, crack on. If they don’t, leave them in the box. All that matters is grabbing attention and relevance to your core customer.
Seasonal moments are an opportunity for retailers to change the scenery, refresh the window, create content and give customers another reason to walk through the door.
Physical retail needs those reasons. Mintel continues to highlight the importance of stores as places consumers enjoy visiting. So, this October, don’t just put a pumpkin in the window and call Halloween done. Make it special – maybe give your more creative staff free rein to dress the dining tables, change the lighting, style the sofa. Create (dare I say it?) Instagrammable moments – something people want to photograph. Give customers ideas for the season ahead. Get talked about for all the right reasons!
You might sell a few cushions and candles today, but in the future it could be a sofa, a dining set or a new bed – and that’s why it’s worth inspiring customers with seasonal displays. Halloween is the start – now you can plan Christmas, Valentine’s, Mother’s Day and Easter too …
Have a great October!
Subscribe to Clare’s Retail Reckoning podcast here.
