earing seasonal stock. Heaven keeps its full range available until Halloween, although the business behind those last-minute rescues is preparing to close its Adelaide shop and move entirely online. When it opened in 2007, Heaven Costumes was just one of a handful of Australian retailers that specialised in costumes. Since then, bigger retailers have moved into the market. Asked about Amazon, Temu and Kmart, Wordingham described the pressure from both international marketplaces and national chains with formidable buying power. Wordingham said Heaven’s Halloween sales are on par with last year, though they remain below the retailer’s strongest seasons in 2021 and 2022. Australian Retail Council and Roy Morgan research puts expected Halloween spending at $510 million this year, just a 2 per cent increase from last year, with participation falling by 400,000 to 4.4 million people. Back in 2022, five million Australians planned to take part in Halloween festivities.  According to Wordingham, those reopening years brought customers eager to dress up and socialise after pandemic restrictions, but that enthusiasm seems to have dropped off. “At the time, we hoped that level of enthusiasm and spending might become the new normal for the costume industry,” she explained. “Looking back, I think it was more a case of everyone being eager to get out, socialise and make up for lost time!”   Global marketplaces and value At the same time as the Halloween craze has levelled out among consumers, global marketplaces have made it harder for independent retailers like Heaven to compete on price. “They’ve lowered customers’ expectations of what things should cost,” retail expert and former Party People CEO Dean Salakas told Inside Retail in an interview on this topic last year.  Heaven emphasises sizing accuracy, product knowledge and established supplier relationships amassed over almost two decades. Its range serves Book Week, school productions, corporate events and themed birthdays alongside Halloween, with children’s and adults’ costumes, wigs, masks, makeup and decorations. However, when major chains stock some of the same brands at lower prices, that value proposition becomes difficult to defend. “These businesses often have much greater purchasing power and can negotiate wholesale pricing that simply isn’t available for a smaller and independently owned retailer,” Wordingham said. The arrival of Temu has further intensified price competition, with Heaven experiencing a decline in trade since the marketplace giant’s Australian launch in March 2023.  Human service in a digital world Now Heaven is closing its physical Adelaide store and moving to an online-only model, partially in response to the likes of Temu, Amazon and Kmart. Wordingham described it as a difficult decision to remove the face-to-face experience from a business whose store attracted customers seeking specific items and requiring human understanding and guidance. The company intends to maintain personalised assistance online through its Australian team.  Still, Heaven’s experience complicates the familiar prescription that independent businesses should compete through service, expertise and range, since the retailer already offers all three. Last year, Salakas explained his approach at The Party People: “At The Party People, we helped customers have great parties,” he said. “Competitors focused on selling party products.”  Rising operating, freight and warehousing costs nevertheless accompany those advantages, while customers weigh the expense of an outfit they may wear for just one evening, then trickle down to a second-hand store. Last October, The Australian reported that Halloween sales at Brisbane’s Janinas Costumes had fallen 48 per cent over the previous year; Sunshine Coast operator Robin Worship had closed his shop after 16 years amid declining sales and rising rents.  Heaven’s level trading this season offers a more temperate outlook, although it is accompanied by the brand’s retreat from physical retail. Against this shifting landscape, Wordingham is urging consumers to give the specialist a look before buying elsewhere. “We’re certainly not expecting everyone to stop shopping with major retailers or international marketplaces,” she said. “But we’d love to encourage Australians to consider supporting a local business first, even if it’s just taking a moment to see what’s available before automatically heading to the bigger platforms.”