Top 5 Most Popular Halloween Costumes of 2015: Star Wars an Unmatched Force vs. Minions, Frozen Characters

SLI Systems Analysis of 10 Million E-Commerce Site Searches Finds “Trump” 38% More Popular Than Ironman

SAN JOSE, Calif.– Oct. 28, 2015 – Star Wars is dominating the 2015 Halloween costume craze. Data released by SLI Systems (SLI.NZ), a worldwide e-commerce provider for mid-to-large size Internet retailers and B2B sites, found searches for Star Wars-related costumes far exceeded those for other recent popular movies, including Minions and Frozen. In fact, this Halloween season, consumers conducted twice as many costume searches for Star Wars characters than Frozen characters, which were the most-searched costumes in 2014.

SLI studied site search activity across e-commerce costume retailer websites based in the U.S., Canada and Australia, analyzing a total of more than 10 million consumer searches taking place between Sept 1 and Oct 20, 2015.

“The National Retail Federation forecast that 68 million Americans will dress in costume this year, with total spending on Halloween topping $6.9 billion. Blockbusters are again leading costume trends this year, and Star Wars is an unmatched force with nearly 37% greater interest than Minions – the next closest film. Anticipation of Star Wars: The Force Awakens is clearly attracting new generations, adding to decades of loyal fan numbers,” said SLI CMO Tim Callan.

“When the SLI data team compared the most popular site search terms across costume retailer websites using our Learning Search® service, they found interest in current events as well. For instance, searches for ‘Trump’ increased significantly, with 33x more searches than the same timeframe in 2014,” added Callan.

The Top 5 Most-Searched Movie-Themed Costumes of 2015, in order:

1. Star Wars (combines searches for Leia, Darth Vader and other characters)
2. Minions (includes searches for Despicable Me)
3. Frozen (includes searches for Elsa, Olaf and other characters)
4. Marvel Universe (includes Hulk, Thor, Ironman, Spiderman and other characters)
5. Maleficent

See chart illustrating the Top 5 Most-Searched Halloween Costumes this season.

Additional findings from the 2015 Halloween Costume Site Search study include:

• The top three most popular non-movie searches in order were: witch, pirate and zombie
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle-related searches remain popular but missed the Top Five movie-themed list, coming in 6th place
• Supergirl (and Superwoman) was 3.5x more popular than Trump and nearly 5x more popular than Ironman, the least popular Marvel super hero this season
• Searches for “Trump” stood out this season, with 38% more searches than Marvel’s Ironman
• Spiderman was the most popular Marvel super hero
• Maleficent saw 3x the searches compared with (Princess) Leia

About SLI Systems
SLI Systems (SLI.NZ) enables the world’s leading e-commerce retailers to accelerate sales by connecting shoppers with the products they’re most likely to buy. With offerings that include site search, navigation, merchandising, mobile, product recommendations and user-generated SEO, SLI is the most chosen cloud-based site search provider to U.S. Internet Retailer Top 1,000 retailers. The company’s patented technology continuously learns from the actions of visitors to deliver the most relevant results possible. Whether via PC, tablet or phone, a site powered by SLI delivers the kind of satisfying search experience that increases conversion rates, secures brand loyalty and results in higher order values. SLI operates on five continents. For more information, visit www.sli-systems.com.

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Media Contact:
Liza Colburn
Crescendo Communications
+1.781.562.0111
liza@crescendocc.com