The National Retail Federation (NRF) predicts Halloween spending is on the rise this year with Americans averaging $66.28 on costumes, with total holiday spending expected to reach $5.8 billion. Consumers who look up “party supply stores” in Yellow Pages local search tools will spend an even greater amount, averaging $109 per visit, according to the Local Media Tracking study conducted by Burke for the Yellow Pages Association (YPA).

Just days away from Halloween and consumers across the country racing to party supply stores to make their last-minute preparations to celebrate the big day. Of the more than 28 million yearly references made to the party supplies heading in print and Internet Yellow Pages, there is a marked increase in searches occurring in October.

Additional stats you may find interesting:

· Families drive references: Married women with families drive references in the party supplies category. More than four out of five references are made by women (83%), with higher than average usage among those who are married and have more than three total family members.

· Consumers make contact after search: 90.5% of consumers contact a business after referencing the heading. While 67% of consumers do so by phone, another 41% make an in-person visit to the store, which is significantly higher than the all-headings average of 23%.

· Consumers purchase after search: 64.3% of consumers who reference the heading make a purchase, averaging $109 per visit. Of those consumers, 59.3% are new customers to the store.