Do you feel like a Witch doing Broomstick tricks when it comes to pulling Halloween costumes together for your kids?
To help give you a little peace of mind, we spent some time reviewing the mega, on-line Halloween Costume specialty retailers for Kids Halloween Costumes. We found some winners and some losers!
What to Expect
In general, you should expect these common services from any kids Halloween Costume website (if not offered, leave and go elsewhere):
- Detailed Size Information
- Customer Reviews
- Shipping Gaurantees
- Minimum 14 Day Return/Refund policy and no re-stocking fees
- Beware: Sites that offer Free Shipping promotions may require re-stocking fees on returns
- Less than retail offers (via a % off or free shipping)
- On-Line Coupon Codes and promotions for an extra 15 – 25% off and/or Free Shipping (Google search on store name + “coupon”, e.g. “Costume Supercenter Coupon”)
- On-line Zoom features that allow you to see the Costume Details
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Returns and Exchanges
Be careful with Returns as most sites do not allow you to return items that have been opened, and many sites have Return exclusions. However, most sites do allow Returns and have flexible Exchange policies.
We paid special attention to Return/Exchange Policies during our reviews recommend you avoid these two popular sites. Neither site offers competitive enough pricing or a unique enough selection of costumes to justify the risk:
- HalloweenCostumes4Kids.com
- HalloweenCostumesOnLine.com
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And the Winners Are!
- Largest Selection: BuyCostumes.com
- With over 1,600 kids halloween costumes, they offer 20% more costumes than the closest competitor
- Most User-Friendly: CostumeSupercenter.com
- Best all-around user-friendly website (and the only site that thanked us for joining their mailing list)
- Most Detailed Information: BuyCostumes.com
- Significantly more detailed information about the measurements, fabrics, and details of the costumes are provided than on any other site
- Best All-Around Prices: BuyCostumes.com
- Most costumes are discounted off retail by 15 – 30%
- Best Price Gaurantee: BuyCostumes.com and Shindigz.com
- Both will beat any competitior’s price by 10% — something to consider when shopping for the best price (for resale next year!)
- Best “On-Time” Promise: CostumeSupercenter.com
- The clear forerunner on shipping commitment to their customers. As Halloween gets closer, this becomes more and more critical.
- Best Exchange Policy: CustomeSupercenter.com
- Free to/from shipping on size exchanges!
- Best Return Offer: SpiritHalloween.com
- FREE returns before October 24
- Best Return Timeline: Shindigz.com
- Returns allowed on unopened packages for 30 days. Most other Costumes sites offer 14 day return policies
- Most Likely to be found on Rebate Sites: SpiritHalloween.com; CostumeExpress.com; CostumeSupercenter.com; Shindigz.com
- Get an additional 5 – 8% off by shopping through a Rebate sites like Upromise, eBates, Fat Wallet, etc. The more off – the merrier!
- Most Fun with Extras: CostumeKingdome.com. Costume Kingdom offers a lot of fun, interactive activities on the site, such as offering halloween costume tips, sharing photos, costume contests, and monthly drawings.
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Current Deals
Hurry – These all expire by 9/28 or 9/30!
- BuyCostumes.com: Free Shipping on Orders over $60
- CostumeSupercenter.com: Take an extra 15% off orders over $35 (enter SPOOKY15 at checkout)
- SpiritHalloween.com: Buy 1 Costume get another 50% off
- Shindigz.com: Free shipping on orders over $80
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