'Spooky' surge in online orders

Online retailers are reporting a surge in demand for costumes and other regalia associated with the annual celebration of Halloween, which falls on the night of Oct 31.

The rise in orders actually kicked off 2-3 weeks ago, they said, and for some items, sales are just about as fierce as that for the upcoming Singles' Day shopping splurge on Nov 11, China's biggest annual online shopping day.

"We have been receiving orders for as many as 4,000 children's costumes per day and have just about run out of stock," said Liu Rongchao, the manager of Magik Party, a Guangdong-based online clothing store on Taobao, the popular e-commerce platform of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.