US online item prices have fallen for 8 consecutive months! The categories with the biggest drops are...

It is learned that Adobe recently released the latest inflation data for the US online retail market. According to the Adobe Digital Price Index (DPI), in April 2023, US online prices fell by 1.8% year-on-year, which is the eighth consecutive month of year-on-year decline in inflation data. In addition, on a monthly basis, online prices in April fell by 0.7% from the previous month.

The year-on-year price decline in April was driven by categories such as discretionary items. Electronics and computers saw the largest declines, down 11.6% and 15.4% year-on-year, respectively. The home appliances category saw its largest price drop since 2014. Prices in categories such as sporting goods, toys, and home/garden continued to decline.

In April, 11 of the 18 categories tracked by the DPI posted year-over-year price declines, with the flowers/related gifts category experiencing the largest drop of 27%. Seven categories posted price increases, including personal care, pet products, groceries, over-the-counter drugs, tools/home improvement, medical equipment/supplies, and apparel.

On a month-over-month basis, prices fell in 10 of the 18 categories tracked by the DPI. Prices rose in eight categories, including electronics, books, pet products, groceries, over-the-counter drugs, computers, sporting goods and medical equipment/supplies.

Categories to watch in Adobe’s Digital Price Index for April:

Grocery: Prices rose 9.3% year-over-year and 0.4% month-over-month. Prices in this category have been falling over the past seven months. Prices rose 10.3% year-over-year in March, 11.4% year-over-year in February, 12.6% year-over-year in January, 13.5% year-over-year in December, 13.7% year-over-year in November, and 14% year-over-year in December.

Personal care: Prices rose 3% year-over-year and fell 1.1% month-over-month, a smaller increase than the 4.4% year-over-year increase in the previous month. In February 2023, prices in this category rose sharply by 6.1% year-over-year. Since September 2020, there has only been one month (a year-over-year decrease of 0.9% in November 2021) in which prices in this category have fallen. Inflation in this category persists over the long term.

Household appliances: Prices fell 7.1% year-on-year and 2.1% month-on-month, hitting a record low. This category has experienced a year-on-year decline for seven consecutive months after rising for 29 consecutive months.

Sporting goods: Prices fell 6.4% year-on-year and rose 1.5% month-on-month, marking 12 consecutive months of year-on-year declines. As the pandemic kept people at home and invested in products such as fitness equipment, prices in this category rose for 28 consecutive months starting in January 2020. In September 2020, prices peaked at 15.8% year-on-year.

Editor ✎ Nicole/

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