Poike via Getty Images
By Tatiana Walk-Morris
Source: www.retaildive.com, May 2023
Dive Brief:
- Online prices fell 1.8% year over year in April, the eighth consecutive month of price declines compared to the previous year, according to Adobe’s Digital Price Index powered by Adobe Analytics. Compared to the month prior, prices dropped 0.7% in April.
- Computers saw a significant year over year decrease at 15.4%, followed by electronics (11.6%), sporting goods (6.4%), toys (5.9%) and home and garden items (5.6%), Adobe found. Appliances dropped 7.1%, the largest year-over-year drop for the category since Adobe began tracking online prices in 2014.
- By contrast, grocery prices rose 9.3% year over year, and personal care product prices increased by 3% compared to 2022, per the report.
Dive Insight:
The majority of categories tracked by Adobe have seen falling prices on an annual basis.
Additionally, online prices for some categories are declining from one month to the next. In its analysis of online prices in April, Adobe found month-over-month price declines in appliances (2.1%), toys (0.2%), personal care products (1.1%) and home and garden (0.8%). On the other hand, the firm found month-over-month price increases in electronics (0.5%), computers (1.9%) and grocery items (0.4%).
While grocery prices were up year over year, those increases have slowed for seven consecutive months, according to Adobe. The rate of growth for grocery peaked in September 2022, when prices rose 14.3%. Another recent report from Bricks Meets Click and Mercatus found that online grocery sales in the U.S. dropped by 7.6% in March compared to the same period in 2022.
Despite fluctuating prices for e-commerce purchases, the online shopping trend is projected to stay. A Forrester report released last August predicted that U.S. e-commerce sales would reach $1.6 trillion by 2027. The report also said buy online, pick-up in-store sales would reach over $200 billion by 2027.
