Online inflation slows for third consecutive month

As U.S. inflation hit a 40 year peak, topping 9%, online inflation slowed for the third consecutive month. The overall inflation figure is driven by rising “real world” costs, such as gas, food and rent. Online inflation reflects the price of digital purchases and is tracked by the Adobe Digital Price Index across 18 product categories.

The main takeaways. Figures for June showed the growing value of the digital commerce space, with spending up 7.5% YoY. While online prices were up a modest 0.3% YoY, they dropped 1% month over month, the third consecutive month of decline.

The cost of digital grocery shopping reflected the experience of brick-and-mortar grocery shopping, up 7.1% on last month and 12.4% YoY.

Performance by category. Groceries surged in cost more than any other category. Although the majority of the eighteen categories tracked showed price increases, these were outweighed by price drops across electronics, office supplies, books, appliances, flowers and related gifts, computers and apparel.

The findings are based on analysis of one trillion visits to retail sites and over 100 million SKUs across the product categories studied.

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Why we care. With rising inflation dominating the news cycles (and there’s some competition for that), it’s counter-intuitive to find a story about inflation dropping, if only a little. It’s a reminder that there are significant differences between the digital and physical worlds, the obvious overlap being groceries with many consumers becoming habituated to ordering even fresh produce online during the lockdown.

It shows what happens when you take fuel and rent out of the equation. People don’t buy gas online, right?