Online prices fell 1% year-on-year in July! Has US inflation really peaked?

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 July 2022, prices in the US online retail market fell 1% from the same period last year and 2% from June. In June, prices rose 0.3% year-on-year, and in May, prices rose 2% year-on-year (the highest in history). After 25 consecutive months of continuous inflation, prices fell for the first time in July.

In July, prices increased year-over-year in 11 of the 18 categories tracked by the DPI, with groceries seeing the largest increase. Seven categories saw year-over-year price declines, including electronics, jewelry, books, toys, computers, sporting goods and clothing.

In addition, compared with June, prices increased in four of the 18 categories tracked by the DPI, including pet supplies, groceries, over-the-counter drugs, tools and home improvement. Prices decreased in 14 categories, including electronics, personal care products, office supplies, jewelry, books, furniture and bedding, toys, home and garden, appliances, flowers and gifts, computers, sporting goods, medical equipment, and clothing.

Important categories in Adobe Digital Price Index in July

Electronic products : Prices fell 9.3% year-on-year and 2% month-on-month, returning to pre-epidemic levels. Between 2015 and 2019, online prices for this category fell by approximately 9.1% year-on-year. As the category with the largest share of spending, the decline in this category will have a great impact on prices in the online retail market.

Clothing : Prices increased by 1% year-on-year and fell by 6.3% month-on-month. This is the first time that this category has seen a significant monthly decline. In June, this category fell by 0.1% month-on-month. At the same time, this is also the first decline in this category after 14 consecutive months of growth.

Toys : Prices fell 8.2% year-on-year and 2.9% month-on-month. This was the lowest drop in the category since December 2019 (a 10% year-on-year drop). At the same time, the category also rose for the 16th consecutive month.

Grocery prices continued to soar, up 13.4% year-on-year and 1.4% month-on-month. Following the year-on-year increase of 12.4% in June, 11.7% in May, and 10.3% in April, this category has risen for 30 consecutive months.

Pet supplies : Prices increased 12.6% year-over-year and 1.7% month-over-month, setting a new annual high for the category. This category grew again after growing 11.3% year-over-year in June and 9.1% year-over-year in May, marking 27 consecutive months of growth. The reason: Due to the surge in the number of pets in the United States, people's demand for this category remains high.

It is learned that American consumers spent a total of $73.7 billion online in July, an increase of 20.9% over the same period last year, mainly due to Prime Day, which boosted online sales in July. However, online spending in July was down compared with the previous three months. (Americans spent $77.8 billion online in April, $78.8 billion online in May, and $74.1 billion online in June.) It can be seen that Americans' online consumption demand remains resilient. In addition, since 2022, American consumers have spent a total of $525.4 billion online, a year-on-year increase of 9.2%.

Editor ✎ Nicole/

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