Online Inflation Easing, Says Adobe: Electronics Prices Down 1.4% vs. April

Online prices for electronics fell 6.5% year on year in May and 1.4% sequentially, Adobe reported Thursday. The year-on-year drop is the largest since May 2020, when prices were down 6.8%. Price movements in electronics, the biggest category in e-commerce by share of spend, "have an outsized impact on overall inflation online,” Adobe said. Electronics and apparel combined for a third of e-commerce spending in 2021, it said. Consumers spent $78.8 billion overall online in May, $1 billion more than in April, Adobe said, with food costs remaining high and groceries overtaking apparel as the top category for rising prices. So far in 2022, consumers have spent $377.6 billion online, 8.9% higher than the first five months of 2021. Ten of 18 categories tracked by Adobe’s digital price index had month-on-month price decreases last month, with online prices down 2.9% from April but 2% higher than May 2021, it said. Online prices have increased year on year for two full years, but May was the second month where online price increases slowed, it said. “Despite the modest increase in consumer spending online, an uncertain economic climate and rising costs in core areas like groceries are putting a hamper on overall demand,” said Patrick Brown, Adobe vice president-growth marketing and insights. “Slower consumer spending on discretionary items has driven slower, single digit e-commerce growth since March, and this pullback mirrors the easing in online inflation.”