Ecommerce inflation figures continued to rise in July with little sign of them slowing down as online prices continue to hike, according to figures from Adobe.
Online prices were up 3.1 per cent in July year-on-year which outpaced the 2.3 per year-on-year increase seen in June.
Adobe started reporting on online price trends last month after there were several indications of a dramatic reversal of a five-year pattern of annual price decreases.
An increase in online shopping, rising consumer demanded a surge in supply chain shortages as a result of Brexit and the pandemic has normalised online price inflation.
“Online inflation remains high and shows no signs of slowing down,” Adobe said in its July report.
Tracking the online price metric has become more important due to the significant increase in ecommerce growth over the last 18 months, according to Adobe Insights lead analyst Vivek Pandya.
“As the digital economy expands, online pricing trends will have greater impact on how we measure and understand inflation overall,” he said.
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“Consider that in just the first seven months of 2021, consumers have already spent over $481 billion online, a staggering 61 percent increase over the same period in 2019.”
Online prices fell at an average of 3.9 per cent each year from the years 2015 and 2019, which makes July’s 3.1 per cent increase even more notable.
Nine of the 18 product categories that are measured by the Adobe index saw a price increase where they had previously observed annual decreases.
Electronics and computers continued to decline (-2.04 per cent and (9.06 per cent) based on figures from the year before however the decreases were lower than average declines of the past.
Normally electronics sees an average annual decrease of around 9.06 per cent, while computers 9.24 per cent.
The non-prescription drug category saw a 5.66 per cent year-on-year increase as consumers bought more over the counter medicines in the midst of the pandemic.
The five year average increase of the non-prescription drug category usually increases by only 0.01 per cent.
Pet (1.37 per cent), groceries (1.28 per cent) and personal care items (1.23 per cent) all saw increases.
Clothing and apparel saw a large increase of 15.26 per cent when compared to the same figures in July 2020.
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