Online inflation in US remains elevated in January at 2.7%: Adobe

On an MoM basis, 15 of the 18 categories saw January price increases, with price drops observed in three categories, including apparel. Prices were up 15.8 per cent YoY (down 1.7 per cent MoM), down from the holiday season where prices increased 17.3 per cent YoY in November 2021 and 16.6 per cent in December 2021. The drop contributed to lower topline inflation for January, given the volume of e-commerce spending that occurs in this category, Adobe said in a press release.

“While price drops in categories like electronics and apparel have brought online inflation down slightly from the record high last November, consumers are still contending with elevated prices in the digital economy,” said Patrick Brown, vice president of growth marketing and insights, Adobe.

The Adobe Digital Price Index (DPI) provides the most comprehensive view into how much consumers pay for goods online. Powered by Adobe Analytics, it analyses one trillion visits to retail sites and over 100 million SKUs across 18 product categories.

Adobe uses a combination of Adobe Sensei, Adobe’s AI and machine learning framework, and manual effort to segment the products into the categories defined by the CPI manual. The methodology was first developed alongside renowned economists Austan Goolsbee and Pete Klenow.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RR)