Adobe reported online prices in May 2023 fell 2.3 percent year-over-year, the most significant decrease since the pandemic started, marking the ninth consecutive month of year-over-year price decreases with over half of Adobe’s tracked categories (11 of the 18) falling in prices on an annual basis. On a month-over-month (month-on-month) basis, online prices fell 1.2 percent in May.

The online inflation data comes from the Adobe Digital Price Index (DPI), powered by Adobe Analytics.

May’s year-over-year price decline was driven by steep drops in discretionary categories, including computers, down 16.5 percent year-over-year and 2.4 percent month-on-month; electronics, down 12 percent year-over-year and 1.8 percent month-on-month; and appliances, down 7.9 percent year-over-year and 2.4 percent month-on-month.

Year-over-year price increases slowed in recent months for consumer staples. Although grocery prices were up 8.2 percent year-over-year and 0.3 percent month-on-month, inflation slowed compared to April 2023’s 9.3 percent year-over-year increase, marking the eighth consecutive month where year-over-year price increases for groceries decelerated from September 2022 record highs, when prices rose 14.3 percent year-over-year. 

In the personal care category, prices were up 2.7 percent year-over-year, down 0.3 percent month-on-month, similarly slowing compared with 3 percent year-over-year growth in April 2023 and 4.4 percent year-over-year growth in March 2023.

Notable Categories In The Adobe Digital Price Index For May
Adobe’s Digital Price Index (DPI) for May provides a comprehensive view into how much consumers pay for goods online, complementing the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index, which captures offline prices. 

Powered by Adobe Analytics, the DPI analyzes one trillion visits to retail sites and over 100 million SKUs across 18 product categories, including electronics, apparel, appliances, books, toys, computers, groceries, furniture/bedding, tools/home improvement, home/garden, pet products, jewelry, medical equipment/supplies, sporting goods, personal care products, flowers/related gifts, non-prescription drugs, and office supplies.

In May, eleven of the DPI’s 18 categories saw year-over-year price decreases, with the most significant drop in the flowers/related gifts category, down 27.8 percent year-over-year and 0.3 percent month-on-month. By contrast, seven categories experienced year-over-year price increases in May, including personal care, pet products, groceries, non-prescription drugs, tools/home improvement, medical equipment/supplies, and apparel.

Notable categories for May 2023 include:

  • Groceries: Prices rose 8.2 percent year-over-year and 0.3 percent month-on-month but have continuously slowed for the past eight consecutive months, increasing 9.3 percent year-over-year in April, 10.3 percent year-over-year in March, 11.4 percent year-over-year in February, 12.6 percent year-over-year in January, 13.5 percent year-over-year in December, 13.7 percent year-over-year in November and 14 percent year-over-year in October. In September, the price growth rate peaked, rising 14.3 percent year-over-year. Consumers are increasingly buying more groceries online, and this category has generally moved in step with the Consumer Price Index.
  • Personal Care Products: Prices were up 2.7 percent year-over-year, down 0.3 percent month-on-month, the latest sequential decrease since February 2023, when price growth hit 6.1 percent year-over-year. This category continues to see persistent, long-term inflation. Since September 2020, only one month saw prices fall year-over-year, which was in November 2021, down 0.9 percent year-over-year. 
  • Appliances: Prices were down 7.9 percent year-over-year and 2.4 percent month-on-month, the highest drop for this category since Adobe began tracking online prices in 2014. May marked the eighth consecutive month of falling appliance prices. 
  • Home and Garden: Prices were down 6.3 percent year-over-year, down 0.9 percent month-on-mont), continuing reductions in costs of home and garden products, which is substantially lower than a year ago, when May 2022 prices for the category rose 2.5 percent year-over-year.

Adobe’s DPI is modeled after the Consumer Price Index (CPI), published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and uses the Fisher Price Index to track online prices. Adobe’s analysis is weighted by the real quantities of the products purchased in the two adjacent months.