• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, January 10, 2023

Adobe released the latest online inflation data from the Adobe Digital Price Index (DPI) on Tuesday, showing that prices online in December 2022 fell 1.6% year-over-year (YoY), marking the fourth consecutive month of online price decreases on a YoY basis. Online prices rose 1.1% month-over-month (MoM).

Half of the 18 DPI categories experienced YoY price decreases. This follows November 2022, which saw record discounts around Cyber Week, which runs for five days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday.

Falling prices attracted consumers to spend in December, generating $95.1 billion for ecommerce -- up 5.8% YoY. 

Adobe does not adjust figures for inflation.

Adobe says that the drop was driven by holiday discounting, including strong deals that continued past Cyber Week. It might have been an ideal time to buy a computer, with prices dropping 16.2% YoY, and electronics, which fell 12% YoY, but up 1.9% MoM.

Holiday deals also drove down prices about 2.1% for appliances, but up 3.8% MoM.

Toy prices fell 7.1% YoY and came in flat MoM. Sporting goods prices fell 5.9% YoY, but rose 1% MoM. 

Inflation cooled for non-promotional categories.

Some non-promotional categories such as products that lack heavy discounts saw continued slowdowns in price increases in December.

Grocery prices rose 13.5% YoY. This is the third consecutive month when YoY price increases have decelerated from September’s record high -- when prices rose 14.3% YoY. October prices rose 14% YoY, and November prices rose 13.7% YoY. 

In personal care, prices rose 1.6% YoY in December.

Medical equipment and supplies saw prices rise 4.1% YoY in December.