Online grocery prices decline in August at fastest pace in a decade: report

Dive Brief:

• Online grocery prices dropped by nearly 4% in August compared with the previous month, according to data released Tuesday by Adobe Analytics.
• Grocery e-commerce prices were up last month by 0.5% year over year, Adobe said.
• Adobe’s figures come as annual grocery inflation dropped below 1% in August to its lowest point in more than three years.

Dive Insight:

The 3.7% monthly decline in online grocery prices Adobe recorded last month through its Digital Price Index was the largest drop in that metric since the company started monitoring e-commerce prices in 2014. By comparison, the second-biggest month-over-month drop in online grocery prices Adobe recorded was in July 2019, when prices moved down by 1.8%.

On an annual basis, online grocery prices were up modestly in August, compared with a more than 4% year-over-year increase in July and a spike of over 14% in September 2022, when inflation was surging, according to Adobe.

Overall, prices for goods sold online have declined on an annual basis for 24 months in a row, with a 4.4% drop coming in August, Adobe said.

Adobe’s data about online prices reflects an analysis by the company of more than 100 million SKUs across 18 categories, which include books, computers, toys and office supplies in addition to groceries. Adobe’s research reflects the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index.

The BLS said Wednesday that food-at-home prices were up by 0.9% in August compared with the same period in 2023. By comparison, grocery prices saw a 1.1% year-over-year increase in July. Grocery inflation last came in below 1% in June 2021, when overall inflation was en route to the four-decade high it recorded in June 2022. Grocery inflation was flat on a monthly basis in August, the BLS reported.

Overall inflation came in at an annual rate of 2.5% in August, down from a 2.9% increase in July, the BLS said.