Online apparel prices are rising faster than offline apparel prices in the US. In March 2022, apparel prices increased 16.3 per cent Y-o-Y and 0.3 per cent M-o-M, reveals online inflation data by Adobe. Reversing longstanding pattern of seasonal discounts impacting online apparel prices, they outpaced the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in March.

Over the last 12 months, apparel has consistently outpaced CPI, which captures prices that consumers pay for goods offline. In February, apparel prices rose 11.0 per cent in the Digital Price Index (DPI), compared to 3.1 per cent in the CPI (indexed to 2014).

Powered by Adobe Analytics, the Adobe Digital Price Index analyzes one trillion visits to retail sites and over 100 million SKUs across 18 product categories. In March, 14 of the 18 categories tracked by the DPI saw YoY price increases, with apparel rising the most.

The DPI is modeled after the CPI, published by the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, and uses the Fisher Price Index to track online prices. The Fisher Price Index uses quantities of matched products purchased in the current period (month) and a previous period (previous month) to calculate the price changes by category. Adobe’s analysis is weighted by the real quantities of the products purchased in the two adjacent months.