Adobe’s Digital Economy Index Shows U.S. Ecommerce Sales Up 49% in April

Adobe released the latest Adobe Digital Economic Index today and it shows online commerce experienced Black Friday-like sales in April.

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The Adobe Digital Economy Index is the first real-time barometer of the digital economy, analyzes over one trillion online transactions across 100 million product SKUs.

Powered by Adobe Analytics and based on a new digital consumer shopping basket measuring sales of online goods and services across 18 product categories, Adobe’s Digital Economy Index findings include a 4.1% increase in digital purchasing power YoY.

April Online Sales Insights

COVID-19 Drives Burst in Online Shopping: Overall, U.S. ecommerce sales were up 49% in April. Daily online grocery sales have increased 110% between March and April, while electronic sales are up 58% and daily book sales have doubled.

Inflation with Electronics: While electronic prices have been experiencing deflation at a steady rate since 2014, they’re now flattening: computer prices increased by 3.1% in April, and electronics (up .8%) + toys (up 1.5%) seem to be on an upward trajectory, signaling increased prices across the board online.

Record Month for Apparel Prices: Prices for apparel decreased 12% between March and April, a rate 4x higher than what’s ‘normal’ for this month. Apparel has seen a 34% increase in sales as prices have dropped significantly. Consumers have shifted apparel purchases towards comfort: pajama sales have increased 143%, with pants sales dropping 13%, jackets dropping 33% and bras decreasing by 12%.

BOPIS (Buy Online, Pick up in Store) Popularity Continues to Climb: BOPIS orders hit a new record with an increase of 208% YoY in April.

Digital Purchasing Power Rises: Consumers continue to get more for the dollars they spend online. The digital purchasing power of consumers is up 4.1% YoY, which means consumers can now purchase goods for $1.00 that would have cost $1.04 in April 2019.

Wine and Spirit Sales Surge: In the U.S., online wine, beer, spirits and accompanying accessories sales saw an increase of 74% between March 11 and April 21.

“As online is absorbing the offline retail economy, some inflation is being observed for the first time in years, especially in categories that have consistently experience online deflation, such as electronics. Americans are used to things getting cheaper online, but that trend may be ending, and online commerce may never be the same. It appears that COVID-19 has accelerated that process.”

 

Taylor Schreiner, Director, Adobe Digital Insights

Adobe Analytics measures transactions from 80 of the top 100 U.S. online retailers. The company says its analysis is significantly more in-depth and accurate compared to survey-based assessments as only Adobe has access to this volume of real-time, transactional consumer data.

Also, several government bodies and industry trade organizations, including the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Census Bureau agreed to work with Adobe to get an instant read on the digital economy and access to data.

READ MORE: Adobe Offers Three Months Free Access to Magento Commerce During Coronavirus Crisis

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