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The Internet has long been a reliable place to get low prices on almost anything. In fact, relentlessly reducing prices has been the hallmark of Big Tech. “The consumer has grown accustomed to expecting about a 4% drop in online prices every year since we have been tracking, which dates back to 2014,†says Vivek Pandya, senior digital information manager at Adobe. .
Not anymore. Thanks to the pandemic, supply chain issues and labor shortages, those days are over, at least temporarily. Internet prices rose 2.3% in the 12 months ending in June, according to Adobe, and 0.6% in June alone.
The increase in demand is also at the origin of this price increase. Internet sales increased 77% in the 12 months ended in June, mainly because people were spending more time at home and less time in physical stores. “That’s pretty big growth in the online ecosystem, and it’s kind of spilling over into price inflation,†Pandya said.
It’s a big world, and not everything has gone up in price over the past 12 months. The cost of electronics, for example, fell 2.5%, but that is compared to an average drop of 9.1% from 2015 to 2019. Here are some of the biggest price increases online over time. of the last 12 months.
1. Clothing (+ 16.2%)
This reliable and inexpensive category experienced an average price drop of 1.1% per year from 2015 to 2019. Why the soaring prices? On the one hand, the demand for new clothing faded in June 2020. You probably didn’t buy a lot of suits, ties, or other office clothes back then: the nation was in lockdown and you can only have a limited number of sweatpants. A year later, however, companies expected employees to re-enter the workforce and demand increased. At the same time, manufacturing and shipping costs have also increased.
2. Over-the-counter drugs (+ 4.0%)
Some of the hallmarks of COVID-19 are fever, body aches, sore throat, and headache, all of which can prompt you to take aspirin or other over-the-counter pain relievers. The ibuprofen rush, for example, boosted demand, while supply chain issues created shortages of raw materials from China and India.
3. Sporting goods (+ 3.5%)
As reality predicted that the pandemic was not going away quickly, more and more people turned to the relative safety of outdoor activities and exercise – leading to increased demand for items like sneakers. . Wolverine Worldwide, which makes Saucony running shoes, cited rising raw material prices for rising shoe prices. And Lauren Hobart, CEO of Dick’s Sporting Goods, cited supply chain issues as a constant concern.
4. Household appliances (+ 2.3%)
One thing you may have noticed during the pandemic: Your washer, dryer, and dishwasher all exercise above average these days. This is, of course, because you are no longer at home. And that also means these devices wear out faster and replacements are harder to find. Even when you shop online, you will find it harder to get the devices you want. According to a February poll by the National Association of Homebuilders, 90 percent of those polled said they had trouble getting the devices they wanted. One reason, besides demand, is that today’s home appliances are full of computer chips, which are in short supply.
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