Falling Online Prices in June Drive Continued Ecommerce Growth
July 16 2024 - 8:30AM
Business Wire
Signifyd’s Ecommerce Consumer Price Index dropped last month,
mirroring inflation’s monthly decline across the U.S. economy
Shoppers continued to push U.S. online spending higher in June
as ecommerce inflation improved even more dramatically than
consumer prices overall, according to Ecommerce Pulse data from
commerce protection provider Signifyd.
Ecommerce sales were up 8% year-over-year with the grocery and
general merchandise categories leading the way. The higher spending
comes during a month when Signifyd’s Ecommerce Consumer Price Index
dropped 1.14% compared to June 2023.
June also saw the most dramatic slowing of U.S. inflation
overall in three years, according to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, with the month-to-month inflation rate declining 0.1%
and the Consumer Price Index rising only 3% year over year.
“While online prices historically have been deflationary, that
hasn’t consistently been the case in recent years,” Signifyd Senior
Data Analyst Phelim Killough said. “June’s overall lower ecommerce
prices were driven primarily by dramatic decreases in high-priced
categories like electronics and luxury goods and by high-volume
categories, namely apparel and general merchandise.”
The general merchandise category consists of items sold online
by retailers classified as department stores.
Taken together, lower online prices year over year and lower
prices month to month across all retail in June is good news for
inflation fighters.
It’s reasonable to assume that a decline in prices likely
contributed to increased sales in general merchandise, which was up
30% year-over-year in June, and apparel, which increased 8% over a
year ago.
Conversely, in the leisure and outdoor category, where prices
increased nearly 4% year-over-year, sales dropped 2%.
The state of ecommerce — June
2024 vs. June 2023
Category
Sales change
Ecommerce CPI
Apparel
+8%
-2.71%
Auto parts
+1%
+1.53%
Beauty & cosmetics
-18%
+1.08%
Electronics
-10%
-3.4%
General merchandise
+30%
-2.71%
Home goods
Unchanged
0.52%
Leisure & outdoor
-2%
+3.74%
Luxury goods
+4%
-12.16%
All categories
+8%
-1.14%
Of course, many factors besides price alone help form a
consumer’s decision to make a purchase and so the relationship
between the Ecommerce Consumer Price Index and the change in sales
in any given category is not always direct.
What is clear is that while inflation is often framed as a
single number, there can be a wide variance in price movement
depending on the retail category under consideration.
Methodology
Signifyd’s Ecommerce Pulse data is derived from transactions on
Signifyd’s Commerce Network of thousands of ecommerce retailers and
brands. Commerce Network intelligence also powers Signifyd’s
Commerce Protection Platform, which leverages AI-driven machine
learning models and data from millions of transactions to detect
and block fraudulent activity while increasing the number of good
orders approved. Signifyd has seen more than 600 million unique
shopper wallets1 globally, meaning that 98% of the time when a
shopper comes to a Signifyd-protected site, Signifyd’s
machine-learning models recognize the shopper instantly.
About Signifyd
Signifyd provides an end-to-end Commerce Protection Platform
that leverages its Commerce Network to maximize conversion,
automate customer experience and eliminate fraud and consumer abuse
risk for retailers. Signifyd, which is the leading provider of
payment security and fraud prevention for the Digital Commerce 360
Top 1000 Retailers, is headquartered in San Jose, CA, with
locations in Denver, New York, Mexico City, São Paulo, Belfast and
London.
____________________
1
A digital wallet is a distinct
combination of signals present in an online transaction.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240716611293/en/
Mike Cassidy Signifyd head of PR & storytelling
mike.cassidy@signifyd.com