COVID-19 drives surge in online sales of groceries, computers

San Francisco: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, sales in certain categories, including groceries, cold medications, fitness equipment and computers (with more people now working from home) have surged in the US, according to the Adobe Digital Economy Index unveiled on Tuesday.

With many US consumers confined to their homes starting in March, orders for fitness equipment (kettlebells, dumbbells, stationary bikes and treadmills) and computers (desktops and laptops) have seen 55 per cent and 40 per cent boosts in online sales respectively.

The online grocery shopping category overall has seen a 100 per cent increase in daily online sales between March 13 and March 15, the results showed.

Between January 1 and March 11, purchases of hand sanitizers, gloves, masks and anti-bacterial sprays saw 807 per cent jump in sales, while there was 217 per cent jump in sales for over-the-counter drug purchases (cold, flu and pain relievers).

During this period, sales of toilet paper jumped 231 per cent, while sales of canned goods and shelf-stable items grew by 87 per cent, the index showed.

The Adobe Digital Economy Index is a real-time barometer of the digital economy which analyses trillions of online transactions across 100 million product SKUs in 18 product categories.