With the rapid growth of e-commerce and shifting consumer shopping habits, investors can capture a new opportunity in the retail segment with targeted ETF plays.
ProShares recently rolled out the ProShares Decline of the Retail Store ETF (NYSEArca: EMTY) and ProShares Long Online/Short Stores ETF (NYSE Arca: CLIX) to help investors capture the shift in the retail landscape.
The Decline of the Retail Store ETF provides daily short exposure or -1x to the new Solactive-ProShares Bricks and Mortar Retail Store Index, which is comprised of traditional retailers and equally weights components. The fund holds companies that include department stores, supermarkets and sellers of apparel, consumer electronics and home improvement items, such as retailers like Barnes & Noble, The Gap, Macy’s, Kroger and Best Buy, among others.
“The Solactive-ProShares Bricks and Mortar Retail store Index has an innovative design that separates bricks and mortar retailers – those that rely principally on revenue from their physical stores – from teh rest of the retail sales industry,” according to ProShares. “This is the first public securities index specifically designed to bring these legacy retailers together so that they can be treated as a unique investment opportunity.”
The Long Online/Short Stores ETF is a type of long-short strategy and the first ETF to track the potential growth of online companies while benefiting from the decline of bricks and mortar retailers. Specifically, CLIX reflects the new ProShares Long Online/Short Stores Index, which combines a 100% long portfolio of on-line and non-traditional retailers with a 50% short position in bricks and mortar retailers.
“The long/short structure also reduces equity market exposure and potentially results in less volatility than long-only equity strategies,” according to ProShares.