While consumers are increasingly utilizing internet retailers or e-commerce to meet their shopping needs, Americans still rely heavily on brick-and-mortar stores, so investors should not forget about retail sector-related exchange traded funds during the holiday season.
Traditional retail sector-related ETFs have been unloved this year. For example, the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) saw $280 million in net outflows, VanEck Vectors Retail (RTH) shrunk by $15.7 million and the broader Consumer Discret Sel Sect SPDR ETF (NYSEArca: XLY) experienced $26.6 million in outflows.
However, investors should still keep in mind that this segment of the market still serves a good chunk of the U.S. economy and caters towards a majority of consumers.
According to a survey conducted by SRAX, Inc. (NASDAQ: SRAX), a digital marketing and consumer data management technology company, American consumers still revealed their reliance on traditional in-store purchases. Specifically, prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, 40% of respondents said they planned to shop online for the holidays, 28% planned to shop in store, and 32% planned to shop both online and in store.
Looking more closely, men stated that they typically shop Amazon more than women, or 56% versus 44%, respectively. Additionally, men were twice as likely to have gone to Black Friday shopping than not, while about half of women wanted to take advantage of Black Friday sales.
“Holiday purchasing patterns are complex, and retailers, both online and bricks-and-mortar, will benefit from understanding the nuances of the key demographic groups,” said Kristoffer Nelson, COO of SRAX and co-founder of BIGtoken, the first consumer-managed data marketplace where people can own and earn from their data. “We are happy to freely share the latest BIGresearch results. Topical surveys such as this demonstrate the power of our platform to quickly and accurately gather insights from specific audiences.”
For more information on the retail sector, visit our retail category.