E-Commerce Boosts U.S. Retail Sales: ETFs to Tap
- U.S. Retail Sector Recovery: Retail sales in the U.S. are returning to normalcy, with March sales totaling $709.6 billion, growing 0.7% month over month.
- E-commerce Driving Sales: E-commerce played a significant role in driving retail sales growth, with online sales growing 2.7% sequentially in March.
- Global E-commerce Market: The global e-commerce market is projected to reach $6.3 trillion by the end of 2024, with an expected uptick of 8.8% in e-commerce sales that year.
- Investment Opportunities: There are investment opportunities in e-commerce ETFs like Amplify Online Retail ETF (IBUY) and ProShares Online Retail ETF (ONLN).
- Consumer Spending Trends: Consumer spending patterns are showing growth, with an increase in online purchases and healthy spend growth reported by banks' CEOs.
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Amazon Raises Hourly Wages: Amazon has announced a $1.50 hourly pay raise for its U.S. fulfillment and transportation workers, increasing the average base wage to $22 per hour, which translates to an annual compensation increase of approximately $3,000 for full-time employees.
Investment in Employee Benefits: The company is investing over $2.2 billion in this pay increase, alongside offering benefits such as pre-paid college tuition, health insurance from day one, and flexible working hours, emphasizing appreciation for their front-line employees.

Amazon's Business Model Shift: An analyst argues that Amazon is primarily a services company rather than an e-commerce entity, highlighting that its revenue from services like advertising and cloud computing has outpaced product sales for over 11 quarters.
E-commerce as a Loss-Leader: The report suggests that Amazon uses its e-commerce operations as a loss-leader to attract customers while focusing on higher-margin services to improve overall profit margins.

PDD Holdings Inc. Earnings Decline: PDD's American depositary receipts fell nearly 30% following disappointing second-quarter earnings, which reported revenues of RMB97.06 billion, missing analyst expectations and indicating a slowdown in growth.
Goldman Sachs Outlook: Despite the negative market reaction, Goldman Sachs maintained a Buy rating on PDD, citing strong adtech capabilities and a favorable risk-reward profile, while also noting potential challenges ahead for the company.
Alibaba revamped the Taobao webpage earlier this year in its most significant update in seven years to improve the shopping experience .
Bank of America has raised Alibaba's price target from $103 to $106 and reiterated a Buy rating on the stock.

- Alibaba's 618 Shopping Festival: Shows strong momentum with 185 brands achieving over 100 million yuan in gross merchandise value, including Apple, Xiaomi, and Huawei.
- Sales Growth: 37,000 brands doubled their sales compared to the previous year.
- Joe Tsai's Statements: Expressed confidence in Alibaba's goal of double-digit revenue growth by 2027, stable regulatory environment, and consumer willingness to spend.
- Technological Advancements: Highlighted advancements in large language models for generative AI adopted by over 90,000 corporate clients.
- Expansion and Stock Performance: Alibaba expanding global cloud reach, stock lost 8% in the last 12 months; investors can access stock through specific ETFs.
- Amazon Offers Free Grubhub Subscriptions: Amazon now provides Prime members with free Grubhub subscriptions, making it a permanent benefit for users.
- Potential Impact on Grubhub Sale: The deal could increase the appeal of Grubhub to potential buyers as Just Eat Takeaway looks to sell it.
- Amazon's Prime Membership Growth: In 2023, 167 million Amazon customers in the U.S. subscribed to Prime, representing 71% of all users in the country.
- Competition and Prime Benefits: Amazon is enhancing Prime benefits to attract and retain members amidst competition from Walmart and Target.
- Amazon Stock Performance: Amazon stock gained 50% in the last 12 months, with analysts highlighting retail margin expansion and GenAI revenue as key drivers.




