🏬 Retail ETFs

Retail ETFs offer targeted exposure to specific consumer spending channels — brick-and-mortar, e-commerce, restaurants, and leisure. Unlike XLY (dominated by Amazon/Tesla), retail-focused funds capture the breadth of consumer spending behavior.

Core ETFs compared

XRT — The breadth play

XRT’s equal-weight methodology is its superpower:

• Every retailer counts equally — Dollar Tree = Amazon
• Small-cap tilt — smaller retailers have meaningful impact
• Breadth signal — when XRT outperforms XLY, the average retailer is doing well

PEJ — Experiential spending

PEJ targets companies benefiting from experiences over goods:

Outperforms when: Strong employment, low gas prices, vacation seasons
Underperforms when: Recession fears, high inflation, health concerns

E-commerce: IBUY vs ONLN

Choose IBUY for diversified e-commerce exposure
Choose ONLN for concentrated bet on largest online players

Which ETF when?

Quick reference

For XRT/XLY ratio interpretation and trading strategies, see Consumer Signals.