The ProShares Online Retail ETF (NYSEARCA:ONLN) has benefited from the COVID-induced online shopping boom but now that the governments around the world are rolling out coronavirus vaccines, we may enter a post-COVID era soon. At this juncture, I think it's important for investors to consider whether the good times for some of the leading ProShares Online Retail ETF holdings which fueled the fund's rally last year will roll into 2021.
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The coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns have hurt dozens of retailers, including the household names such as JCPenney, Lord & Taylor, and Stein Mart who filed for bankruptcy protection. At the same time, the consumers around the world, whose movements got severely restricted, made a large chunk of their purchases online. The major US retailers struggled with low levels of traffic and sales on Black Friday as rising infections dulled enthusiasm for in-store shopping while several stores remained shut during this key post-Thanksgiving sales period. On the other hand, online spending on Black Friday and Cyber Monday reached record levels of $9 billion and $10.8 billion respectively as Americans shopped from home. The holiday sales alone accounted for 19.7% of the total retail sales in 2020, an increase from 13% in 2019, as per the Mastercard SpendingPulse report. This trend was also evident in other parts of the world, with the Chinese tech giants Alibaba (BABA) and JD.com (JD) witnessing the highest-ever sales of a total of $115 billion during the Singles Day event in November.
In this backdrop, the shares of several e-commerce companies, including the industry titan Amazon (AMZN), have surged. The ProShares Online Retail ETF, as the name suggests, is one of the leading ETFs dedicated to online retailers. With $1.2 billion of assets under management, ONLN is one of the
