The retail sector has put up a great show amid inflationary pressures and price challenges. Sales have been steadily growing over the past few months, and November proved to be another winning month with robust sales, thanks to a solid start to the holiday season. Robust online sales are driving overall retail sales.
This year, the five-day period from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday saw robust online sales, which gave a boost to overall sales. Given this situation, it would be ideal to invest in retail stocks with a strong online presence.
We have selected four stocks, namely, Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN, Shopify Inc. SHOP, Maplebear Inc. CART and Carvana Co. CVNA for investors.These stocks have seen positive earnings estimate revisions in the last 60 days, carry a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) each and are set for solid returns. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Black Friday, Cyber Monday Online Sales Jump
Retail sales grew a solid 0.7% totaling $724.6 billion month over month in November after increasing 0.5% in October, the Commerce Department said earlier this week.
The November figures also beat economists’ expectations of a rise of 0.5%. Year over year, retail sales rose 3.8% in November. Online sales grew 1.8%, thanks to robust buying on Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
U.S. retail sales grew 3.4% on Black Friday, with a 14.6% jump in online sales. Black Friday online sales total $10.8 billion. Consumers spent $13.3 billion online alone on Cyber Monday. Since Cyber Monday fell on Dec. 1 instead of November, it caused a slight decline of 1.32% in online retail sales for November compared to October. However, the robust Cyber Monday sales are expected to boost online sales in December substantially.
E-Commerce Boosting Retail Sales
The Census Bureau reported that non-store retailers saw a 9.8% jump in sales in November from year-ago levels However, NRF data shows that November online retail sales grew faster than all other categories it monitors, with sales growing 1.3% on a month-over-month basis and 21.5% from the year-ago levels.
The preference for online shopping has increased since the pandemic forced people to shop from home. Although the United States was slow to embrace this trend, consumers have now realized the convenience of shopping online.
A Forbes Advisor report on e-commerce statistics predicts that 20.1% of total retail purchases worldwide will be made online in 2024. Additionally, the report forecasts that e-commerce sales will grow by 8.8% in 2024.
4 Retail Stocks With Solid Online Presence
Amazon.com, Inc.
Amazon.com, Inc. is one of the largest e-commerce providers, with sprawling operations in North America, now spreading across the globe. AMZN’s online retail business revolves around the Prime program, well supported by the company’s massive distribution network. Further, the Whole Foods Market acquisition helped Amazon establish a footprint in the physical grocery supermarket space. AMZN also enjoys a dominant position in the cloud-computing market, particularly in the Infrastructure as a Service space, thanks to Amazon Web Services.
Amazon.com has an expected earnings growth rate of 19.9% for next year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 9.3% over the last 60 days. AMZN presently carries a Zacks Rank #2.
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Shopify Inc.
Shopify Inc. provides a multi-tenant, cloud-based, multi-channel commerce platform for small and medium-sized businesses. Merchants use SHOP’s software to run business across various sales channels, including web and mobile storefronts, physical retail locations, social media storefronts and marketplaces.
Shopify’s expected earnings growth rate for next year is 18.4%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 11.6% over the past 60 days. SHOP currently carries a Zacks Rank #2.
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Maplebear Inc.
Maplebear Inc. is a grocery technology company principally in North America. It works with grocers and retailers to transform how people shop. CART’s Instacart Platform offers retailers a suite of enterprise-grade technology products and services to power their e-commerce experiences, fulfill orders, digitize brick-and-mortar stores, provide advertising services, and glean insights.
Maplebear’s expected earnings growth rate for next year is 15%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 21.3% over the past 60 days. CART currently carries a Zacks Rank #2.
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Carvana Co.
Carvana Co. is a leading e-commerce platform for buying and selling used cars. CVNA’s end-to-end online business model, which covers every aspect of used-car retailing — including sales, financing, logistics, inspection and repair centers, as well as software development — has transformed traditional used-car sales in several ways.
Carvana’sexpected earnings growth rate for next year is more than 100%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved more than 100% over the past 60 days. CVNA currently sports a Zacks Rank #1.
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