10 Ways You Can Throw Retail Stocks in Your Cart

A shopping cart of top retail names.

Wherever there's a thriving economy, a hot-spending consumer won't be far behind. As the economy rebounded after the Great Recession of 2008-09, retail stocks helped lead the charge. That's because more people were buying new clothes, updating their electronics or improving their houses as they could increasingly afford. But retail can be fickle, and hot brands can cool off in a hurry. The answer, of course, is exchange-traded funds that hold tens or hundreds of retail stocks at once. Here are 10 ways investors can load up on retail.

SPDR S&P Retail ETF (ticker: XRT)

Any investor looking for a balanced way to hold retail stocks could do a lot worse than the XRT. For one, XRT is what's called an "equal weight" fund. Every time the fund rebalances, every stock is brought back to the same weight. This prevents the fund from crumbling if one or two of its holdings implode. Also, XRT gives you exposure to all parts of the retail spectrum, from apparel (22.4 percent) to automotive (14.8 percent) to Internet (13.2 percent) and more.

Expenses: 0.35 percent, or $35 per $10,000 invested annually

VanEck Vectors Retail ETF (RTH)

If equal representation isn't exactly your thing, then the RTH is more your speed. VanEck's retail fund is a much more targeted, concentrated fund of just 26 holdings that weights Amazon.com (AMZN) at more than 15 percent of the fund. It's pretty thick among the other top five holdings, too, with Home Depot (HD) at 8.8 percent, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) at 7.1 percent and CVS Health Corp. (CVS) at 6.1 percent.

Expenses: 0.35 percent after waivers

Amplify Online Retail ETF (IBUY)

If you think brick-and-mortar retailers are dead, you're not alone -- and Amplify ETFs has a brand-spankin'-new fund for you. The IBUY ETF is a who's who of online retail, like Amazon, Wayfair (W) and Etsy (ETSY), but also delving into other online commerce stocks such as travel booker Expedia (EXPE), payment service PayPal Holdings (PYPL) and InterActiveCorp (IAC), which operates sites including Dictionary.com and The Daily Beast. IBUY is equally weighted across its 44 holdings, too.

Expenses: 0.65 percent

Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLY)

The XLY is a retail-heavy fund, but it's not as pure a play as the three prior funds. No, XLY is a consumer discretionary fund, so while that does heavily include retail, it also includes other industries such as media and hotels. That said, XLY still is heavily in retail, with the specialty and Internet retail industries alone making up nearly 40 percent of the fund, and with Amazon and Home Depot accounting for nearly 20 percent of XLY's weight. This just gets you into other quality consumer stocks, such as Walt Disney Co. (DIS) and Starbucks Corp. (SBUX).

Expenses: 0.14 percent

Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF (VCR)

The VCR provides investors with some of the widest exposure in retail, at some of the lowest prices. Vanguard's consumer discretionary fund holds 384 stocks at the moment, and it's like XLY in that while it spans other industries such as advertising, casinos and education services, it's thick with retail stocks. Still, despite its diversity, VCR is a little bloated at the top, holding familiar names like Amazon and Home Depot at big weights of 8.8 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively.

Expenses: 0.1 percent

First Trust Consumer Discretionary AlphaDex Fund (FXD)

Last among our general U.S. funds is First Trust's FXD, which provides broad consumer discretionary exposure with a heavy bent toward retail, and equal weights across its components. Like other AlphaDex funds, FXD's 131 holdings stand up to growth and value screens that look for things like revenue growth and return on assets, and in fact, the fund's components on average trade for less than sales. Among those making the cut are retail stocks like Dollar General Corp. (DG) and Michaels Companies (MIK).

Expenses: 0.63 percent.

SPDR S&P International Consumer Discretionary Sector ETF (IPD)

Of the few options out there, the IPD gets the nod over the iShares Global Consumer Discretionary ETF (RXI) simply because the latter invests more than 60 percent of its assets in American stocks. IPD isn't thick in retail, with automakers, media and hotels/restaurants making up large portions of the fund. But its top 10 holdings includes Compagnie Financiere Richemont and Hennes & Mauritz (better known as H&M). Country allocations include 34 percent in Japan, 15.3 percent in the U.K. and 11.4 percent in France.

Expenses: 0.4 percent.

Global X China Consumer ETF (CHIQ)

One thing investors have been told for some time is that as China grows and its wealth expands, so will the spending power of its middle class, and thus consumer stocks should thrive. And at some point, that might actually come to pass -- but so far, since inception, the Global X China Consumer ETF has seen a lot more downs than ups, including 11 percent losses in 2016. Still, CHIQ isn't without its merits, including ubiquitous Chinese Internet retailer Alibaba Group Holding (BABA).

Expenses: 0.65 percent

EGShares India Consumer ETF (INCO)

Right now, EGShares' INCO is getting out of India what investors were hoping CHIQ would get out of China. The fund is up 55 percent since its 2011 inception, and while INCO is slightly down for the year, that includes a 16 percent rebound from the market's February lows. INCO is comprised of just 30 funds with a market cap of just $10 billion on average, and has heavy weights in automobiles and even a healthy smattering of industrial engineering.

Expenses: 0.89 percent

Direxion Daily Retail Bull 3x Shares ETF (RETL)

If you think retail stocks will hit the roof, the RETL is your fund, as it seeks to return 300 percent of the daily return of the Russell 1000 Retail Index, which includes a whopping 20 percent weight in AMZN and another 15.6 percent in HD. Fair warning: RETL also returns 300 percent of daily losses, so this fund is for extremely risk-tolerant investors/traders only.

Expenses: 0.95 percent

Kyle Woodley is managing editor of InvestorPlace.com. Investing is his second love, with Ohio sports teams as his first. Naturally, this has warped his general perception of love, sparking (among other things) an unnatural affection for the Haddaway hit, "What Is Love?" Follow him on Twitter @kylewoodley.