Bespoke created its “Death By Amazon” index back in 2014 as a way to track the retail companies most affected by the rise of Amazon.  Companies included must be direct retailers with a limited online presence (or core business based on physical retailing locations), a member of either the Retail Industry of the S&P 1500 or the S&P Retail Select index, and rely primarily on third party brands.  We view these attributes as the best expression of AMZN’s threat to traditional retail.

Below is a look at the performance of Bespoke’s “Death By Amazon” index versus the S&P 1500 since the start of 2012.  As shown, the index has underperformed the market significantly over this 5-year period.  The DBA is up 25% versus the S&P 1500’s gain of 75%.  And how has Amazon.com (AMZN) performed since early 2012?  It’s up more than 300%.

Each month we provide an update of our “Death By Amazon” index along with a look at the performance of the index’s individual members.  In this month’s report, we also feature one long idea from the department store group and one short idea from the “off-price” retailer group.

To see this month’s Death By Amazon report, sign up for a 14-day free trial to our Bespoke Premium research service.