May 21, 2025
In this note we update performance of our “Death By Amazon” and “Amazon Survivors” indices. Our “Death By Amazon” index has underperformed pretty dramatically since 2023 after broadly keeping up with the market as a whole over the prior 10 years. As for our “Amazon Survivors” index, it’s lagged the market somewhat so far this year but not dramatically.
Both of these indices outperformed dramatically in 2020 and 2021 but then gave all that boom back. It’s notable that these indices track stocks that are heavily exposed to tariffs given the general prevalence of Chinese-sourced goods in the consumer basket. That said, the impact isn’t uniform, with everything from used auto dealers to groceries seeing much less exposure to imports from China than the rest of the basket.
Bespoke publishes the “Death By Amazon” and “Amazon Survivors” Indices as a way to track performance of the companies most affected by the rise of AMZN. Neither index represents investment returns of an actual investment portfolio. When initially constructed, companies in the “Death By Amazon” index had to 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 Index or a member of the S&P Retail Select Index, and rely on third party brands. We view these attributes as the best expression of AMZN’s threat to traditional retail. The “Amazon Survivors” index is designed to track the performance of companies which have some sort of defense against Amazon, selling goods not suited to mass e-commerce, operating e-commerce platforms of their own, or selling their own brands consumers will focus on instead of who is selling them. The indices are equally weighted, rebalanced monthly, and presented in total return terms.
To see how the two indices have been performing lately and view the full list of stocks that make up the indices, please read our newest report on the subject available to Bespoke Premium and Bespoke Institutional members.
To unlock our “Death By Amazon” and “Amazon Survivors” indices, login or start a two-week free trial to either Bespoke Premium or Bespoke Institutional.
Feb 9, 2024
In this note we update performance of our “Death By Amazon” and “Amazon Survivors” indices. The index of stocks that are exposed to Amazon’s business model have traded more or less in lock step with the market over the past two years. That’s a big contrast with the prior decade when they either outperformed or underperformed pretty dramatically.
The same can’t be said for our “Amazon Survivors” names which are intended to capture stocks which are resilient to the rise of Amazon’s monster e-commerce business despite competing with it. This index has generally outperformed the market as a whole.
Both flavors of index have outperformed Amazon significantly over the past five months or so. During that period, the market has broadly rallied even though large tech names like Amazon have sunk to the lowest levels of the equity bear market.
Our “Death By Amazon” index was created many years ago to provide investors with a list of retailers we view as vulnerable to competition from e-commerce. In 2016, we also created our “Amazon Survivors” index which is made up of companies that look more capable of dealing with the threat from online shopping. To see how the two indices have been performing lately and view the full list of stocks that make up the indices, please read our newest report on the subject available to Bespoke Premium and Bespoke Institutional members.
To unlock our “Death By Amazon” and “Amazon Survivors” indices, login or start a two-week free trial to either Bespoke Premium or Bespoke Institutional.
Feb 10, 2023
In this note we update performance of our “Death By Amazon” and “Amazon Survivors” indices. The index of stocks that are exposed to Amazon’s business model have traded more or less in lock step with the market over the past two years. That’s a big contrast with the prior decade when they either outperformed or underperformed pretty dramatically.
The same can’t be said for our “Amazon Survivors” names which are intended to capture stocks which are resilient to the rise of Amazon’s monster e-commerce business despite competing with it. This index has generally outperformed the market as a whole.
Both flavors of index have outperformed Amazon significantly over the past five months or so. During that period, the market has broadly rallied even though large tech names like Amazon have sunk to the lowest levels of the equity bear market.
Our “Death By Amazon” index was created many years ago to provide investors with a list of retailers we view as vulnerable to competition from e-commerce. In 2016, we also created our “Amazon Survivors” index which is made up of companies that look more capable of dealing with the threat from online shopping. To see how the two indices have been performing lately and view the full list of stocks that make up the indices, please read our newest report on the subject available to Bespoke Premium and Bespoke Institutional members.
To unlock our “Death By Amazon” and “Amazon Survivors” indices, login or start a two-week free trial to either Bespoke Premium or Bespoke Institutional.
Feb 25, 2022
In this note we update performance of our “Death By Amazon” and “Amazon Survivors” indices. The rebound from the COVID shock led to massive outperformance of retail-related stocks like those in our “Death By Amazon” index which made up its entire performance lag versus the broad market since 2012. Since November, that outperformance has trailed off dramatically as “meme” stocks that happen to be in the portfolio trail off and the broad market declines. Since inception, total returns for the DBA are roughly in-line with the overall market.
As for “Amazon Survivors,” since 2016 there’s been significant outperformance that is entirely driven by their performance in the recovery from the COVID drop. Over the past five and a half years, this group of stocks have substantially outperformed the market as a whole. More recently, though, the index has lagged, underperforming the broad market in a manner similar to the “Death By Amazon” index.
Our “Death By Amazon” index was created many years ago to provide investors with a list of retailers we view as vulnerable to competition from e-commerce. In 2016, we also created our “Amazon Survivors” index which is made up of companies that look more capable of dealing with the threat from online shopping. To see how the two indices have been performing lately and view the full list of stocks that make up the indices, please read our newest report on the subject available to Bespoke Premium and Bespoke Institutional members.
To unlock our “Death By Amazon” and “Amazon Survivors” indices, login or start a two-week free trial to either Bespoke Premium or Bespoke Institutional.
