Consumers are starting to spend some serious money. The U.S. Department of Commerce reported that retail sales in March jumped by 9.8%, crushing the Wall Street forecast of 6.1%, notes Tony Sagami, growth stock expert and editor of Weiss Ultimate Portfolio.
And there’s plenty more consumer spending yet to come. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), said that deposits at Chase banks jumped 24% to $2.28 trillion over the last year, and he expects a big chunk of those trillions to get spent.
That’s one of the major reasons why we need to hop on the consumer spending spree train. The best way to play the trend is with the No. 1 ranked stock in our Weiss Performance Rankings: Etsy, Inc. (ETSY).
ETSY has muscled into a very profitable online retailing niche, becoming an extremely profitable e-commerce giant. Unlike Amazon (AMZN), ETSY is an e-commerce marketplace that connects buyers to sellers of unique, handcrafted, hard-to-find goods, like apparel, fashion accessories, jewelry, home decorations and unique gifts.
One of the most loved features of ETSY is that buyers can connect directly with the people who crafted the items. This helps support small businesses and entrepreneurs. It also helps craftspeople take back a share of the cookie-cutter, factory-produced retail marketplace.
Get this: ETSY is now the fourth most frequently visited e-commerce site in the world. The firm saw its business explode in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, it’s doing more business now than ever before. ETSY has reported triple-digit revenue growth for the last three quarters in a row.
Last year, the number of sellers on ETSY jumped by 62% to 4.4 million, and the number of customers who made at least one purchase increased to 81.9 million buyers, a 77% year-over-year increase.
Those shoppers spent $10.3 billion on merchandise, a 107% year-over-year increase. ETSY reports its quarterly results on May 5, so we may not have to wait long for a big payoff.
