Consumer Discretionary

Consumer discretionary refers to goods and services mostly acquired using discretionary income as they are optional in people’s lives such as designer clothes or luxury cars. Unlike food and medicines, discretionary products or services are not essential for survival.

Key Takeaways                                                               

• Consumer discretionary represents the category of goods and services that are not vital for a person's life. As such, their demand moves in line with economic conditions and the availability of discretionary income with the consumer.
• These goods are counterparts of consumer staples, representing goods and services that people regularly need for healthy survival.
• Some predominant sectors that flourish with growing discretionary income are automobile, hospitality, retail and entertainment among others. When these sectors are well-performing, economy is said to be expanding. It pushes many businesses to focus more on luxurious products as compared to essentials due to higher consumer preference.

The sales volume of companies selling consumer discretionaries is related to personal income. They are non-essential commodities like fancy bath work, branded clothing, or the latest video game edition. People will prioritize spending towards commodities that will guarantee their health and survival if their income is insufficient. Also, they will choose to preserve money and impede purchasing discretionary items if the economy is weakening.

For instance, a man who spent his weekends going to the cinema will cut back on his weekend spending in response to the economic hardship to save for essentials. Companies selling discretionary products or services make a profit during the economic growth phase. Economists acknowledge a positive correlation between economic growth and consumer spending.

When the nation’s GDP is rising, people’s discretionary income and purchasing power climb. Consequently, the sale of discretionary products and services also increases.  Let’s use an example to show how essential understanding the discretionary concept is to a business.

If Walmart, for instance, only sold discretionary goods, it would be very reliant on these cycles of the economy. However, Walmart also sells food staples, which people need to buy unceasingly. This food business makes it profitable even during an economic recession. 

Discretionary goods are present in several sectors. Some major sectors are as follows -

1. Automobiles & Auto-Components Industry - Automobiles include cars, motorcycles, and other general types of vehicles. Components are the parts used in the creation and maintenance of vehicles. Tires, rubber, engines, and electrical circuits are good examples. 
2. Consumer Services Across Segments – This sector encompasses services in general. Examples include private security, education, legal assistance, etc.
3. Hotels, restaurants, and leisure - These are the services that belong to the leisure service industry, ranging from cinemas, fast food diners to expensive hotels.
4. Consumer Durables & Apparel - It includes most items present in a house, such as a piece of furniture, office equipment, electronics, etc. Another segment under this sector includes apparel, and luxury goods such as clothes, watches, sunglasses, bags etc. from high-end brands.
5. Leisure products - These are the products that directly relate to leisure. Items such as sports equipment, video games, board games, and TV can be included here.
6. Retail – Covers multiline and speciality retail selling all kinds of general goods in their stores. Speciality retail includes the companies that specialize in selling only one type of goods such as electronics, cars, or furnitures.
7. Internet & direct marketing retail - It features all companies that sell goods online, like Amazon.

Consumer discretionary companies sell products or services that people want, and their possession or consumption exerts a positive feeling. However, financially prudent people will spend on discretionary products when they have adequate disposal income. Therefore, revenue from sales of discretionaries flourishes during the economic expansion phase and plummets during the recession phase.

Several companies that offer discretionary products have their stocks listed. Investment in such stock provides the chance to earn a profit when they grow in value. As per a NASDAQ report, the following names have been listed as some shinning consumer discretionary stocks of 2021.

• Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. 
• Amazon.com Inc. 
• GameStop Corporation 
• Discovery Communications Inc. 

Amazon Inc.

Amazon is one of the largest IT companies famous for its e-commerce platform, digital streaming services and AWS (Amazon Web Services). AWS contributes to a significant portion of Amazon's profit.  As of August 2021, Amazon has a market capitalization of $1.67 trillion.

Alibaba

Alibaba is one of the world's largest e-commerce companies. Over the years, it has secured a highly reputable name in artificial intelligence as well. As of August 2021, Alibaba has a market capitalization of $459 billion.

Walt Disney

Walt Disney (DIS) is one of the best picks from the entertainment industry. The company owns ventures like Pixar, Marvel and ESPN. As of August 2021, Walt Disney has a market capitalization of $324.01 billion.

These exchange-traded funds(ETFs) concentrate on tracking stocks of companies selling discretionaries. In this case, one can invest in the overall market of discretionary companies by picking one of the ETFs and access to risk diversification.

Significant investments include the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLY) and the Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF (VCR). XLY tracks the S&P 500 Index featuring the companies from the industry such as media, retail, hotels, etc. The fund’s average market capitalization stood at $588,278.50 in June 2021.

Both the categories possess contrasting features. Consumer staples are a regular in people’s life. Examples of consumer staples include basic food, household and cleaning products, medical supplies, etc.

Many consumer staples are FMCG products, and people buy products from the consumer staple category incessantly. They are price inelastic. This is the reason why they represent a much larger part of the economy than non-essential goods.

When non-essential products and services manifest sensitivity to the economic/business cycle, staples remain insensitive to the economic cycle. This is because the demand and quantity purchased do not exhibit a proportional relationship with the economic cycle. As a result, the consumer staple industry remains competitive and attractive even during the recession, as people don't choose to hinder spending on consumer staples.