Should You Invest in the VanEck Retail ETF (RTH)?

Launched on December 20, 2011, the VanEck Retail ETF (RTH) is a passively managed exchange traded fund designed to provide a broad exposure to the Consumer Discretionary - Retail segment of the equity market.

While an excellent vehicle for long term investors, passively managed ETFs are a popular choice among institutional and retail investors due to their low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency.

Additionally, sector ETFs offer convenient ways to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Consumer Discretionary - Retail is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 8, placing it in top 50%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Van Eck. It has amassed assets over $255.14 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Consumer Discretionary - Retail segment of the equity market. RTH seeks to match the performance of the MVIS US Listed Retail 25 Index before fees and expenses.

The MVIS US Listed Retail 25 Index tracks the overall performance of companies involved in retail distribution, wholesalers, on-line, direct mail and TV retailers, multi-line retailers, specialty retailers and food and other staples retailers.

Costs

When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts in the long term if all other factors remain equal.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.35%, making it one of the cheaper products in the space.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

ETFs offer a diversified exposure and thus minimize single stock risk but it is still important to delve into a fund's holdings before investing. Most ETFs are very transparent products and many disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Consumer Discretionary sector -- about 54.5% of the portfolio. Consumer Staples and Healthcare round out the top three.

The top 10 holdings account for about 71.49% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, RTH has added roughly 7.09%, and it's up approximately 7.32% in the last one year (as of 08/25/2026). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $243.464 and $274.424.

The ETF has a beta of 0.85 and standard deviation of 13.75% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 27 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

VanEck Retail ETF sports a Zacks ETF Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. RTH, then, is not the best option for investors seeking exposure to the Consumer Discretionary ETFs segment of the market. Instead, there are better ETFs in the space to consider.

Amplify Online Retail ETF (IBUY) tracks EQM Online Retail Index and the State Street SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) tracks S&P Retail Select Industry Index. Amplify Online Retail ETF has $130.08 million in assets, State Street SPDR S&P Retail ETF has $328.69 million. IBUY has an expense ratio of 0.65%, and XRT charges 0.35%.

Bottom Line

To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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