Global Powers of Retailing 2018

Global Powers of Retailing Top 250

The 21st annual Global Powers of Retailing identifies the 250 largest retailers around the world based on publicly available data for FY2016 (fiscal years ended through June 2017), and analyzes their performance across geographies and product sectors. It also provides a global economic outlook and looks at the 50 fastest-growing retailers and new entrants to the Top 250.

The top five largest retailers maintained their positions on the leader board. A combination of organic growth, acquisitions, and exchange rate volatility shuffled the rest of the Top 10—which now accounts for 30.7 percent of the overall Top 250’s retail revenue (compared to 30.4 percent last year).

Retailers of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) are by far, the largest companies (average retail revenue of nearly US$21.7 billion) as well as the most numerous (135 retailers accounting for 54 percent of all Top 250 companies and two-thirds of Top 250 revenue).

Transformative change, reinvigorated commerce

The rules of retailing are being rewritten in this time of transformative change. Innovation, collaboration, consolidation, integration, and automation will likely be required to reinvigorate commerce, profoundly impacting the way retailers do business now, and in the future. Across the retail industry, disruption of traditional business models has given way to unprecedented and transformative change—change required online and offline to better serve more demanding shoppers and redefining customer experience.

The four trends identified in the report are:

• Building top-notch digital capabilities
• Combining bricks and clicks makes up for lost time
• Creating unique and compelling in-store experiences
• Reinventing retail with the latest technologies
  
  

Previous versions

• Global Powers of Retailing 2017: The art and science of customers
• Global Powers of Retailing 2016: Navigating the new digital divide
• Global Powers of Retailing 2015: Embracing Innovation
  

The 18th annual Global Powers of Retailing identifies the 250 largest retailers around the world based on publicly available data for fiscal 2013 (encompassing companies' fiscal years ended through June 2014), and analyzes their performance based on geographic region, product sector, e-commerce activity, and other factors. It also provides a look at the world's 50 biggest e-retailers.

Global Powers of Retailing 2015: Embracing Innovation is much more than a list, however. It considers strategies retailers are taking to cope with disruptive change in the industry. Ira Kalish, Deloitte's Chief Global Economist, provides an overview of the global economy and how it will impact the retail sector. 

Among the key insights included in the report:

• Five trends are reshaping retail: travel retailing, mobile retailing, faster retailing, experience retailing and innovative retailing.
• Important economic issues having a global impact on the retailing industry include shifts in U.S. monetary policy, energy production in the U.S., the crisis in Ukraine, the slowdown in Chinese investment, shifting demographics, and the influence of technology and the internet.
• Retailers of food and other fast-moving consumer goods continue to dominate the Top 250 in number and size of companies.
• International expansion remains an important growth strategy for many retailers.
• Despite rapid growth in the e-commerce arena, only two pure-play e-retailers were large enough to rank among the Top 250.