Magazine: World retail ranking: online retailers in the top three

According to the latest international survey by Euromonitor the retail sector expanded by 5.5 percent in 2013, which amounts to USD 13.9 trillion.

This expansion is primarily the result of China’s performance: last year retail turnover grew by USD 175 billion in the country, increasing by 13.3 percent between October 2012 and October 2013. With its 3-percent, USD 77-bilion retail sales growth the USA did best among developed countries, while India finished third in the overall ranking with a 13-percent, USD 49-billion expansion in retail sales. The Russian retail market also increased by about USD 49 billion but the growth rate was only 10 percent there. Retail sales growth in Germany, the United Kingdom and France remained below 5 percent and USD 25 billion, while the market contracted in Spain and Italy, by 2 and 5 percent, respectively. It doesn’t come as a surprise that online retail was the most dynamically developing channel, with sales by Amazon and Alibaba soaring. Mobile internet retail was up 12.3 percent. As regards traditional retail channels it is noteworthy that supermarkets were ranked second and small independent shops were third, while hypermarkets only came in sixth in the ranking. Overall leader Wal-Mart calculates with growing sales for next years as they plan to open 235-265 new stores (from which 120-150 will be small shops). The world’s biggest retailer is hopeful that they will be able to increase annual sales from the current USD 466.11 billion to USD 475-480 billion in the next financial year. Although online sales still only make up for 8 percent of total US retail turnover, Amazon.com is one of the most dynamically developing companies. For the next 5 years they expect a 9-percent growth, concentrating on the Asian-Pacific region, where in 2012 Amazon’s sales expanded by 33 percent and turnover valued at USD 332 billion. China-seated e-commerce giant Alibaba Group (T-Mall) finished third in the overall retail ranking; the company’s sales improved by 61 percent from one financial year to another. In the Top 25 of companies realising the biggest sales growth we find 5 retailers which are active in Hungary too: Auchan is ranked 5th, Aldi is 9th, Lidl is 12th, Tesco is 21st and Metro is 24th. Auchan currently employs 287,000 people and operates 1,511 stores in 12 countries; in 2012 the French giant’s sales amounted to USD 81 billion. German group Aldi has 7,600 stores in 17 countries and their sales augmented by 7.4 percent between 2011 and 2012. Lidl is present in 25 European countries but in 2015 plans to conquer the United States by opening 100 stores on the East Coast. Tesco operates 5,381 stores in 15 countries and the company’s sales were USD 104.3 billion, only 0.44 percent higher than the result of the previous year. Metro stores can be found in 25 European, 5 Asian and 1 African countries and in the last financial year their sales were up 0.9 percent. n