NRF's Top 100 Retailers ranks the industry’s largest companies according to sales.
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The National Retail Federation’s annual Top 100 Retailers list ranks retailers based on U.S. sales. Walmart continues to hold the top spot, followed by Amazon, Costco, Kroger and The Home Depot. This series takes a look at power players in select retail categories. Power players are retailers in this Top 100 list with 2024 U.S. sales equal to or greater than 10% of the sales of the category leader.
TJX Companies, No. 15 on the 2025 NRF Top 100 Retailers list, has maintained its place as the leading apparel and jewelry Power Player. The Top 100, compiled by Kantar, ranks the industry’s largest companies according to U.S. retail sales the previous year. As for the Power Players, they include the companies that had U.S. sales equal to or greater than 10% of the sales of the category leader. Here, Ross Stores (No. 25) and Burlington (No. 47) continue to succeed.
“The broad variety of apparel options — either from source manufacturers or discontinued and clearance items — continues to support the growth of the discount trade,” says David Marcotte, senior vice president of global retail and technology for Kantar. “The additional sophistication of systems to manage a widely divergent procurement stream has led to the continued success of T.J.Maxx, Ross and Burlington. The emergence of Shein and Temu has led to strong shopper engagement from the very different fast fashion shopper.”
As for the department stores in the category, they continue to be weak as a whole. Dillard’s (No. 68) is the strongest, he says, even though it had a “soft” year. Nordstrom, in the meantime, will be interesting to watch, as it is now 49.9% owned by Mexican retail giant El Puerto de Liverpool.
Macy’s (No. 24) posted a 3% decrease in U.S. sales ($22.21 billion) and a 2% decrease in comp store sales. Kohl’s (No. 31) experienced a 7% decrease in U.S. sales and a 6.5% decrease in comp stores sales.
TJX Companies, meanwhile, had a 4% comp store sales change. It also experienced 4% U.S. sales growth overall ($43.56 billion) and a 3.1% increase in U.S. stores (3,660).
As an aside, Marcotte notes that retail inside malls is “trying to have a resurrection” due to a real estate movement that aims to make these spaces more interesting and experiential, particularly for younger shoppers. Gen Z is being pulled in through Japanese products and foods, he says, “and that’s something I’ll be looking at next year, to see if it sticks. Because so much of that is impacted by tariffs.”
