Top 50 Global Retailers 2020

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The Top 50 Global Retailers is a fresh look at the 50 most international retailers based on their operations at the start of 2019. The methodology uses a system in which points are given to retailers based on their international revenues, their participation in franchising and alliances outside of their local region, and their ability to sell via online marketplaces. To qualify for the rankings, retailers need to have a direct investment in at least three countries, at least one of which is not adjacent to the domestic market. Explore the complete list below, or take a closer look at 2020's rundown.

Ranking Retailer Home country Business foundations Ranking points Total company revenues (billions) International revenues (billions) * Total worldwide incl. domestic (# stores) International (# stores) Countries of first-party operation Expand all
1 Walmart** USA Mass/Hyper 447,543 $510.33 $122.67 11,361 5,993 27
2 Amazon.com** USA Ecommerce 246,234 $232.88 $65.87 472 7 18
3 Schwarz Group Germany Discount grocery 180,741 $123.25 $79.41 12,100 8,251 28
4 Alibaba** China Ecommerce 142,564 $56.15 $17.77 591 121 8
5 Costco USA Club 134,830 $149.35 $40.10 782 239 12
6 Ahold Delhaize Netherlands Grocery 124,189 $74.29 $57.52 6,769 4,618 9
7 Carrefour France Mass/Hyper 119,739 $89.81 $47.72 16,116 10,641 30
8 Aldi Germany Discount grocery 111,048 $91.90 $43.40 11,353 7,253 18
9 IKEA Netherlands Furniture 95,586 $48.73 $47.63 433 412 52
10 Auchan France Mass/Hyper 89,099 $60.22 $38.99 4,084 3,543 15
11 Walgreens Boots Alliance USA Drug 75,190 $115.99 $11.46 13,882 4,605 16
12 Seven & I Japan Convenience 72,946 $61.51 $25.28 66,200 44,400 3
13 Spar International Austria Grocery 72,298 $42.24 $34.12 13,112 11,612 17
14 Rewe Group Germany Grocery 69,329 $72.18 $20.71 15,686 4,967 11
15 The Home Depot USA Home improvement 67,327 $108.20 $8.82 2,287 306 6
16 Tesco United Kingdom Mass/Hyper 64,010 $76.01 $16.04 6,993 3,184 8
17 Metro AG Germany Mass/Hyper 56,323 $31.95 $26.37 5,950 5,846 25
18 Inditex Spain Fashion 54,796 $30.85 $25.85 7,490 5,855 96
19 JD.com** China Ecommerce 49,816 $67.20 $7.06 0 0 0
20 Aeon Japan Mass/Hyper 48,916 $77.16 $6.89 21,966 4,416 11
21 Intermarche France Grocery 47,188 $52.50 $13.79 3,956 2,124 4
22 H&M Sweden Fashion 46,949 $24.20 $23.23 4,968 4,793 69
23 McDonald's USA QSR 45,042 $26.53 $15.92 37,855 23,941 120
24 Casino France Grocery 42,648 $34.65 $16.36 11,172 3,226 15
25 Lowe's USA Home improvement 41,284 $67.20 $5.12 2,015 292 3
26 Adeo Group France Home improvement 40,151 $27.25 $17.68 800 345 15
27 AS Watson Hong Kong SAR Drug 37,254 $21.46 $17.68 14,976 14,360 26
28 Jeronimo Martins Portugal Discount grocery 34,787 $20.45 $16.37 4,094 3,662 3
29 Naspers South Africa Ecommerce 33,315 $19.00 $11.21 0 0 41
30 TJX USA Discount fashion 33,178 $38.97 $9.13 4,306 1,163 10
31 Ceconomy Germany Electronics 33,026 $25.31 $13.58 1,042 611 13
32 Leclerc France Mass/Hyper 31,589 $56.87 $2.88 804 83 7
33 Best Buy USA Electronics 27,408 $42.88 $3.98 1,238 212 4
34 Yum Brands + Yum China USA QSR 27,077 $13.12 $10.56 45,084 27,007 139
35 Tencent** China Ecommerce 26,036 $47.31 $1.42 0 0 1
36 Starbucks USA QSR 25,376 $26.51 $7.89 31,795 16,607 75
37 Fast Retailing Japan Fashion 23,832 $19.18 $9.43 3,445 2,069 20
38 Ebay** USA Ecommerce 23358 $10.75 $6.37 0 0 0
39 Kingfisher United Kingdom Home improvement 22,660 $15.61 $9.90 1,331 408 10
40 Dairy Farm Hong Kong SAR Drug 22,588 $11.75 $10.46 9,747 7,279 11
41 Couche-Tard Canada Convenience 20,918 $14.51 $7.35 16,108 13,946 23
42 Decathlon France Sports 20,647 $13.33 $9.32 1,520 1,175 60
43 Rakuten** Japan Ecommerce 19,686 $9.98 $0.50 0 0 1
44 Cencosud Chile Mass/Hyper 18,429 $14.23 $7.54 1,114 742 5
45 Gap USA Fashion 13,140 $16.58 $3.15 3,666 1,028 55
46 ICA Group Sweden Grocery 12,317 $13.27 $3.79 2,079 267 4
47 FamilyMart UNY Japan Convenience 11,667 $11.78 $2.83 23,814 7,384 9
48 Lotte Shopping** South Korea Ecommerce 11,145 $16.21 $2.03 1,577 125 4
49 Z Holdings (Yahoo Jp)** Japan Ecommerce 6,989 $8.65 $0.43 0 0 1
50 Euronics International Netherlands Electronics 6,816 $2.65 $2.11 8,820 8,495 36

Methodology

To qualify for this year’s rankings, companies had to meet several criteria. Both publicly and privately owned companies were considered, and the businesses reviewed between October and December 2019.

First, the company needed to be a retailer, defined as either a goods-for-consumer resale operation or a restaurant business open to the public. Second, the company must have direct selling operations in at least three countries, one of which must not be an adjacent territory to the retailer’s home country. Offshore tax havens, territories and protectorates are disqualified from consideration as a country. Third, when reviewing franchise operations, the company must hold the global license to franchise the store name in the majority of countries where the franchise operates.

The review process looked at three elements of business models, with international direct selling capabilities qualifying as the first point of review. Where reported, teams took the size of the company’s international retail sales for the most recent 52-week filing period, in the currency provided, and converted the figure to U.S. dollars. Exchange rates were converted using the rate the company published where published; otherwise, we used the exchange rate published by the Federal Reserve Bank for the fiscal period. Generally speaking, reviewed annual filings were published between March and September 2019.

The second point of review was company franchise sales, where they had granted other retailers the right to run the franchise. Where the franchise sales value was reported, often called total system-wide sales, we took this figure and applied the same currency exchange rate methodology as in the first review. When the system-wide sales were not reported, we took the values from the reports provided by area franchisees.

The third point of review was marketplace sales and sourcing alliances. Marketplace sales are those where the retailer provides the digital platform (website, mobile app or voice ordering system) and assists shoppers with delivery options but will allow a large number of sellers to list products on the platform. Many companies that operate marketplaces report gross merchandise value (GMV); where this was reported we took the number. In instances where it was not reported, we estimated the value based on daily website traffic and other metrics. When reviewing sourcing alliances — where two or more retailers purchase goods from a wholesaler together or create private label products together — we looked at the size of the partner retailers in the alliance.

After looking at all three elements, we created a points system giving the most points to retailers with international direct selling, a lower number of points to retailers with international area franchise agreements and a limited number of points to retailers using marketplaces or buying alliances to generate international scale.

Sources for this year’s reports included annual reports, public filings and press statements, as well as consumer research on shopping patterns. Much of this data is collected by a global team of analysts who work throughout the year on the estimates. This information is shared with subscribers to Kantar’s online platform for retail performance data, www.kantarretailIQ.com.

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