The nation’s largest retailers have held onto their top spots by focusing on value and embracing new ways consumers are shopping, according to the annual Top 100 Retailers list from the National Retail Federation’s STORES Magazine and Kantar Retail.
“Retailers will always be measured by sales numbers, and ranking the leaders is important,” said STORES media editor Susan Reda, in a news release. “But so are the stories behind the numbers—it’s those stories that bring the Top 100 to life. The nation’s largest retailers are posting strong vitals. They’re embracing creative disruption, reinventing physical stores as places for brand experiences and exploring new ways to connect with the consumer.”
All of the Top 10 stores in the Top 100 list published in the July issue of STORES are the same as last year, and the order of the top four remains the same: perpetual No. 1 Walmart, followed by Kroger, Costco and The Home Depot.
“At 55 years old, Walmart may be the oldest new kid on the block, but it still has the energy and mindset of a startup as it continues to successfully battle the competition,” Reda said.
Coming in at No. 5 is CVS Caremark, moving up from No. 7 last year, followed by No. 6 Walgreens Boots Alliance (down from No. 5), No. 7 Amazon (up from No. 8), No. 8 Target (down from No. 6), No. 9 Lowe’s (up from No. 10) and No. 10 Albertsons (down from No. 9).
All but Target showed sales growth, with Amazon’s rise attributed to investments in apparel, groceries and mass market. Poised to possibly move into the Top 10 in the future was Royal Ahold Delhaize USA, which rose to the No. 11 spot from No. 17 after spending nearly three years upgrading its stores.
Other noticeable changes included the success of dollar stores, where revenues have grown drastically over the last year. Dollar General (previously No. 22) edged into the Top 20 for the first time after seeing an 8.5 percent increase in revenue.
See the full Top 100 list here.
“This year’s Top 100 manifests a number of trends we see across the industry,” said Kantar Retail chief insights officer Leon Nicholas, in the release. “Multi-format retailers are powering growth, online is ascendant and aggregation by traditional channel definitions doesn’t provide the same scale advantages it once did.”
Read the full NRF article here.
The STORES Top 100 Retailers are listed by U.S. sales, which may include estimates for private or closely held companies. Retailers included in the Top 100 either have group headquarters located in the United States or are foreign entities with significant operations in the U.S. market. For retailers with group headquarters located overseas, data is presented for North American operations only. Revenues from major non-retail operating segments are excluded where data availability allows.
