Data: The world’s 100 largest retailers by revenue

Walmart, which operates more than 11,000 stores worldwide, unsurprisingly topped the list with growth attributed to global expansion of its click-and-collect grocery offering. However, the US-based grocer ditched 80% of its Brazilian operations to a private equity firm, which has since dropped the Walmart branding on its near-100 store portfolio.

Retailers with strong UK and vast international presences all jumped up the list. Amazon, grocer Schwarz Group, and health and beauty specialist Walgreens Boots Alliance each moved up one place in this year’s ranking.

Top 100 global retailers by revenue

_{Deloitte excluded Carrefour from its report at the retailer’s request.}

Amazon, now at third, experienced tremendous growth of 18.2% that was primarily attributed to North America, Germany and its acquisition of Whole Foods Market. The online behemoth’s UK revenue soared by 23.3% in 2018 and captured an estimated 31% of online sales in the country.

Schwarz Group, which owns Lidl and Kaufland, reaped the benefits of store modernisation and expansion in new Eastern European markets alongside existing territories such as the US.

Walgreens Boots noted higher prescription volumes in the US and the acquisition of its Chinese counterpart, GuoDa, which led it to achieve the second-highest revenue growth of the top 10 at 11.7% for 2018.

Kroger and Home Depot, which mostly operate in North America, both fell down the list. While like for likes grew, Kroger’s top line was hit by the loss of its convenience store arm, whereas Home Depot felt the sting of housing market slowdowns in Mexico and the US.

The only UK retailer to make the top 10 was Tesco, which outpaced its 2017 growth by over eight percentage points to 11.3% in 2018. Despite the grocer being hampered by a Sunday trading ban and a weak performance in Poland, the introduction of exclusive and sustainable products proved popular with customers in Central Europe and elsewhere.

Top five fastest-growing retailers

While sheer size can be impressive, there are other retailers that have seen astronomical growth over the past five years.

Reliance Retail made a name for itself in the West after acquiring Hamleys in 2019. The Indian giant was the fastest-growing retailer on the ranking, with revenues reaching $18.5bn in 2018, as it took advantage of the rapidly increasing internet penetration in its home territory and implemented aggressive pricing and store expansion strategies.

With around 8,000 stores in Turkey, discounter A101 is a household name in its sole operating territory and jumped up the rankings after launching its first online store during 2018.

Fast-moving consumer goods remained the largest product sector in terms of value and focus of the top 250 retailers in this list. The product sector has been impacted across the globe from price wars, wage increases and the ever-growing online threat posed by Amazon.

Deloitte’s research also looked at the performance of regions and found Europe had the highest share of companies in the top 250, but North America had a much higher share of overall revenue, outstripping Europe by almost 13 percentage points.

Looking at cross-border commerce, Deloitte found Europe had the highest level of retail revenues from foreign operations as 40% was generated internationally. Conversely, Asia Pacific and North America had the lowest levels at 11% and 13% respectively.

Companies within Europe are often globally focused due to the relatively close borders and ease of trade between markets, but compound annual growth rates from 2013 to 2018 were the lowest of all territories as price wars emerged alongside the rise of the discount grocers.