Most global retailer lists focus on turnover size only, but not any more. Exclusive research published today by IGD seeks to give a more considered ranking of the world’s global retailers.
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The IGD Global Retail Index includes a combination of “hard” and “soft” factors which IGD believes determine whether a retailer can be considered as being truly global.
The hard factors include:
- Turnover size
- Number of countries of operation
- Presence in key regions – not just how many countries but the level of presence in Western Europe, NAFTA and Far East Asia
- Home market dominance
- Percentage of foreign sales – as an indicator of the importance and maturity of a retailer’s international operations.
The soft factors aim to give a reflection of a retailer’s international management skills and include:
- Clarity of global strategy
- Global culture
- Level of global sharing and learning within an organisation.
Taking into account these hard and soft factors gives a very different global retail order:
Global Status 
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Leading Global Retailers | 1 2 3 | 2 7 1 | Carrefour Ahold Wal-Mart |
Leading International Retailers (nearly Global) | 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 | 3 12 23 13 22 19 11 14 16 | Metro Ito Yokado Delhaize Group Tesco Casino Auchan Aldi Tengelmann Costco |
*Note: We have focused our analysis on “traditional” retailers with a significant proportion of sales accounted for by food. We have excluded Spar and IGA which are retailer associations rather than “traditional” retailers.
Although Wal-Mart is by far the largest retailer in turnover size, it is not yet as “global” as Carrefour or Ahold, who have a wider geographical presence. Carrefour and Ahold have also been active internationally longer than Wal-Mart, which only started to expand outside of the United States in the 1990’s.
For further information please contact Jane Whiteley, Tel: 01923 851917, Mobile 07802 437579, Jane Beard, Tel: 01923 851910, Mobile 07770 640448 or Catherine Ellwood, Tel: 01923 851916.
EDITORS’ NOTES
