The world’s largest retailers 2021: Study

The world’s biggest retailers keep getting bigger.

Data and analytics firm GlobalData has named the top 25 retailers by revenue in fiscal year 2021. Walmart remains the largest retailer in the world, with US$572.8 billion in revenue, a 2.4% increase year-on-year.

Amazon is in the No. 2 spot, posting US$469.8 billion in revenue, a 21.7% increase year-on-year. Rounding out the top five are CVS Health (US$292.1 billion), Costco (US$195.9 billion), and Home Depot (US$151.2 billion).

GlobalData notes that half of the top 25 publicly traded global retailers reported more than 8% year-on-year growth in revenue despite pandemic-related challenges. Retailers were able to quickly adapt to COVID-19-related challenges by swiftly improving e-commerce options, GlobalData states. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical retailers and home improvement/gardening supply retailers also benefitted from lockdowns.

Canada’s largest food retailer, Loblaw, is also one of the world’s biggest. It landed at No. 23, with US$39.7 billion in revenue.

“All 25 of the retailers we tracked implemented measures to expand their business operations during the COVID-19 period,” said Divya Vootkuru, business fundamentals analyst at GlobalData, in a press release.

“Drastic improvement in e-commerce enabled global retailers to focus on customer-centric and digital initiatives,” said Vootkuru. “Now, more retailers will be developing new business models to support consumers in contactless communication infrastructure, as well as implementing digital supply chain management to further streamline and expand business operations.”