Top 10 Retail Companies in the World 2023

In this article, we have prepared the list of top retail companies in the world 2023 based on their revenue & profit. The largest retail companies demonstrate the dominance of these retail chains both at home and abroad. The best retail companies have grown rapidly by opening several stores across strategic geographic locations worldwide. Along with that, retail chains have also made their presence felt by having a strong online presence. This enables them to showcase their entire product & service offering, and reach out to customers more efficiently.

Top 10 Retailers in 2023 by Revenue and Profit

The top retail companies include Walmart, Amazon, CVS, Walgreen Boot, Home Depot followed by names like Kroger, Costco, Target, Carrefour. It includes both traditional retailers and online retailers. Here is a list of the top 10 retail companies in the world 2023.

Rank 1. Walmart

Walmart Inc. is an US retail giant and was founded by Sam Walton in the year 1962.

Image: Wikimedia

Walmart has more than 11000 stores and is operating across 25 countries under 50+ different names. Walmart was able to generate $500 billion of revenue and was able establish it as world’s largest retail company by revenue according to Fortune Global 500 list.

The revenue generated through its ecommerce operations is just 4% of its overall revenue. Walmart is famous among its customers because Walmart customers able to purchase products at very low price on any day. It is one of the top retail brands in the world. The reason behind selling items at lower price is that Walmart is able to achieve economies of scales. Walmart analyze large amount of user data which allows them to optimize their operations by predicting consumer’s habits. Now Walmart is focusing more on expanding online commerce. It acquired Jet.com to compete with Amazon.com. Walmart’s US ecommerce CEO considering doubling their warehouses for ecommerce to enhance consumers digital experience.

Revenue (Billion): $611

Profit (Billion): $11.68

Rank 2. Amazon

Amazon is a pioneer in online retailing. Amazon started and grew in the late 1990s.

Image: flickr-photos/mikeblogs/

Inside 4 months of operation, Amazon website was a great degree well known webpage on the Web, moving high in the rankings by Internet organizations. Amazon offers items from third party understandings, by means of retailers like , Circuit City Stores Inc, the Borders Group, National Leisure Group Inc, and Virgin Wines Waterstones, Expedia Inc, Hotwire, Toysrus.com Inc, Target Corporation. Sometimes criticized for utilizing Gross merchandise value and market share in overall industry as opposed to profits, Amazon.com shocked everybody to demonstrate its first net benefit in 2001. Amazon collected National Retailer Federation’s award “Retailer of the year”. The organization offers items in different classes through its e-business site www.amazon.com in the US. The online organization helps Amazon to turn its stock quickly and diminish its stock administration cost what's more, subsequently offer stock at nearly low costs. Broadening product offering and reinforcing specialized stage through key acquisitions Amazon has been growing its business operations and items. In 2009, the organization obtained Zappos.com, an online attire, footwear and adornments retailer. AWS acquired Elemental Technologies, one of the main suppliers of programming based video arrangements. The organization's emphasis on item extension will empower it to increase its noteworthy piece of the pie. The fortifying of its specialized stage will help Amazon decrease its working cost and make strides in operational proficiency and permit it to offer more esteem to its clients. Amazon has ruled the quickly developing electronic book market for as far back as couple of years through its tablet gadget, Kindle. Inside nine months of its dispatch, Kindle Fire represented 22% of the US tablet deals.

Revenue (Billion): $538

Profit (Billion): $13

Rank 3. CVS Pharmacy

CVS was originally named as Consumer Value Stores and was founded in 1963 in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Image: company website

It is a subsidiary of health care company CVS Health and is headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. It is the largest retailer chain in US and its biggest competitor in this space is Walgreen Boots Alliance which has been ranked among the top according to Fortune 500. It has more than 9600 stores worldwide and has been ranked 7th largest US Corporation by Fortune 500. CVS sells prescribed drugs, beauty products & cosmetics, seasonal merchandise, greeting card and medicines can be ordered online also through CVS.com. CVS.com attracted 26 million visitors annually by 2008. CEO Tom Ryan considers CVS as “Convenience, Value & Service.” CVS acquired Targets pharmacy and retail clinic businesses which let CVS to expand its operations in Seattle, Denver, Salt Lake City and Portland. CVS acquired Eckerd drug stores, Eckerd Health Services and also fragmented store operations of supermarket chain Albertsons. It also acquired Minneapolis based largest retail-based health clinics “Minuteclinic”, which has made it one of the top retail companies in the world.

Revenue (Billion): $339.2

Profit (Billion): $2.8

Rank 4. COSTCO

COSTCO is an American multinational corporation and it is headquartered in Issaquah, Washington.

Image: geograph

COSTCO has been considered as one of the world’s largest retailer after Walmart & it became world’s best retailer of prime meat, organic food, wine and chicken. COSTCO opened its first warehouse in 1983 nearby Seattle and has since then grown with many more stores. The company has 750 warehouses in countries like US, Canada, Mexico, Japan, France, Australia, UK, Spain, Iceland etc. Costco’s history began with Sol Price, when he opened the first Price Club Warehouse in California in the year 1976, thus giving rise to the concept of retail warehousing. Costco employ more than 200,000 employees worldwide and has more than 90.3 million members worldwide. Costco involve in selling products at very low price. Often the products are sold in high volume catering to the needs of large families and businesses. It sells product under the Kirkland Signature label and a typical COSTCO warehouse carries 4,000 distinct products. This helps them in a high volume of sales and allows further reduction in prices due to low marketing costs. Costco has its largest warehouse located in Salt Lake City which of around 235,000 square feet and has highest volume store located in Seoul, South Korea.

Revenue (Billion): $235

Profit (Billion): $6

Rank 5. Home Depot

The Home Depot was Bernie Marcus, Ron Brill, Arthur Blank, and Pat Farrah in 1978.

Image: flickr.com/photos/jeepersmedia/

The company has its headquarter located in Georgia USA and is the largest home improvement retailer of USA. Their vision is to provide them with products, services & knowledge they required in order to build house of their dreams. Arthur blank & Bernie dreamed up The Home Depot from a coffee shop in 1978. They envisioned providing a huge variety of merchandise at a great price with highly trained staff. From just two stores, The Home Depot has now almost 2200 stores in three countries. When it went online, the domain homedepot.com attracted around 120 million visitors annually in the year 2008. It acquired interline Brands from P2 capital partners and Goldman Sach’s private equity arm for around $1.6 Billion. Interline Brands has over 90 distribution centers across US, Canada. Some of the major brands of home depot are Chem-dry, Behr paints, Homelite, American Woodwork etc. It is one of the top retail companies worldwide. The company is also known for its philanthropic activities like recently, the company donated $50 million to train people as construction workers over a period of 10 years.

Revenue (Billion): $154.8

Profit (Billion): $17

Rank 6. Kroger

The Kroger Company is an American retail company having a strong geographic presence.

Image: flickr.com/photos/126562301@N06/

It was founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and since then it has became one of USA’s largest retailer chain. It is one of the largest general retailer in US after Walmart, and it is headquartered in downtown Cincinnati. Kroger is also the largest private employer in the US and it is also the third best retailer in the world. It is operational across 35 states and its store format includes supermarket, hypermarket, departmental stores, superstores, jewellery stores and convenience stores. Kroger is the only major US Company which operate an economical three-tier distribution system. Kroger is serving nearly 9 million customers a day in 35 states. Food stores contribute to 94% of the total company’s revenue and rest comes from jewellery stores and manufacturing facilities. Kroger has around 2,268 pharmacies located in their combined food and drug stores which provide high quality services every day at low prices. The Kroger Company has largest network of private label brand manufacturing in the country. Kroger always believe in simple dictum: Be particular. Never sell anything you would not want yourself.” Kroger’s vision is a world with zero hunger and zero waste. Kroger is committed towards a mission to end hunger in the communities and eliminate waste across its company by 2025.

Revenue (Billion): $148.25

Profit (Billion): $2.2

Rank 7. Walgreen Boots Alliance

Walgreen Boots Alliance is one of the largest pharmacies and retail companies across US and Europe.

Image: Wikimedia

Walgreen Boots Alliance has presence in more than 25 countries and employs around 380,000 people with more than 13000 stores across world. Walgreen Boots is an American Holding Company headquartered in Deerfield Illinois, US and is one of the top retail companies globally. The company was formed in year 2014 when Walgreen purchased 55% of stake in Switzerland and UK based Alliance Boots. The company has three divisions: Retail Pharmacy USA (Walgreens), Retail Pharmacy International (Boots) & Alliance healthcare which incorporates Pharmaceutical wholesale vertical. The company has unmatched supply chain and distribution network and procurement expertise which offers customers innovative solutions at lower price. It has other brands in the category of global health and beauty product like No7, Soap & Glory, Liz Earle, Sleek MakeUP and Botanics. It has a unique platform which helps them generate huge profit and let them grow in a sustainable way in developed and emerging markets. Walgreen Boots Alliance leverages on all these advantages and opportunities which is helping them in developing a global platform for future to provide innovative ways to address wellness and health challenges. Walgreen Boots Alliance has been included in the list of World’s Most Admired Companies in Fortune Magazine.

Revenue (Billion): $136

Profit (Billion): ($3.3)

Rank 8. Target

Target is one of the largest retailers in US having a strong geographic reach.

Image: flickr.com/photos/jeepersmedia/

The company was founded by George Dayton and has its headquarter in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The first store was established in 1962 in Roseville, Minnesota. It has more than 1800 stores across world.Target parent company is known by the name Dayton-Hudson Corporation and Target is the highest earning division of Dayton-Hudson Corporation. It experienced massive success by expanding its operations in the urban markets of US. It caters to the need of youth and image conscious shoppers whereas its rival follows a strategy of “always low price”. Target operates in several formats which include the discount store Target, the Supermarket hypermarket and flexible format stores. The first SuperTarget store was opened in Apple Valley, Minnesota in 1990; the stores are 50% larger than traditional stores with the inclusion of grocery department. Target also pay much attention to its ecommerce operations, the target.com domain attracted around 228 million visitors annually by 2008. Target announced the corporation intent to purchase Shipt for $550 Million in order to compete with its competitor like Amazon and Walmart. Shipt is an internet based online grocery delivery service in US.

Revenue (Billion): $109

Profit (Billion): $2.8

Rank 9. Lowe's

Lowe’s, a publicly traded American company headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina, USA, is a home improvement retail chain (along with appliance stores) which was founded in 1946.

Image: flickr-photos/jeepersmedia/

It has approximately 265000 employees and around 1857 stores and operates in USA, Canada and Mexico. It is USA’s 2nd largest hardware chain behind The Home Depot. It has traded in NYSE since 1961. Its retail customers are comprised of individual homeowners and renters who indulge in Do-it-Yourself projects, supported by Lowe’s. Its professional customers, which account for approximately 30% of total sales are comprised of Construction and Trade customers and Repair, Maintenance and Operations customers. It also provides interior and exterior installation services viz. appliances, flooring etc. besides customer aiding repair services and credit financing. Lowe’s also boasts of an extensive supply chain network transporting more than 3/4ths of stock merchandise with the help of over 30 strategically placed distribution centers. Lowe’s has been instrumental in educating its consumers about energy efficiency for which it has been accorded the Energy Star Award consecutively for several times. It also developed housing solutions for hurricane affected regions.

Revenues (Billion): $97

Profit (Billion): $6

Rank 10. Carrefour

Carrefour is one of the biggest retailers headquartered in Boulogne Billancourt, France.

Image: Wikimedia

It is one of the largest retailers of the world with 12,300 self-service stores under group banners in more than 30 countries and regions at the end of year. It was founded by Denis Defforey, Jacques Defforey and Marcel Fournier in 1960, and it was the first to open hypermarket in Europe. In 1970, Carrefour went public and it was listed on the Paris Stock Exchange. Carrefour has more than 374,478 employees worldwide. Since people are now adopting online modes to make purchases, Carrefour recorded 1.3 million unique visitors a day across all the Carrefour websites. Carrefour has more than 20,000 Carrefour quality line suppliers worldwide with over 70% of Carrefour brand food products come from SMEs and national suppliers. There are more than 104 million households worldwide those are using Carrefour products at their homes. The company was able to generate $106 billion of revenue. The company is also known for its philanthropic activities, company donated 148.2 million meal equivalents donated to food aid associates. They were also able to cut CO2 emissions as compared to previous years. Majority of the total waste produced by Carrefour stores was recycled and reused.

Revenue (Billion): $90

Profit (Billion): $1.8

Ranking Methodology of Top Retail Companies

1. The top retail companies in the world are considered

2. Parameters like sales and profits are considered

3. The final ranks are calculated based these parameters

This article has been researched & authored by the Content & Research Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.

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