Walmart still dominates, but… | The Press

At the Retail Olympics, Walmart is always at the top of the podium. Its pharaonic income gives it a comfortable head start over its adversaries in the four corners of the world. But now a Chinese company with a meteoric rise comes to the fore for the first time.

Sixty years after its creation, the Walmart chain of stores is far from aging badly. Its concept continues to attract consumers to the point that, every day, almost 2 billion dollars enter its coffers. That in fact, transactions!

Thanks to the pandemic and various innovations, the American giant saw its online sales jump 79% in its most recent financial year.^⁠1.

If I tell you about the domination of the empire of Sam Walton, it is because the accounting firm Deloitte has unveiled its traditional annual list of the 250 largest retailers in the world, according to sales. It is always interesting to scrutinize this document with a magnifying glass and to return to see past editions to detect consumer trends in the world.

Last winter, I was struck by the dazzling progress of Amazon, which had just won the 2^and rank, thus dislodging Costco. Imagine, in 2011, the company of Jeff Bezos occupied the 35^and ranking position with sales lower than those of the Canadian grocer Loblaw (Provigo and Maxi).

A Chinese Amazon called JD.com

Now another online retailer is climbing the stairs with giant strides: JD.com. Unknown here, the Chinese company sells everything – make-up, clothing, delicatessen, furniture – and forges partnerships with brands as diverse as Dior, Michael Kors and Walmart.

JD.com entered Deloitte’s list quite recently, in 2014, with its former name Beijing Jingdong Century Trade (142^and rank). This year, it already occupies the 9^and rank.

What a beautiful coincidence, JD.com unveiled, on Thursday, the results of its exercise following the one used to establish the top 250. You guessed it, the jump is spectacular. In local currency, sales grew 28% to the equivalent of C$190 billion (at these days’ rates). This result could allow it to climb again next year.

Chinese companies are best known for supplying retailers around the world through their factories. But with the growing wealth of its workers, retail giants are emerging in China. And these are progressing rapidly without even leaving the country thanks to its huge population. Moreover, JD.com only sells in one country, against 26 for Walmart and 21 for Amazon.

So we’re not done hearing about fast-growing Chinese retailers. Among the 50 brands whose sales have increased the most, five are established in China.

The United States is at the top of this ranking with 11 companies. Canada has 2 (Lululemon and Save-On-Foods, a grocer in Western Canada).

Home Depot and Target climb

You will not be surprised to learn that the Home Depot brand has benefited from the enthusiasm of North Americans since the start of the pandemic for home renovations. This allowed him to increase his turnover by 20% and to move up two places in the charts.

The Target company posted exactly the same result (+20%) and thus returned to the top 10. By comparison, sales at its most direct rival, Walmart, rose 6.7%. Just because Target had a resounding failure in Canada doesn’t mean it’s not doing well across the border…

Two Canadian entrees

A word now on the Canadian presence in the top 250 global. Rarely, it has increased with the arrival of two new names at once.

They are the LCBO, the Ontario equivalent of the SAQ, and the Vancouver clothing retailer Lululemon, which more than doubled its online sales in a difficult environment.

Deloitte also specifies that among the 32 companies in the clothing sector, 23 recorded a drop in their revenues in the double digits. For the American department stores Macy’s, Nordstrom and Dillard’s, it is around 30%.

These entries bring the number of Canadian companies on the list to eight. Among them, two are from Quebec, Metro and Alimentation Couche-Tard, whose gasoline sales are not taken into account.

Interestingly, aside from Canadian Tire, which was flat, all Canadian companies rose in the rankings, largely thanks to the pandemic changing consumer habits (intentionally or not). What will be the effects of the second year of confinement? The answer in a year.

1. Retail sales only, for the last complete fiscal year ended between 1^er July 2020 and June 30, 2021