Top 100 Retailers 2020

WALMART

For the third year in a row Walmart tops our ranking. The world’s biggest retailer collects a whopping 15.9% of the retail market, down from the 16.9% of market share observed two years ago. However, Walmart’s revenue spiked to $534 billion over the past year, up from $515 billion the year prior, far beyond second place finisher Amazon’s $296 billion in revenue. Most interestingly, as the world’s largest retail continues to battle it out with Internet retailer Amazon, Walmart turned the same $129 billion profit as we reported last year, 7% less than Amazon this year.

AMAZON

Amazon overtakes Apple this year to slide neatly into the No. 2 spot, nabbing 8.8% of the total retail market, an increase of more than a full point vs. last year. This hop up the ladder translated to more than $296 billion in sales, which is up from $241 billion in 2019 and $193 billion in 2018. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Amazon also grabbed more than one-third (34.5%) of the e-commerce retail segment. This is up from 33.2% last year — and one can only image what the pandemic-fueled figures will look like in 2021.

APPLE

In addition to being a manufacturer with five software platforms that provide seamless experiences across its devices, Apple is also a cutting-edge retailer. While some of its stores feature jaw-dropping design, drawing revenue from many sources helps it claim 8% of the total market. Apple slips a spot from No. 2 to No. 3 this year in our ranking, but in the retail hardlines breakout of this research, Apple takes 57% of the available market, up 2% from last year. Its total revenue is up $8 billion over last year, finishing at almost $268 billion, with a gross profit of $110 billion.

COSTCO

Consistency is key for warehouse club chain Costco, which didn’t record vastly significant change this year from a ranking perspective. It holds on to its No. 4 spot, which is where it was last year and in 2018. It also collects 4.71% of revenue in the retail market, which is a 0.1% tick up vs. 2019 (and 0.1% tick from 2019). With that said, small growth still leads to big numbers, and Costco rang up $158 billion in sales in 2020 — up from $149.5 billion in 2019 and nearly $136 billion in 2018.  

KROGER

While Kroger’s overall market share decreased slightly year-over-year, from 3.7% to 3.6%, its take of the grocery industry is 36%, placing it at No. 1 for the industry. This grab of one of the hottest retail segments right now is on par with its prior-year numbers, but down from 38% in 2018. The innovative retailer maintains its fifth-place position for the third year in a row, however, with $122 billion in sales. It brought in just under $27 billion in gross profit, slightly more than the prior 12 months.

THE HOME DEPOT

The Home Depot grabs just a little less share of the retail industry this year — collecting $112 billion in sales vs. $109 billion last year — but it still manages to muscle its way into the No. 6 spot. The chain captures nearly half (49.6%) of the building supply segment, which is down just a hair from 49.9% last year. It still grabs the lion’s share of this category, however, with second-place Lowe’s capturing 32.8%.

JD.COM

Technology-driven e-commerce company JD.com is not only the largest retailer in China, it lands on our list at No. 7 with just under $86 billion in revenue, bumping up two notches from last year’s No. 9 position. It collects 10% of the Internet industry market, compared to Amazon’s 34% chunk, and captures 2.5% of the market share overall, up 0.4% from last year’s ranking. The company has opened its technology and infrastructure, as part of its Retail as a Service offering, to help drive productivity and innovation across a range of industries. This retail infrastructure brought it just under $13 billion in profit.

TARGET

Target slips just a bit in position this year, overtaken by the powerhouse JD.com to land as No. 8 on the ranking. The retailer rang up more than $78 billion in sales during the period, which is up from $76 billion in 2019 and $72 billion-plus in 2018. And while it’s placed a bullseye on retail growth (pun, of course, intended), the chain didn’t increase its share of the total industry this year. Target tallies 2.37% of total industry revenue, which is flat from 2019 and even down a bit from 2.44% in 2018.

LOWE'S

Lowe’s slides a position from No. 8 to No. 9 in this year’s ranking. While it brought in $74 billion in revenue and 2.2% of the total retail marketplace during the period, it’s capturing less of the building supply market than its competitor The Home Depot, with 33% of the segment. Still a huge player in home improvement, Lowe’s boasts a $23 billion profit, almost exactly the same as our 2019 and 2018 reports. Its share of the total market and the building supply market also remains the same.

ALIBABA

It’s certainly a good year for Alibaba, as the e-commerce giant not only makes its way into the Top 10 in 2020, but it also records more than $70 billion in sales during the period — up from $55.6 billion in 2019 and $38.3 billion in 2018. These significant improvements are reflected in both how much of the total retail market share it grabs (2.1%, up from 1.73%) and the e-commerce segment (8.2%, up from 2019’s 7.6%). Within the Top 10, only Amazon increased its year-over-year revenue share percentage more. (Like Alibaba, JD.com also increased its year-over-year retail share percentage by 0.4%.)

METHODOLOGY

Research partner Gary A. Williams, CEO, wRatings, examined the financial metrics of 259 publicly traded retailers. The economic data is from a 12-month period ending on May 22, 2020. The percent of retail market share was calculated against a total retail market of around $3.4 trillion. The research ranked retailers across the specialty, apparel, department store, grocery and e-commerce segments.