Deloitte Global Powers of Retailing Report shows an Indian retail brand lead the fastest 50 list

Deloitte Global released the 23rd edition of its Global Powers of Retailing 2020 this week. The report shows that Reliance Retail grew by 55.8 percent CAGR and jumped to the first position from sixth a year ago on the list of Fastest 50 retail brands.
The growth is backed by the company’s strong focus on e-commerce and continued efforts to build a strong consumer base and delivery network. The retailer also became the first Indian retailer to operate more than 10,000 stores in the country.
According to the report, the average company size of Top 250 retailers has increased to US$ 19.0 billion in FY 2018 from US$ 18.1 billion in FY 2017.
Speaking on the launch of the report, Anil Talreja, Partner, Deloitte India said, “Even as the economy is facing a prolonged slowdown, the resilience of the global retail sector is likely to be mirrored in India as well, especially given the tax sops announced for boosting investment in the recent Union Budget for 2020.”
“Key initiatives taken by the government including liberalisation of FDI norms for select sectors; a rollback of the much-debated tax surcharge on foreign portfolio investors; incentives to support several industries; bank consolidation, the amendment of insolvency and bankruptcy code enabling the resolution of financial companies, and a significant cut in the corporate tax rate are sure to show some green-shoots in the Indian economy leading to the boost of customer confidence.
Moreover, the young profile of the country and the increasing dependency on convenience through access to technology and digital platforms makes the country one of the growing retail destinations of the world,” added the spokesperson
Key trends and highlights from the report:
– Retail growth in the Asia Pacific region continues to be driven by changing shopping preferences among growing middle-class consumers, particularly young millennials, and the increasing adoption of e-commerce and m-commerce by the physical retail players.
– In efforts to compete with Amazon, FMCG retailers have been employing strategies such as greater focus on e-commerce, buy-online-pickup instore, cashier-less stores, opening more convenience stores, voice-enabled shopping, and doorstep delivery.
– According to the report, despite trade tensions and growing uncertainty around tariff policies, at the aggregate level the global retailers have exhibited remarkable stability. While the highest annual revenue growth in FY 2018 was reported to be in hardlines and leisure goods, apparel and accessories like every other year was found to be the most profitable product category.
Talking about the macro level global perspective, Dr. Ira Kalish, Deloitte Global Chief Economist said, “The outlook for the global economy and the retail industry in 2020 is uncertain. Overall economic growth is likely to be subdued but positive, with lower growth in consumer spending and inflation in most countries remaining low.”
Global Powers of Retailing Top 250
The world’s Top 10 retailers contributed 32.2 percent share to the Top 250’s total retail revenue in FY2018, up from the 31.6 percent share in the previous year. Growth of the Top 10 outpaced that for the Top 250 retailers, at 6.3 percent and 4.1 percent respectively. The composite net profit margin for the Top 10 retailers was 0.5 percentage points higher than the previous year, despite the pressure on retailers from intense competition, rising labor costs, price wars, and investment in e-commerce capabilities.
With the largest number of companies (136) in the Top 250 list, the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) 1 product sector generated 66.5 percent of the retail revenue in FY2018. Retailers in this sector have the largest average retail revenue (US$ 23.2 billion in FY2018), however this is a low-margin sector with the lowest net profit margin of all the sectors (2.0 percent in FY2018).