China will be the single biggest contributing country to global retail sales for the next five years according to new research from Euromonitor.
The company says a whole one third of new retail sales around the world will come from the world’s most populous nation between now and 2019.
In a new research report released this week summarising the global retail industry, Euromonitor predicts “steady growth” of 5.3 per cent in 2014, due to improved performance from Western Europe.
“Western Europe registered its biggest increase since 2008 while Eastern Europe experienced its biggest slowdown with six per cent growth due to the conflict in Ukraine and economic sanctions on Russia,” said Daniel Latev, Head of Retailing at Euromonitor International.
Other key findings from the research include:
- China’s Alibaba and US-based Amazon are the only online retailers in the top 15 global retail rankings.
- Nigeria is expected to see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.9 per cent to 2019, due to a growing middle class and an overall increase in disposable income.
- In the last year, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa were the most dynamic regions with increases of over 12 per cent in retail sales.
- Apparel and footwear are reported to be the most popular products sold online and are expected to generate over US$360 billion. Food and beverages are expected to be the most dynamic with 18.2 per cent compound annual growth by 2019.
- Japan’s Seven and I (third) America’s Walmart (first) and France’s Carrefour remain the top global three retailers, while the UK’s Tesco lost its fourth place market share to Schwarz Beteiligungs.
Euromonitor says online retailing is set to generate a third of all new retail sales, driven by strong growth in both emerging and developed markets.
Mobile internet retailing will account for 32 per cent of internet retailing sales compared to 18 per cent in 2014.
Euromonitor International forecasts internet retailing to increase by 15 per cent CAGR to reach US$1.7 trillion by 2019, making multichannel operations key for all retailers looking for growth.
