Structural and regional characteristics of the world retail trade leaders

The state of development of world retail trade through the prism of the TOP 250 retailers functioning is considered in the article. As part of the study the main performance indicators of Top 250 retailers for 2013-2020 have been analyzed. The world's leading retail trade networks have been performing positive dynamics of their development and a slight increase in the values of indicators. This might take place due to the stabilization of the level of globalization of retail trade as the result of active development of e-commerce and m-commerce. Retailers were also affected by such negative macroeconomic factors as slow economic growth in major developed economies, high levels of debt in emerging countries, deflation or low inflation in rich countries, a protectionist backlash against globalization, troubled credit markets in some countries, and worsening demographics in many countries. The size of retail revenue in 2020 helped us define five groups of trade networks. In addition, we determined the share of Top 250 companies by region/country in 2013-2019 and their revenue. The companies from Europe and North America have shown leading positions in the structure of Top-250 retailers in terms of retail revenue share in 2013-2019. The analysis of the features of expansion policy manifestation by trade structures, depending on the region of their origin, have been conducted. The European trade networks, which in 2019 were present on average in 18.3 countries has demonstrated the largest internationalization. The structure of Top 250 companies by product sector is considered as well. FMCG companies were dominated in the structure of the Top 250 retailers. Special attention has also paid to determining the place of European retailers in the Top 250 in the framework of the European model of retail development. This model assumes an active presence of trade networks in the markets of foreign countries.