Kantar, specialist in market analysis and forecasting, has just delivered its predictions and trends for the retail market by 2025, after having analyzed the performance of 1,500 of the world’s largest distributors, all sectors combined.
By Luxus Plus
Regarding clothing, the world market should register an increase of 3.9% each year by 2025, and therefore grow by 64 billion dollars in total in five years.
According to Kantar, almost half of this growth will be generated by five major players: the Japanese Fast Retailing (Uniqlo), the Spanish Inditex, the Swedish H&M and the Americans TJX and Old Navy.
Overall, the global fashion distribution market is valued in 2020 at around $ 300 billion. An amount that could reach nearly 360 billion in 2025.
If we come back to a global analysis of global retail (hypermarkets, brands, discounters …), it appears that this market will reach $ 6,700 billion in sales in 2020, an increase of 4.8% in one year, driven by e-commerce which will jump 15.7% this year to reach $ 861 billion.
It is indeed the web channel that will drive growth in the future: online sales, which today account for 12.1% of retail sales worldwide, should therefore increase four times faster than physical transactions within 5 years.
The 1,000 billion dollar mark of online revenue will be crossed in 2021, and this amount will reach 1,600 billion in 2025, according to Kantar projections.
Regionally, growth in retail activity will grow faster in the Asia-Pacific region (+ 8.6%), than in North America (+ 3.9%) or in Europe (+ 3.8%) %).
The American Walmart should retain its place as the world’s leading retailer in 2025, according to Kantar, ahead of its compatriot Amazon, which will reduce the gap between them.
The Chinese JD.com should show the strongest growth in the panel and be on the third step of the podium in five years.
Retail trends: Seven key points to consider
Supporting its projections, Kantar raises seven key points regarding the retail trends to observe.
One of them designates the Asia-Pacific region, which has the highest proportion of online sales (19%), as a source of inspiration for the retail giants, because it houses data-based business models and favoring the mobile. “The growth potential is not limited to China, markets like India and Indonesia offering them new opportunities, thanks to the expansion of giants such as Alibaba, and new innovative players like Flipkart and retailers specializing in express deliveries such as Grab “.
For distributors and brands, another subject is gaining momentum and can be a source of complications: it is cross-border trade, disrupted by the practices of e-merchants.
“While Alibaba and Amazon are simplifying, cross-border trade will disrupt pricing policy, inventory management and create gray areas in legislative frameworks,” warns Kantar, who also targeted as macro-tendency to follow closely the subject of margins, visibility, accessibility, meaning and finally relevance.
Read also: China’s ‘Gen Z’ shoppers fuelling luxury market momentum: Bain
