Retail players, trends, and how to crack retail cases
The main retailers by region, the trends of 2024 to 2026, regulation basics, and the typical retail case prompts with the first driver to check.
Industry brief, with a one-minute summary: RetailFirm processes and online tests change from year to year and differ by office. Use this to prepare, and confirm the exact current steps on the firm's own careers page.
Key takeaways
- Common traps in retail cases: Praising total sales growth without asking for like-for-like growth.
- Own brands keep gaining in Europe.
- Retail theft became a board topic.
- Cheap cross-border parcels face new duties. The US suspended its USD 800 duty-free threshold (de minimis) for all countries on 29 August 2025.
Key idea
Retail is local. The winning formats and players differ by country, so start every retail case by asking which format, which country, and whether the problem is in the stores the client already has or in its growth plan.
| Region | Examples | What the source says |
|---|---|---|
| Global and US | Walmart, Amazon, Costco, Home Depot, Kroger | Deloitte's Global Powers of Retailing 2025 places Walmart first by retail revenue, then Amazon and Costco |
| Europe | Schwarz Group (Lidl, Kaufland), Aldi, Tesco, Carrefour | Schwarz Group and Aldi, both German discount-led groups, appear in Deloitte's global top 10 |
| Middle East | Lulu Retail, Majid Al Futtaim (runs Carrefour stores under franchise in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and other markets) | Lulu Retail listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange in November 2024; the exchange called it the largest UAE offering of 2024 up to that date. In Jordan, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait, Majid Al Futtaim replaced Carrefour with its own HyperMax brand in 2024 and 2025 |
| India | Reliance Retail, Avenue Supermarts (DMart) | Reliance Retail reported about 20,160 stores at the end of FY26 (March 2026). DMart reported 500 stores at March 2026 |
| Africa | Shoprite, plus many local chains and informal shops | Shoprite reported revenue of about ZAR 257 billion and a net 281 new stores in the year to June 2025 |
So-what
Discounters and local champions win in many markets. A global name does not guarantee success in a new country.
Trends from 2024 to 2026 (checked September 2026)
- Own brands keep gaining in Europe. NielsenIQ data published by PLMA show private label at about 38.7 percent of grocery value across 17 European countries in the year to week 40 of 2025, slightly up on 2024. Discounters such as Aldi and Lidl sell mostly own brands.
- Retail theft became a board topic. In England and Wales, police-recorded shoplifting rose for several years, then fell 4 percent to about 507,000 offences in the year to March 2026, according to the ONS. Retailers still spend more on security tags, cameras, and staff.
- Cheap cross-border parcels face new duties. The US suspended its USD 800 duty-free threshold (de minimis) for all countries on 29 August 2025. In November 2025 EU governments agreed to remove the EU's EUR 150 customs duty exemption in 2026, with a simple temporary way of charging duty on small parcels until a permanent system is ready, planned for 2028. Both changes help store-based apparel and home retailers compete with ultra-low-price online sellers.
- In India, fast-growing quick commerce apps compete with supermarkets and small shops for top-up grocery shopping. The E-commerce and quick commerce module covers this.
Retailers need licences to trade and to sell some goods (alcohol, tobacco, medicines). Planning (zoning) rules can limit large out-of-town stores. Some countries limit opening hours, for example Sunday trading rules in parts of Europe. Food safety, price labelling, and consumer rights on returns apply almost everywhere. Some countries limit foreign ownership of retailers; India, for example, restricts foreign investment in multi-brand retail. In the EU, rules on unfair trading practices limit how large grocers can treat smaller food suppliers. Competition authorities also review mergers between large grocers.
Typical retail case prompts and how to crack them
| Prompt | Case type | Structure hint | First driver to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| A supermarket chain in Poland has falling profits | Profitability | Revenue (stores x LFL sales) and costs (margin, shrink, staff, rent) | Like-for-like sales, then gross margin by category |
| A Gulf grocer wants 40 new stores in Saudi Arabia | Market expansion | Market attractiveness, store economics, ability to win, risks | Payback of one new store: build cost versus yearly store contribution |
| A department store in the UK is losing money | Declining industry and turnaround | Store by store profit, space use, online, concessions | Sales per square metre by store and by floor |
| A fashion chain in India has too much unsold stock | Operations and process improvement | Buying, allocation, markdown, supply lead times | Full-price sell-through and weeks of stock by category |
| Should a grocer launch or grow its own brands? | New product or service launch | Shopper demand, margin gain, supplier reaction, quality | Margin gain per unit against sales lost from brands (cannibalization) |
So-what
In most retail cases the first number to ask for is like-for-like sales or the economics of a single store.
For the full method behind these prompts, see the Profitability, Market expansion, and Declining industry and turnaround case-type modules. Retail also shows up inside Guesstimates and market sizing (how many supermarkets does Riyadh need?) and in Mergers, acquisitions, and due diligence (should a private equity fund buy this chain?).
A grocer plans a new store in Riyadh. Fit-out and opening stock cost SAR 12 million. Once mature, the store earns a contribution of SAR 3 million a year. Ignoring the ramp-up year, what is the simple payback in years?
Praising total sales growth without asking for like-for-like growth. Treating a price increase in the basket as volume growth. Forgetting that new stores near old ones take sales from them (cannibalization). Comparing gross margins across formats. Ignoring shrink and markdowns because they are not a separate line in the summary P&L. Assuming a format that works in one country will work in another.
A chain's profit fell. Like-for-like sales are flat and gross margin fell 2 points. Where do you look next?
What does sales per square metre tell you?
Why might the end of duty-free treatment for low-value parcels in the US and the EU help store-based fashion retailers?
Sources for this lesson (13)
- Deloitte, Global Powers of Retailing 2025
- Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange: Lulu Retail starts trading (November 2024)
- Majid Al Futtaim (company website)
- Gulf News: Carrefour exits more GCC countries as Kuwait stores shut after Bahrain, Oman and Jordan (September 2025)
- Inditex: FY2025 results, 1 February 2025 to 31 January 2026 (March 2026)
- H&M Group: full-year report 2025 (January 2026)
- Reliance Retail FY26 results, reported by Outlook Business (April 2026)
- Avenue Supermarts (DMart) FY26 results, reported by ScanX (2026)
- Shoprite Holdings: 2025 financial results announcement
- UK Office for National Statistics: Crime in England and Wales, year ending March 2026
- PLMA with NielsenIQ data: private label sales and shares across Europe (2025)
- US Customs and Border Protection: end of the de minimis exemption (August 2025)
- European Commission: EUR 150 customs duty exemption to be removed (November 2025)
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