Walmart again ranked largest firm by revenue, Amazon 3rd: Fortune

05 Aug '21

2 min read

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Walmart has been again ranked the largest company in the world by revenue, according to the recent annual Fortune 500 rankings. While the company’s revenue kept it at the top spot, where it has been for years, Amazon rose in rank in the list from the ninth position to the third after the COVID-19 pandemic drove explosive growth at the e-commerce major.

Other retailers in the top 100 include Costco (No. 27), Home Depot (No. 41), JD.com (No. 59), Alibaba (No. 63), Target (No. 78) and Lowe's (No. 80).

Among apparel brands, Nike was ranked 85th, VF 263rd, PVH 404th, Ralph Lauren 450th and Levi Strauss 580th.

According to data analytics firm GlobalData, pickup of online orders from stores grew by 103 per cent during the holidays alone last year.

Walmart thrived in those conditions, after refocusing its online strategy around omni-channel and its stores, and with heavy online sales of groceries. The retailer's sales rose by 6.7 per cent to $559.2 billion in 2020, as the retailer leaned on its stores to support sales and after massive investments in digital operations.

The rush of orders on Amazon was so heavy last year that it temporarily paused fulfillment on non-essential items during the early weeks of the pandemic so that it could focus on essential goods that were in high demand during those days of stockpiling and panic-buying. In 2020, the company's North American sales ballooned by 38.4 per cent to $236.3 billion.

Edge by Ascential's Retail Insight research arm predicts that Amazon's gross merchandise sales will surpass Walmart sales by 2025.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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