Amazon UK , Argos , House of Fraser , John Lewis and Marks & Spencer are the UK’s leading retailers, according to the new InternetRetailing Top 500, unveiled today.
The InternetRetailing UK Top 500 2014 (IRUK Top500) research measured the footprint of the leading 500 UK retailers, as established through total UK retail turnover, combined with ecommerce turnover, store numbers and web traffic rank.
Researchers, both in-house at Internet Retailing and from knowledge partners EDITD, Google, GTmetrix, Lithium, Oracle, Micros and poq studio, then measured the performance of the top 500 companies against six performance dimensions: strategy and innovation, the customer, operations and logistics, merchandising, brand and engagement, and mobile and cross-channel.
The research aims to provide the most complete and freely available study of UK ecommerce and multichannel retail performance, and is based on publicly available figures.
Elite retailers who led in the different performance dimensions included Amazon UK, in a class of its own for strategy and innovation. Schuh and Burberry led the way in the customer dimension. Schuh was also a leader in the operations and logistics dimension, where it was joined in the elite group by Amazon UK, Boots , House of Fraser, John Lewis, and Superdry . In merchandising, John Lewis, Asos , eBuyer , and Topps Tiles came out on top, while M&S led in the brand and engagement dimension, along with Asos, Debenhams and Topshop . The final dimension, mobile and cross-channel, was led by Argos, Evans (Clothing) and JD Sports .
The overall Elite retailers, Amazon UK, Argos, House of Fraser, John Lewis and Marks & Spencer, won their positions by winning out in measurements taken across all categories, including the footprint.
Ian Jindal, editor-in-chief, Internet Retailing, said: “We offer our results in the full knowledge that we are not the professionals running multichannel businesses – millions in turnover, of customers, of SKUs, key words, merchandising algorithms and interactions across all channels. It is in tribute to these efforts that we have assessed across six Performance Dimensions rather than taking a single measure,be it revenues or web traffic.
“Our report is dedicated to those professionals who make the UK’s retail market the most competitive and capable in the world.”
The study will be followed in the spring by the IREU Top500 Footprint – the leading European retailers, while a European Top500 will follow next autumn.
In summer 2015, there’ll also be a Top Suppliers to the Top500.
Jindal said: “Congratulations go to all those listed in our Top500. Together you make British multichannel retail globally renowned and admired. While attention focuses on the largest, we will continue to review and celebrate those excellent, exciting and inspiring businesses whose performance often shows the larger companies what can be done.”
Internet Retailing’s knowledge partners were: Editd, Google, GTmetrix, Lithium, Oracle, Micros and poq studio. The advisory board included: Andy Harding of House of Fraser, Emma Robertson of Transform, Jonathan Reynolds, of the Oxford Institute of Retail Management, Jonathan Wall of Shop Direct, Neil Ashworth of Collect+ and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, Nick Lansley of Tesco, Peter Fitzgerald of Google, Robin Phillips of Waitrose, Simon Forster of Selfridges, Siobhán Géhin of Kurt Salmon, Stephen Heal of Frontier Economics, Tony Preedy of Lakeland and Walter Blackwood of Mothercare.
The Top500 report was today available exclusively to attendees at IRC 2014. It will also be sent out with issues of Internet Retailing in November.
