Welcome to the InternetRetailing Top500 2019 report. Our annual reading of how UK ecommerce and multichannel retailers are performing is now in its fifth year.
Over the last half-decade this research has stood out because while it starts with a Footprint ranking based on retailers’ revenues, store networks or web traffic, it adds to that an in-depth understanding of their performance.
That’s measured through six Performance Dimensions: Strategy & Innovation, The Customer, Merchandising, Brand Engagement, Operations & Logistics and Mobile & Cross-channel. Through this approach we aim to understand more accurately which retailers are performing strongly, and which strategies, tools, technologies are helping them achieve that success.
We believe that our research offers practical and useful insights into the best practice of what we term ‘RetailCraft’, and this report will be a highly useful tool for retailers eager to learn from the best.
This year’s ranking comes at a time of continued turbulence in the retail market. A significant number of retailers that appeared in last year’s list, such as Toys R Us and Maplin, are no longer trading.
Others, such as House of Fraser, have failed but subsequently been bought out of administration and continue to operate under new ownership. Many more are going through transformation plans that they believe will better equip them for the future. At the heart of this crisis, or revolution, in retail is the changing way that shoppers now want to buy.
Customers are now more willing to complete their retail errands online, and they’re also uncertain about spending at a time of political uncertainty, in the light of Brexit. These shifts, combined, will no doubt mean more challenges to members of our Top500 lie ahead. We’ll be monitoring through our research and news analysis through the year how retailers respond to those challenges.
But, for now, our congratulations go both to this year’s Elite retailers, Amazon, Argos, H&M, John Lewis, New Look and Sainsbury’s, and to all members of the IRUK Top500.
Ian Jindal,
Editor-In-Chief
