Jacob K. Javits Centre in New York City

Thousands of retailers descended on the Jacob K. Javits Centre in New York City today, for the opening day of the National Retail Federation (NRF) 2016 convention and expo.

Known as Retail’s Big Show, organisers are anticipating 34,000 attendees will pass through the convention centre’s doors throughout the four-day event.

Attendees will hear keynotes from former US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, and top executives from businesses such as Westfield Corp, Disney, Fossil, John Lewis Partnership, Marks and Spencer, Nike and Under Armour.

Now in its 105th year, more than 540 companies are exhibiting at the event and there are 15 different stages which will host talks exploring all things retail including, key trends, emerging technologies and how to drive growth in time when change is exponential.

Discussed on day one of the event was Stores Media and Deloitte’s report Global Powers of Retailing 2016, which identifies the 250 largest retailers around the world based on publicly available data for fiscal 2014, which encompasses companies’ fiscal years ended through to June 2015.

Walmart still firmly holds the top spot, something that’s unlikely to change anytime soon, according to Dr Ira Kalish, Deloitte’s chief global economist, who presented the key findings from the report on the opening morning of the show.

However, the number two spot on the list is often in contention, this year it is held by Costco, in the past Tesco, Home Depot and Carrefour were ranked number two, which is based on retail revenue, but have slipped down the list.

“There has been a lot of churning on the list, but one thing remains for sure, Walmart is number one and that won’t change anytime soon,” Kalish said.

Acquisitions boosted both US supermarket chain, Kroger’s, to third spot and US pharmacy, Walgreens into the 10th position ahead of Target Corporation (11) and Amazon (12).

UK supermarket chain, Tesco, finished ahead of Carrefour, due to a higher currency conversion from the British pound than the euro to US dollars, which is used to rank the retailers.

Australia had two entries on the list, Wesfarmers (excluding non-retail revenue) at 22nd, followed by Woolworths in 23rd position.

Global Powers of Retailing 2016

1. Walmart, US, revenue $US485 billion
2. Costco Wholesale Corporation, US, $112 billion
3. The Kroger Co, US, $108 billion
4. Schwarz Unternehmenstreuhand KG (owners of Lidl), Germany, $102 billion
5. Tesco, UK, $99.7 billion
6. Carrefour SA, France, $98 billion
7. Aldi, Germany, $86 billion
8. Metro Ag, Germany, $85 billion
9. The Home Depot Inc, US, $83 billion
10. Walgreen Co, US, $76 billion
11. Target Corporation, US, $72 billion
12. Amazon.com, US, $70 billion

For more exclusive coverage of the NRF Big Show pick up a copy of the February issue of Inside Retail Magazine.