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Tariffs are all anyone in retail can talk about. But as global retailers prepare for higher prices and decreased consumer spending the world’s largest companies can bank on a past year of growth.
Jeff Bezos’ Amazon ranked fifth in Forbes’ Global 2000 and reigned up top for retailers for the second year in a row after being briefly displaced by Walmart in 2023. The company saw a healthy growth in overall sales to $638 billion, up 8% from last year.
Holding strong are competitors Walmart (18), Alibaba (33), Home Depot (67) and Costco (93), which round up the five largest retailers on the Global 2000. Forbes uses data from FactSet research to create its annual list of the largest public companies based on assets, market value, sales and profit. Companies are ranked over their market value as of April 25, 2025.
All largely benefitted from the increase in consumer spending over the year, which rose 5.2% to $724.1 billion from April 2024 to April 2025 in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
But not all benefitted equally. Pharmacy retailers CVS and Walgreens dropped 10 (now ranked 74th) and 167 (ranked 856th) slots respectively due to profit decreases. Both firms have suffered from a pullback in retail pharmacy shopping, with Walgreens posed to go private in a by Sycamore Partners, a private equity firm specializing in consumer investments. Including debt and possible future payouts, the deal is valued at $23.7 billion. The company saw a net loss of $6 billion last year. CVS suffered losses from high medical payments in health insurance subsidiary Aetna, leading the company to change up its leadership and wind down its Affordable Care Act business. Still, its profit decreased 37% to $4.6 billion on $37.3 billion in revenue.
Forbes leading retailing company Amazon, has its own pharmacy aspirations. The company launched a new medication support package for Medicare patients on top of its online pharmacy offering as it tries to take market share away from the legacy players.
Among the 80 retail companies that made this year’s Global 2000 list sit five newcomers. Pet marketplace Chewy, the sole new American company, climbed 755 spots (now ranked 1,554) thanks to a final quarter of customer growth after two years of decline. Pet parents’ one-time purchases and subscriptions to necessities like food and medicines pushed revenues to $11.8 billion, up 6.4% from last year.
International newcomers include Brazilian retail chain Lojas Americanas ( think Target) which has slowly turned the company around after filing for bankruptcy in 2024 due an accounting scandal. Now valued at $206 million, the company is looking to launch a credit card program and a new loyalty program as part of its post-bankruptcy restructure. German retailer Zalando, known among GenZ and Millennial consumers for its tech-forward approach, has enjoyed a 4% growth in sales to $11.4 billion last year.
Still, the impact of tariffs are looming on retailers globally. U.S. retailers Target (242), Best Buy (907) and Macy’s (1,327) have already revised revenue and profit guidance down for the year as companies and consumers have frontloaded their spending in the first half of the year.
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