The Most Profitable Retailers On Sales Per Square Foot

Top retailers are managing to grow sales in stores, even as more and more customers ring up purchases online.

CoStar has offered up some data on which retailers are crushing it on a sales per square foot basis, and there are some surprising names mixed in with the ones you would expect to see. Let’s get right to the numbers, starting with the leader of the pack in apparel retailing. 

“Leading apparel retailers with sales of $1,560 per square foot, was Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ: LULU), together with its subsidiaries, designs, distributes and retails athletic apparel primarily marketed towards women,” according to the release.  The Lululemon and ivivva brands counted 406 company-operated stores across the globe in its portfolio as of January 29, 2017, and it wouldn’t be too surprising to see the store count continue to creep upwards in the wake of this data.


Lululemon Mall of America

As of January 29, 2017, it operated 406 company-operated stores under the Lululemon and ivivva brands in the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Germany, Puerto Rico, and Switzerland.

Next up is Tiffany & Co., which leads the jewelry retail industry with sales of $2,951 per square foot. “As of January 31, 2016, it operated 125 stores in the Americas, 85 stores in the Asia-Pacific, 55 stores in Japan, 43 stores in Europe, and five stores in the United Arab Emirates,” the release notes. 


Image: Hennessy Lighting Design

Next up is Murphy USA, which offers motor fuel products and convenience merchandise across roughly 1,400 stores primarily in sections of the US. Reis & Irvy's robotic frozen yogurt vending kiosk is knocking it out of the park to lead the food service retail sector with sales of $3,970 per square foot. Parent company Generation Next Franchise Brands, Inc. is planning a nationwide rollout into movie cinemas, malls, airports, hospitals and tourist attractions across the US scheduled to begin Q4 2017.

Finally, we have a tech giant at the top of the charts, and the numbers are staggering. 



“With sales per square foot viewed as a major component of retail success, according to industry data provided by eMarketer, the #1 retailer in sales per square foot is Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), which did a staggering $5,546 per square foot,” the release states. “Having launched the first iPhone 10 years ago, it's speculated that this next milestone iteration of the iconic product could produce Apple's strongest sales to date.” 

Related shopping malls and stores:

Lululemon athletica

Tiffany & Co.

Apple Store

More about shopping malls in the USA