World’s hottest retail markets

US retailers dominated in cross–border expansion and accounted for 26% of expansion into new global markets.

US retailers dominated in cross–border expansion and accounted for 26% of expansion into new global markets.

According to the latest report by global property advisor CBRE, “How Global is the Business of Retail?”, Tokyo attracted 63 new retail brands and became the world’s leading city for retailer expansion. This report focused on the target markets for new brands and covered 50 countries and 164 cities across the world.

Retail space in main areas of Tokyo remains highly demanded. On the second place after Tokyo, Singapore with 58 new brands and, the city in third place in the top target markets, Abu Dhabi saw the arrival of 55 new retailer entrants.

London still retained its number one position as the world’s most international shopping destination. In 2014 12 new brands opened in the city, including American Eagle and Lululemon Athletics. The UK’s capital city with 57.9% of international retailers present there continues to be a magnet for international retailers who want to showcase and establish their brand. London followed by Dubai (55.7% of international retailers present) and Shanghai (53.4%).

Retail brands targeted a wide range of locations across the world and retailer globalisation continued in 2014. 164 cities were surveyed and half saw minimum five new brands open a store. Asia features heavily on the list of target cities of new retailer entrants with six out of the 15 cities from the region. Paris and Moscow were the only European cities that featured in the top 10 target markets attracting 41 and 42 new entrants respectively. US retailers dominated in cross–border expansion and accounted for 26% of expansion into new global markets, at the same time Italian retailers were the second most active accounting for 14% followed by UK based retailers with 11%.

Mid-Range Fashion retailers remained the most active sector accounting for 21% of global expansion, followed by Luxury and Business retailers with 20%. Expansion into the EMEA region was dominated by Mid-Range Fashion brands accounting for 26% of activity, followed by Specialist clothing retailers with 18%.