Amazon now among top 10 largest retailers in US

Washington--The annual retailer ranking in Stores magazine shows that online giant Amazon.com is now the ninth largest retailer in America, marking the first time a pure-play e-tailer has cracked the list’s top 10. 

Amazon saw its U.S. sales grow 27 percent year-over-year to reach $43.96 billion in 2013, pushing it up two spots from its No. 11 ranking last year. 

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Stores Media, the publishing group of the National Retail Federation encompassing Stores magazine, Stores.org and other properties, generates the Top 100 Retailers list each year in conjunction with Kantar Retail, a retail insights and consulting business. The retailers are listed by U.S. sales, which might include estimates for private or closely held companies. 

In commenting on this year’s list, Kantar’s Chief Knowledge Officer Bryan Gildenberg said that Amazon’s rise into the top 10 is further evidence of the shift in U.S. retail toward a genuinely multichannel future.

What this means is that retailers that will succeed going forward will be those that have an in-depth knowledge of and the ability to connect with their customers both in their stores and in the digital world. 

While Amazon broke into the top 10 for the first time this year, that doesn’t mean that all brick-and-mortar retailers are falling behind; they are, instead, reinventing themselves to serve today’s shopper, who buys whenever and wherever it’s convenient for them. 

Walmart maintained the No. 1 spot, with $334.30 billion in U.S. sales in 2013, and Kroger held on to the No. 2 spot with $93.60 billion in sales last year. Costco (No. 3) and Target (No. 4) swapped places this year while the ranking of Home Depot (No. 5), Walgreen (No. 6), CVS Caremark (No. 7) and Lowe’s (No. 8) remained unchanged year-over-year. 

As mentioned, Seattle-based Amazon.com took the No. 9 spot while Safeway slipped in at No. 10. 

The only specialty jeweler to make the list was Akron, Ohio-based Signet Jewelers Ltd., which crept in at No. 99 with $3.65 billion in U.S. sales. A company spokesman said this is the first time Signet has made the top 100 retailers list. 

The company’s acquisition of Zale Corp., which is expected to close by the end of the year, should boost Signet’s ranking on next year’s list. 

Other retailers that carry fine jewelry and rank among the U.S.’s top 100