The National Retail Federation’s Hot 25 list, developed with market research and consulting firm Kantar, and analyzing 2021 sales results, gives an indication of which storerunners made initial progress in emerging from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Still, any consideration of the future needs to take into consideration the complexities that have developed in the retail sector over the past three years.
“The biggest change year-over-year is the reopening of malls and the recovery of apparel and department stores,” says Kantar senior vp David Marcotte, in introducing the latest list. “When you look at it two years prior, you see a different story. That’s a concern going into 2022 and 2023 just how that will unfold.”
In comparing 2021 with 2019, and, so, removing the outlier of pandemic-related shutdowns, the list of big gainers is skewed toward online retailers, with Wine.com showing a two-year sales increase of 222.7%, in one example, and Overstock up 90.1%, in another. Overall, retailers enjoying sizable 2019 to 2021 sales increases tended to carry home and hobby categories.
“So far, we’re not seeing the weakness in the home category that I would have expected, except in home décor,” Marcotte says. “Everybody looked around during the pandemic and said, ‘I hate my house.’ People are investing in landscaping, minor remodeling, fixing things. It’s a challenge to get contractors, which is a good indicator of how much people are investing in this area.”
One consequence of post-pandemic developments was that some home decor retailers fell off the Hot 25 list in its latest version despite having been on it the year before, with Restoration Hardware the exception based on a 32.3% advance in year-over-year sales. Still. when viewed from a two-year perspective, home décor-heavy retailers such as Overstock.com, Wayfair, At Home, Williams Sonoma, The Home Depot and Ace Hardware would still make the list.
An interest in homes and home improvement “continues to show up very strong,” Marcotte says. “During the pandemic, just about everybody became very aware of their houses and what they wanted to change.”
What exactly consumers are doing themselves might be in question, but it is clear consumers have invested in tools to do the work: Harbor Freight Tools saw 93.4% sales growth between 2020 and 2021.
The Hot 25 Retailers ranks the nation’s fastest-growing retail companies with sales in the United States exceeding $300 million between 2020 and 2021. Listed in order based on sales gain, the Hot 25 are:
- Harbot Freight 93.4%
- Inditex 76.6%
- Burlington 65.8%
- Dillard’s 53.2%
- TJX Companies 51.3%
- Ross Stores 51%
- Wine.com 50%
- Designer Brands 48.7%
- H&M 47.2%
- Five Below 45.2%
- Macy’s 41.3%
- Express 41.2%
- Ulta Beauty 40.2%
- Nordstrom 38.3%
- REI 37.3%
- Chico’s 35.9%
- Hudson’s Bay 35.3%
- Lululemon 33.5%
- Restoration Hardware 32.3%
- Urban Outfitters 32.2%
- Primark 31.90%
- American Eagle 31.6%
- 7-Eleven 31.6%
- Signet Jewelers 30.6%
- Verizon Wireless 27.2%
