• January 13, 2011

The 2011 Global Powers of Retailing report from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited with Stores Media finds that retailers' cost cutting and inventory adjustment has boosted net profit. The report finds that net profit across the top 250 retailers increased from 2.4% in 2008 to 3.1% in 2009.

Fashion retailers put in a particularly strong performance, per the study, increasing their profit margin from 4.1 percent to 7.6%.  Regionally, the biggest increase in profitability was in Latin America, with the profit margin increasing from 1.4% to 3.3%.

Dr. Ira Kalish, Director of Consumer Business for Deloitte Research, part of Deloitte Services LP in the United States, said, in a statement, "These figures demonstrate the efforts of retailers around the world to manage the bottom line. It will be harder to continue to boost profits through these measures, and instead retailers will hope economic recovery can put sales growth back on track."