The hottest cities for retail brands

By

Bruno Joly

Published
Jun 7, 2013

The CBRE has just released its annual survey, How Global Is the Business of Retail, based on 320 retail brands. The challenge is to understand the attractiveness of 200 cities around the world, specifically by looking at the number of new brands to open their first stores in a given location.

And the game leader is Hong Kong, far ahead with 51 new retail brands identified in 2012. In second place is Kiev, which counts 39 new retailers. “Hong Kong provides an opportunity for retailers to capitalize on the emergence of the middle class and the influx of tourists from mainland China. Hong Kong is often used as a launch pad for brands entering the region, although less so than previously, as more retailers enter Chinese cities directly. While luxury brands led the way in 2012, retailers from across the spectrum opened their first store in the city last year, including Pierre Cardin, Forever 21 and Cos,” said Peter Gold, head of cross border EMEA retail, CBRE.

But in these times of economic crisis, Germany is clearly sending a reassuring message. The country placed four of its cities in the world top 20, third place going to Berlin with 28 new retailers. The German capital far exceeds the country’s more developed cities, such as Frankfurt (20 new entries), Hamburg (19) and Munich (19). By comparison, Paris, London and New York respectively welcomed 24, 23 and 20 new retail store brands.

The world ranking of retailer representation (as opposed to new retailer entries) has hardly changed over the past two years, since almost all of the 320 retailers used in the study are generally already present in all major markets. London retained it pole position, while Dubai stayed comfortably ensconced in second place. Number three Paris went up one notch and overtook New York, now in fourth place together with Moscow. Hong Kong and Madrid remained respectively in sixth and seventh place. The only city to have significantly strengthened its position is Beijing, advancing from number thirteen to number eight.