Study: Market share in the retail trade sector

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General merchandise stores either held their market share steady, or increased it, across all 10 commodity groups in 2008. This was a turnaround from 2007, when they lost market share in 6 of these groups.

General merchandise stores, typically multi-line retailers that offer a wide array of merchandise and related services, accounted for 12.3% of total retail sales in 2008, compared with 12.0% in 2007.

Sales by general merchandisers rose 5.9% to more than $52.6 billion in 2008. Almost half of this growth was attributable to a rise in their sales of food and beverages.

It was the first time since 2004 that the growth rate of general merchandise stores was higher than for retail trade as a whole. Total retail sales in 2008 increased 3.4% to $427.3 billion, despite a fourth-quarter decline resulting from the economic downturn.

The main contributor to higher sales at general merchandise stores was a 14.6% increase in their sales of food and beverages, which reflected both higher prices and volumes.

This gain, which was widespread across various categories of food, was almost entirely at the expense of food and beverage stores. This was the sixth consecutive year in which food and beverage stores lost market share to general merchandisers.

Since 1999, general merchandisers have increased their market share in food and beverage sales by more than 3 percentage points. Most of the gain has occurred since 2005.

Over the past decade, the commodity mix sold by general merchandise stores has changed. In 1999, their top selling commodity group was clothing, footwear and accessories, accounting for 23% of total sales. By 2008, this share had dropped to 16%.

The top selling category in 2008 was food and beverage sales, which represented 20% of general merchandise sales.

Note: The Quarterly Retail Commodity Survey collects national level retail sales by commodity, from a sub-sample of businesses in the Monthly Retail Trade Survey.

This study is the second of two annual reviews on the retail trade sector in 2008, and focuses on the sales pattern of commodities sold by retailers in Canada. The first study, "Retail trade: How the provinces fared in 2008," showed that Canadian retail sales in 2008 advanced at their slowest pace since 1996, in large part as a result of lower sales at new car dealers and an overall sales decline in the fourth quarter.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 2008.

The study "Retailers competing for market share: 2008 retail sales" is now available as part of Analysis in Brief (11-621-M2009080, free), from the Publications module of our website.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of the release, contact Ashley Ker (613-951-2252; ashley.ker@statcan.gc.ca) or Ruth Barnes (613-951-6190; ruth.barnes@statcan.gc.ca), Distributive Trades Division.