Total Retail Sales Worldwide (2020–2025)
Total retail sales worldwide in 2022 are expected to come in at $27.3 trillion—a five percent annual increase.
This follows a 9.7 percent surge from 2020 to 2021 when total retail sales increased from $23.7 trillion to $26 trillion. 2021’s global retail sales figures actually far exceeded market expectations. Experts had forecast total retail sales to grow six percent to around $25 trillion.
Retail sales projections from 2022 onwards indicate a continued positive trend and growth. The global retail industry growth rate is set to average 4.7 percent from 2022 to 2025.
In 2023, retail sales worldwide are forecast at $28.6 trillion, 4.8 percent more than in 2022, and a slight annual deceleration. From 2020 to 2025, total retail sales are expected to increase by $7.5 trillion, an overall increase of 31.7 percent and an average annual increase of 4.3 percent.
Total Retail Sales by Region
Diving into specific regions, retail sales are expected to experience the biggest growth in the Middle East and Africa in 2022. Retail sales figures there are forecast to increase by 16.1 percent.
This is followed by Southeast Asia, where retail sales are projected to rise nine percent. This is expected to increase by 5.9 percent in the Asia Pacific region and 5.5 percent in Latin America.
Here’s how retail sales are expected to grow in 2022 in the rest of the world:
- Central and Eastern Europe: 4.7 percent
- Western Europe: 2.6 percent
- North America: 2.5 percent
Total Retail Sales: Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic
The dip in retail sales figures in 2020 was the only year-over-year decrease that’s expected between 2020 and 2025. That year, retail sales dipped in every single region across the globe.
This can be attributed to the COVID-19 outbreak. The coronavirus pandemic forced governments worldwide to shut brick-and-mortar businesses and impose lockdowns in a bid to stem the spread of the virus, which majorly affected the supply, demand, and day-to-day operations of many retailers.
In addition to the pandemic and lockdown, the global recession, which has been deemed the worst since World War II, has had consumers tightening their purse strings and cutting back on expenditure.
As these figures show, retail sales have since rebounded and even reached record highs in 2021, and experts are expecting sales to normalize in 2022.