The 2007 Global Retail Development Index

Global retail is experiencing an explosive modernization as investment rushes into developing markets. From small proprietors with a mainly local focus, retail’s ambitions now stretch worldwide, embracing the latest trends in marketing, distribution and supply. Modern retail grew between 25 and 30 percent in India and 13 percent in both China and Russia. As the wealthiest markets mature, more retailers are pursuing new growth opportunities. They are eyeing countries new to modern retailing, smaller cities (as larger cities become saturated), and customer segments hungry for specialty products.

Retailers that can identify the most promising markets will become fierce global competitors—able to saturate the obvious markets and gain first-mover advantage in new ones. Retailers understand these new realities. Modern retail has been expanding to new markets for a few years now. The trouble is, it is difficult to determine which new market is the most promising one. As one market becomes saturated, is it enough simply to follow the crowd into the next one?

With this in mind, A.T. Kearney developed the Global Retail Development IndexTM (GRDI). Now in its sixth year, the GRDI identifies windows of opportunity to help retailers make strategic investments in exciting new markets.

About the Global Retail Development Index

The annual A.T. Kearney Global Retail Development Index ranks 30 emerging countries on a 100- point scale—the higher the ranking, the more urgency there is to enter a country. Countries were selected from a list of 185 based on three criteria:

• Country risk: more than 35 in Euromoney’s country-risk score
• Population size: more than two million
• Wealth: GDP per capita more than $3,000 (GDP per capita for countries with populations of more than 35 million is more flexible due to the market opportunity