Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
The National Retail Federation partnered with Kantar to release its 2021 Hot 25 Retailers List and hardware retailer cooperative Ace Hardware Corp. made the list at No. 14. The list ranks the fastest growing retail companies in the U.S. based on year-over-year percentage increases in domestic sales. Any retail company with domestic sales above $300 million in 2020 was eligible.
U.S. sales for Ace Hardware jumped 25.5 percent from 2019 to 2020, with sales of $22,686,000 in 2020. Sales numbers continue to soar for Ace into 2021; the company recently posted record-breaking sales in the first quarter of 2021.
During the pandemic shutdown, many consumers focused spending dollars normally spent on travel and entertainment on home improvement. The real estate market also saw an influx in homebuyers, which helped boost sales for home improvement retailers.
“You have a significant investment into the home, which started during this event, and then you have this surge into homeownership,” says David Marcotte, senior vice president for Kantar. “If you’re spending the money to buy a house right now, you want to fix it up. You’re just emotionally more engaged with it. So, there’s a long-term effect to home improvement.”
Topping the top 25 list was Wine.com, an online wine retailer, which saw annual sales grow a staggering 99.4 percent from 2019 to 2020 thanks to a huge demand for online alcohol sales during the pandemic. Rounding out the top five were Overstock.com, online fashion group Boohoo Group plc, Wayfair and 1-800-FLOWERS.com.
