Cover Story: The Top 100 Fastest-Growing Cross-Channel Retailers

We're proud to bring you our annual list of the 100 fastest-growing cross-channel retailers for the 2011 to 2012 fiscal year. To compile the list, we researched 2012 fiscal year net sales figures for all the public retail companies in the U.S. and Canada. We then compared those numbers to the previous fiscal year's net sales. After we figured out the percentage change year-over-year, we ranked each company in descending order for our top 100. We've also included some profiles that highlight specific companies on the list. Click on the related content link to access a PDF of the full list.

Another key metric key metric cross-channel retailers look at when analyzing their successes (or failures) is their website traffic. Therefore, Retail Online Integration(ROI) asked Compete, a Kantar Media Company that provides website visitation numbers for the world's top retail brands, to take our list of the 100 fastest-growing cross-channel retailers and provide us with December 2011 and December 2012 online visitor counts for those brands, then rank the companies by highest percentage change year-over-year. For the list, ROI gave Compete all of the multiple domains owned by each retail company (e.g., Amazon.com includes Soap.com, Diapers.com, etc.). The visitor counts for all the individual domains were then combined to arrive at a total figure for web traffic for the parent company. Click on the related content link to access a PDF of the full list. Enjoy!

#1 Michael Kors
In its first year being eligible for this list — it became a public company in December 2011 — Michael Kors took the top spot, posting an impressive 60.2 percent lift in year-over-year sales in its 2012 fiscal year. The global luxury lifestyle brand, named after the American fashion designer who founded the company, has expanded its product offering in recent years beyond apparel into accessories (e.g., handbags, leather goods, eyewear, jewelry, watches) and footwear.

In addition to growing its merchandise assortment, Michael Kors has expanded its reach across the globe. The retailer now has a presence in 74 countries, including 46 company-operated international stores. In addition to its retail business (which includes an e-commerce website), Michael Kors has a thriving a wholesale segment. In fiscal 2012, the brand's wholesale segment accounted for nearly 47 percent of its total revenue, with wholesale sales through approximately 2,027 department and specialty stores in North America and 650 internationally.

Highlights from Michael Kors 2012 fiscal year include the following:

• gross profit for the year increased 68.8 percent to $753.1 million;
• 71 new store openings in the 2012 fiscal year; and
• net income was $147.4 million, compared to $72.5 million in fiscal 2011.

"We are uniquely positioned to continue to build the Michael Kors global luxury lifestyle brand," said John Idol, Michael Kors' chairman and CEO, in a company press release announcing its 2012 fiscal year results. "The company has proven retail and wholesale formats that are performing throughout the world. Michael Kors' unique fashion designs continue to resonate with customers globally and we believe that our company has tremendous opportunity for future growth." — Joe Keenan