When A.T. Kearney's Global Retail Development Index is released in June, at least one of the findings should give U.S. retailers pause, says Hana Ben-Shabat, a partner in A.T. Kearney's retail practice and co-author of the annual index report.
|"The new study will highlight that global expansion within the retail market is not just about large, Western businesses going into developing markets," she says. "What we're seeing is that many Eastern European- and Asian-based retailers are looking to expand globally. Expansion is truly going both ways," she says. "Retailers are always underestimating local competition when they expand abroad. They should be cautious of underestimating them as they come here."
|The timing of new competitive threats couldn't come at a more challenging time for U.S.-based retailers. "The retail industry is in a very critical point right now," she says. "Consumer spending has not recovered back to pre-recession levels. I think it will take a long time before we reach back to those levels, if ever."
