The 2026 edition of the IADS Global Department Store Monitor covers department stores’ financial results from fiscal year 2024-2025, a year marked technological transformation, rising geopolitical tensions and subsequent effects on currency exchanges and consumer confidence.

Launched in 2021 by Dr. Christopher Knee, the IADS Global Department Store Monitor purpose is to enable data comparison of department stores’ financial performance, especially to compare pre- and post-COVID-19 performance. The goal is to make sense of a complex and culturally central sector characterised by changes in ownership, privatisation, and mergers. To achieve that, and to provide a benchmark for global department store stakeholders, the monitor reviews 58 department stores with publicly available information.

The report includes current and fixed (2021) exchange rates, to isolate the impact of sales growth from the effect of exchange rate changes. This feature is increasingly relevant as real and nominal sales growth have diverged in a turbulent economic and political landscape. To account for nonuniform accounting standards, the broken calendar year system ensures that retailers results are being compared across the same world events, offering a clear overview of their performance.

IADS Exclusive: Global Department Store Monitor (2024-2025): navigating the ‘vibecession’

IADS provides its members with a weekly in-depth analysis on retail-oriented topics.

*IADS Exclusives are for members only. You can subscribe to our Substack to receive our weekly exclusives here.*