New data from Brand Finance reveals Amazon retains position as world's most valuable retail brand, but hard discounters and value chains gain ground fastest as shoppers trade down
LONDON, 15 September 2026 – Discount and value retailers are among the strongest performers in 2026, according to a new ranking from Brand Finance, the world's leading brand valuation consultancy.
Between 2023 and 2026, leading discounters – including Aldi and Lidl, alongside variety retailers such as Dollar Tree and B&M – have grown their combined brand value at around three times the rate of traditional full-service incumbents, gaining value share as cost-of-living pressures continue to influence how consumers shop.
That shift is reflected at the top of the ranking. Aldi Süd increased its brand value 15% to USD19.4 billion, overtaking Lidl (USD18.6 billion) to become the world’s ninth most valuable retail brand and Germany’s most valuable retail brand.
Yet the rise of discount retail is not a clean sweep. Established national supermarket brands continue to perform particularly strongly on measures of consumer perception and loyalty. Mercadona is now the world’s strongest retail brand, climbing from third in 2025 with a Brand Strength Index (BSI) score of 93.1 out of 100, while Germany’s Edeka rises from 19th to second and Australia’s Bunnings from 11th to third.
At the top of the Retail 100 2026 ranking, Amazon has retained its position as the world’s most valuable retail brand. Its brand value increased 4% to USD369.9 billion, making it more than 2.5 times as valuable as second-ranked Walmart (brand value up 3% to USD141.0 billion).
Overall, retail brands demonstrate exceptionally high levels of brand strength. Eleven brands in the Retail 100 achieve Brand Finance’s highest AAA+ rating, with a further 14 rated AAA and 12 AAA-. These scores reflect the powerful familiarity and loyalty retailers can build through frequent, everyday interactions with consumers.
Annie Brown, Managing Director, UK, Brand Finance commented:
“Discount and value retailers are gaining significant momentum, growing their combined brand value at around three times the rate of traditional full-service retailers since 2023. This reflects how effectively these brands are responding to continued pressure on household budgets and changing shopping habits.”
The UK also stands out for the performance of its supermarket and grocery brands. Tesco increased its brand value 12% to USD17.3 billion, ranking 11th globally, while its BSI rose to 91.7/100, making it the world’s fourth strongest and the UK’s strongest retail brand. Marks & Spencer is one of the ranking’s standout performers, with brand value surging 43% to USD6.3 billion, while Sainsbury’s grew 20% to USD5.9 billion.
Their performance comes as loyalty, personalisation and value become increasingly intertwined in UK grocery retail. Tesco’s Clubcard and Sainsbury’s Nectar have made member pricing part of the everyday shopping experience, while generating first-party customer data that can support more personalised communications and rewards. M&S’s growth provides a different success story, reflecting the strength of a differentiated proposition built around quality, value and a distinctive food offer.
These increasingly sophisticated customer ecosystems are also helping fuel the growth of retail media, as retailers use first-party data to build advertising businesses alongside their core operations. Walmart, Tesco and Sainsbury’s all recorded improvements across Brand Finance measures including understanding, consideration, preference and recommendation in 2026. Platforms including Walmart Connect, Tesco Media and Sainsbury’s Nectar360 may be helping these brands translate customer insight into more relevant engagement, while creating new revenue streams.
Brand Finance is the world’s leading brand valuation consultancy. Bridging the gap between marketing and finance, Brand Finance evaluates the strength of brands and quantifies their financial value to help organisations make strategic decisions.
Headquartered in London, Brand Finance operates in over 25 countries. Every year, Brand Finance conducts more than 6,000 brand valuations, supported by original market research, and publishes over 100 reports which rank brands across all sectors and countries.
Brand Finance also operates the Global Brand Equity Monitor, conducting original market research annually on 6,000 brands, surveying more than 175,000 respondents across 41 countries and 31 industry sectors. By combining perceptual data from the Global Brand Equity Monitor with data from its valuation database — the largest brand value database in the world — Brand Finance equips ambitious brand leaders with the data, analytics, and the strategic guidance they need to enhance brand and business value.
In addition to calculating brand value, Brand Finance also determines the relative strength of brands through a balanced scorecard of metrics, compliant with ISO 20671.
Brand Finance is a regulated accountancy firm and a committed leader in the standardisation of the brand valuation industry. Brand Finance was the first to be certified by independent auditors as compliant with both ISO 10668 and ISO 20671 and has received the official endorsement of the Marketing Accountability Standards Board (MASB) in the United States.
Brand is defined as a marketing-related intangible asset including, but not limited to, names, terms, signs, symbols, logos, and designs, intended to identify goods, services, or entities, creating distinctive images and associations in the minds of stakeholders, thereby generating economic benefits.
Brand strength is the efficacy of a brand’s performance on intangible measures relative to its competitors. Brand Finance evaluates brand strength in a process compliant with ISO 20671, looking at Marketing Investment, Stakeholder Equity, and the impact of those on Business Performance. The data used is derived from Brand Finance’s proprietary market research programme and from publicly available sources.
Each brand is assigned a Brand Strength Index (BSI) score out of 100, which feeds into the brand value calculation. Based on the score, each brand is assigned a corresponding Brand Rating up to AAA+ in a format similar to a credit rating.
Brand Finance calculates the values of brands in its rankings using the Royalty Relief approach – a brand valuation method compliant with the industry standards set in ISO 10668. It involves estimating the likely future revenues that are attributable to a brand by calculating a royalty rate that would be charged for its use, to arrive at a ‘brand value’ understood as a net economic benefit that a brand owner would achieve by licensing the brand in the open market.
The steps in this process are as follows:
1 Calculate brand strength using a balanced scorecard of metrics assessing Marketing Investment, Stakeholder Equity, and Business Performance. Brand strength is expressed as a Brand Strength Index (BSI) score on a scale of 0 to 100.
2 Determine royalty range for each industry, reflecting the importance of brand to purchasing decisions. In luxury, the maximum percentage is high, while in extractive industry, where goods are often commoditised, it is lower. This is done by reviewing comparable licensing agreements sourced from Brand Finance’s extensive database.
3 Calculate royalty rate. The BSI score is applied to the royalty range to arrive at a royalty rate. For example, if the royalty range in a sector is 0-5% and a brand has a BSI score of 80 out of 100, then an appropriate royalty rate for the use of this brand in the given sector will be 4%.
4 Determine brand-specific revenues by estimating a proportion of parent company revenues attributable to a brand.
5 Determine forecast revenues using a function of historic revenues, equity analyst forecasts, and economic growth rates.
6 Apply the royalty rate to the forecast revenues to derive brand revenues.
7 Discount post-tax brand revenues to a net present value which equals the brand value.
Brand Finance has produced this study with an independent and unbiased analysis. The values derived and opinions presented in this study are based on publicly available information and certain assumptions that Brand Finance used where such data was deficient or unclear. Brand Finance accepts no responsibility and will not be liable in the event that the publicly available information relied upon is subsequently found to be inaccurate. The opinions and financial analysis expressed in the study are not to be construed as providing investment or business advice. Brand Finance does not intend the study to be relied upon for any reason and excludes all liability to any body, government, or organisation.
The data presented in this study form part of Brand Finance's proprietary database, are provided for the benefit of the media, and are not to be used in part or in full for any commercial or technical purpose without written permission from Brand Finance.
