PARIS,  11 January 2012 – Today the winner of the ‘Retailer of the Year’ 2011 election has been announced. Retailer of the Year is the largest consumer survey of Europe, conducted in nine European countries.  Over 500.000 consumers have given almost 1,7 million assessments during the national elections about the European retail chains that characterize the high street.

Sports retail store Decathlon has been chosen as the overall winner by the European public and for the first time it can call itself ‘Retailer of the Year Europe’ for an entire year. They received the highest score divided over all the countries where the election is being held. The highest score received by Decathlon was in Belgium, where the consumers averagely rated the chain store with an eight. Decathlon distinguished itself from the other retailers in terms of the price- quality ratio and the assortment.

Marionnaud/ICI Paris XL reached the number two spot and scored primarily well in the Netherlands and Belgium. The perfumery chain store owes this spot to it very large assortment and its costumer friendly, expert personnel.

The third place has been obtained by the winner of 2010, the Swedish furniture giant IKEA. IKEA has received the highest scores in the Netherlands and Belgium this year but also received good assessments in Italy and Spain. Especially the price level and the assortment is highly valued by the consumers.

Consumers are finding assortment increasingly important.

In general consumers find the price related aspects of retailers the most important, especially the price- quality ratio. However in more and more European countries  the importance of assortment is increasing, on average the assortment has an importance of 15-20%. In the Netherlands it is even the most important aspect and the difference in Italy with the aspect price- quality ratio is almost nil.

How is the  survey conducted?

During the spring and summer the consumers were able to assess their favorite retail chains. This assessment was given online by the means of a questionnaire. The consumer could assess all of the retail stores he/she had visited in the past year. The assessment consisted of a report score for the nine most important purchase aspects. To get a chance to win the European title, the retail stores had to at least get the required number of assessments in five countries.

Q&A Research & Consultancy is the initiator of Retailer of the Year. For more information about the research method or the results contact Q&A by phone +31(0)33–245 46 37  or by e-mail at Cette adresse email est protégée contre les robots des spammeurs, vous devez activer Javascript pour la voir. .