Retail Giant Wal-Mart Set to Double Size in 5 Years

If you thought U.S. retailer Wal-Mart was already a giant trampling over the competition in the United States and overseas – you ain't seen nothing yet. 

Although the United States' largest retailer and biggest seller of jewelry rang up a mind-boggling $256 billion of sales last year, within five years that figure is set to almost double to $500 billion.

In a report entitled Wal-Mart 2010, market research firm Retail Forward said that the increase will give Wal-Mart 12 percent of all U.S. retail sales.

That may be good news for jewelry manufacturers and other suppliers but it's not so good for the retail sector in the U.S. and other countries in which Wal-Mart operates.

"Wal-Mart's strategy of innovation is not about creating incremental change. It is about creating new businesses that disrupt traditional businesses," said Sandy Skrovan, the report's author.

"While the world waits for Wal-Mart to collapse under its own weight, Wal-Mart waits for no one, demonstrating a remarkable capacity to manage the retail lifecycle and keep right on rolling," she added.

Wal-Mart is already the largest retailer in a growing number of categories, with one-third of all U.S. shoppers visiting a Wal-Mart store weekly. 100 million American customers visit Wal-Mart stores each week.

According to the Retail Forward report, the typical consumer products manufacturer could have more than 35 percent of all its sales going through Wal-Mart by 2010.

With little room for expansion in the U.S. market, a quarter of Wal-Mart's future sales will come from its international operations, including new markets for growth and new store formats, the report said.