China’s retail market will not overtake the US market in 2020 after all. Here’s why. Download China’s retail market will not overtake the US market in 2020 after all. Here’s why. Share Take heart, US retail salespeople: Despite premature calls to the contrary, it turns out the US will remain the most lucrative retail market in the world this year and for some years to come. For a while, though, we saw things differently. Back in Q2, during the height of the coronavirus-driven economic collapse in the US, it became clear that China’s economy would likely come through its recessionary phase more quickly than the US would. Due largely to this observation—which turned out to be accurate—our forecasters concluded that the US retail market would likely contract much more severely than would China’s in 2020.