Rolex Tops Asia Retail Brand Conviction Ranking as More Consumers Recommend IT Than Currently Buy IT 

The inaugural Brand Conviction Index: Asia’s Top 100 Retailers reveals that the region’s most believed-in retailers are not always its biggest, and that the gap between customers and advocates is the most commercially significant number most brands aren’t measuring

The brand that tops the inaugural Brand Conviction Index: Asia’s Top 100 Retailers is not the one with the most customers. It is Rolex.

The Swiss watchmaker leads the inaugural Brand Conviction Index: Asia’s Top 100 Retailers, published today by Inside Retail Asia, despite a buyer base that is small relative to the conviction it generates. Among surveyed consumers, more consumers aspire to own one than currently do. That gap between who buys from a brand and who believes in it is what the index is designed to measure, and it produces results that challenge how retailers think about scale, advocacy, and future growth.

The index is the first independently verified ranking of the region’s most believed-in retailers. It draws on more than 70,000 consumer interviews across 11 Asian markets and 12 months of continuous data from YouGov BrandIndex up to May 31, 2026.

The findings upend conventional retail thinking

JD.com ranks second, Flipkart third, and Shopee fourth. FairPrice ranks eighth, ahead of Louis Vuitton in 17th, and Chanel in 31st. Online marketplaces take three of the top four places. Luxury brands and grocery chains sit side by side in the top ten alongside Cartier, Hermès, and Omega.

“Most retail rankings tell you who is biggest,” said Robert Stockdill, Global Head of News, Inside Retail Asia. “The Brand Conviction Index tells you something more commercially important by showing which brands consumers truly believe in and how far that belief extends beyond their current customers. The brands at the top of this index are not just the most believed-in, they are also the hardest to displace. And the brands that score well on advocacy, where more people recommend them than currently shop there, have something no marketing budget can manufacture. Their customers are doing the acquisition work for them.”

“This index matters now because the rules of retail are changing. Agentic AI is beginning to make purchase decisions on behalf of consumers. When that happens, the brands that have built genuine conviction, the ones consumers already trust and recommend, will be the ones AI systems surface first. Conviction is no longer just a brand metric but a commercial asset with a direct bearing on future revenue.”

“Asian retail has never been more competitive. More brands, more channels, more markets opening up, more global names chasing the same consumers. In that environment, conviction is not just a sustainable advantage but one that compounds over time. The brands that earn genuine belief from their market spend less to acquire customers, defend their position more effectively when competitors arrive, and build pipelines of future demand that no budget can replicate. What this index shows is that some of the strongest conviction in Asia is being built not by the biggest global names, but by local and regional retailers who have earned something more valuable than awareness. They have earned trust.”

“Conviction is a dimension of brand health that’s often overlooked, because it lives beyond the transaction” said Angela Smith, Head of Client Growth- APAC at YouGov. “Our BrandIndex data lets us track not just who is shopping with a brand today, but who believes in it enough to recommend it to someone else — and that gap is often where the real growth story sits. Continuous brand tracking helps businesses see how those perceptions evolve over time, and where brands are quietly gaining or losing ground. It’s essential to understand the various dimensions of brand health to properly evaluate performance.”

“We are seeing consumer behaviour evolve in real time. Decisions that once involved hours or days of browsing can now move from discovery to purchase within a single conversation. In this increasingly intent-led environment, brands that earn trust through relevant, reliable guidance are not simply easier to find, they are better placed to be chosen. This index shows which retailers in Asia have already earned that position,” said Oliver Tan, Managing Director, Rezolve Ai – APAC. 

Vietnamese retailers build conviction across categories

Vietnamese chains account for seven of the ten electronics and whitegoods retailers in the index. FPT Shop ranks 11th, Điện Máy Xanh 12th, and Thế Giới Di Động 14th, all within the top 15, followed by Viettel Store (30th), Nguyễn Kim (53rd), Chợ Lớn (71st), and MediaMart (100th). 

In a category where buying a phone or household appliance is a considered, high-involvement decision, Vietnamese retailers have built conviction by combining strong physical presence with digital engagement and after-sales service that continues beyond the checkout. The result is advocacy that runs significantly ahead of their buyer bases among surveyed Vietnamese consumers, and a category story with no equivalent anywhere else in the index.

Vietnam’s GO! hypermarket chain also features in the index at 73rd. Its profile highlights how the chain has retained Big C’s low-price positioning while expanding dining, entertainment, and other services in-store.

Indonesia and the Philippines show strong retail conviction

Indonesia’s Gramedia ranks 23rd and is the only bookstore in the top 100. Among surveyed Indonesian consumers, more than three times as many are likely to recommend it as they currently shop there. Its Jalma concept, launched in 2025, reimagines the bookstore as a community space built around literature and ideas. Furniture and lifestyle retailer Informa ranks 22nd, with nearly four times as many surveyed Indonesian consumers recommending it as currently shopping there.

In the Philippines, ShopSM ranks 80th, with nearly four times as many surveyed Filipino consumers recommending it as currently shopping there. The platform extends The SM Store online, linking delivery and click-and-collect to its physical footprint. Fashion brands Penshoppe (83rd) and Bench (92nd) each serve close to a third of surveyed Filipino consumers and are recommended by an even larger share.

Indian menswear builds conviction through professional identity

Five Indian professional menswear brands feature in the top 27: Louis Philippe (6th), Allen Solly (20th), Park Avenue (24th), Van Heusen (26th), and Peter England (27th). Among surveyed urban Indian consumers, more than twice as many are likely to recommend Louis Philippe as currently buy it. Four of the five brands are owned by Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail. The fifth, Park Avenue, belongs to the Raymond Group, a direct competitor. 

An entire category building this level of conviction across competing ownership groups points to something broader than brand management. It reflects how strongly professional identity continues to shape what consumers choose to wear to work.

Taken together, the findings show that retail conviction in Asia is being built in very different ways across markets and categories, from global luxury brands to regional marketplaces and local retailers.