Who's Who in Cruise Retail: The Numbers Behind the Names

A follow-up to “Who's who in cruise retail…” — this time, we counted!

Back when we published “Who's who in cruise retail”, we walked you through the big names — the concessionaires, the in-house teams, the trunk show specialists — so that anyone new to the industry could make sense of who actually runs the shops on a cruise ship. It's still the best place to start if you haven't read it.

This time, we wanted to go one step further and put some real numbers behind those names. So we built a database of the global cruise fleet — 317 ships, from the smallest expedition yachts to the newest mega ships — and mapped every one of them back to whoever operates its retail. Here's what 476 operator placements across the world's fleet actually told us.

The map behind the list

Every ship in the table below is a real, currently sailing (or shortly-to-launch) vessel, tagged with its cruise line, size, year built, and — where it's publicly documented — the company or companies running its shops. Where a ship carries a general merchandise concession and a separate fine jewellery concession, we've recorded both, which is why 317 ships produce 476 operator placements rather than simply 317 - it's a little bit complicated!

Photo: Harding+

We have done our best to make this as accurate as possible but please understand that some contracts are a little uncertain by design — cruise lines and concessionaires don't always publish who's behind the counter. Not only this, contracts are changing all the time so a handful of ships are still recorded as unresolved. But the picture that emerges from the rest is clear enough to be genuinely useful, whether you're choosing which company to apply to or just trying to understand the shape of the industry you're about to join!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

How much of cruise ship retail is run by a concessionaire?

Our previous blog post explained that most onboard shops aren't run by the cruise line itself — they're run by a partner. The fleet data shows exactly how dominant that model is.

84.2%

of mapped retail placements across the global fleet belong to a third-party concessionaire, not the cruise line

Put another way: for every ship where the cruise line runs its own boutiques - MSC, AIDA, Costa, Disney, Ponant, Windstar, Orient Express and Explora Journeys are the only ones that do, fleet-wide — there are more than five where an outside company holds the concession.

If you're weighing up a career in cruise retail, the odds are you'll be an employee of a concessionaire, not the cruise line whose name is on the ship.

What is the most surprising fact in this survey?

Ask most people in the industry to name the biggest player in cruise retail and you'll hear Starboard or Harding+ — the two general merchandise giants our last post covered in depth. The fleet data tells a different story.

Did you know that Effy Jewelry is recorded on more ships than any other operator in our database — around 150 of them, or just under a third of every mapped placement in the fleet. It isn't close.

The reason is structural, not a fluke. Effy rarely runs a ship's shops on its own — instead, it layers a dedicated fine jewellery concession on top of almost everyone else's general merchandise and fine watches operation. Look at Royal Caribbean's fleet, or Carnival's, and the pattern repeats ship after ship: Starboard or Harding+ runs the main boutiques, and Effy Jewelry sits alongside as the second operator. It's the same story across MSC's in-house shops, Avolta's Norwegian Cruise Line contract, and Heinemann America's Royal Caribbean ships. Add a fleet-wide fine jewellery concession across all 17 Princess ships, and Effy's footprint stretches further across the world's ships than any single general merchandise concessionaire manages alone. The same is true for Diamonds International with its jewellery concession onboard Disney Cruise Line, operating as part of a set of teams. There are also a number of trunk show partners which are even more flexible across ships, but we have not listed them here. If you want to learn about the 4 main trunk show companies, head back to our previous Who's Who blog to learn more!

Now, it's important to remember that on most ships the general merchandise team is far larger than the jewelry team, so do remember that opportunity isn't simply about ship volumes, but actually the scale of operation onboard.

Which operator is on which cruise line?

Here's the full picture — every retail operator in our database, ranked by how many ships in the global fleet they're recorded on.

Retail operator	Ships	Share of the fleet
Effy Jewelry	151	31.7%
Starboard Cruise Services	92	19.3%
Harding+	74	15.5%
Diamonds International	23	4.8%
MSC Cruises (in-house)	23	4.8%
Avolta	21	4.4%
HFDF	19	4.0%
Gebr. Heinemann	12	2.5%
Ponant (in-house)	12	2.5%
AIDA Cruises (in-house)	11	2.3%
Costa (in-house)	9	1.9%
Disney Cruise Line (in-house)	8	1.7%
Windstar (in-house)	8	1.7%
Heinemann Americas	6	1.3%
CDFG (China Duty Free Cruise Services)	3	0.6%
Explora Journeys (in-house)	3	0.6%
Orient Express (in-house)	1	0.2%

Cruise Retail Academy findings August 2026: (in-house) marks a cruise line running its own retail rather than handing it to a concessionaire.Buil

Photo: RCCL

Ranking operators by ship count is useful, but it's not how most people actually think about a job — they think in terms of cruise lines. So here's the same 317 ships, regrouped: every cruise line in our database matched to whoever runs its shops. Most lines keep it simple, with one operator across the fleet. A handful don't — Carnival alone splits its business across four different operators, while Princess and Royal Caribbean each run three. If you already know which line you'd rather sail with, this is the faster way to find out who you'd actually be working for.

Ships Does Not Equal Passengers however

With real numbers, the pattern holds and sharpens: Effy's market share grows (31.7% of ships → 38.3% of passenger capacity) since its portfolio leans on high-capacity mainstream ships. Diamonds International falls two spots (#4→#6) — it's tied for 4th on ship count but its ships (Disney, Oceania, Regent) run well below fleet-average capacity. MSC in-house, Costa, AIDA, and Heinemann Americas all move up — each is concentrated on above-average-capacity ships. HFDF and Ponant fall the hardest — HFDF drops from #7 to #11, Ponant from #9 to #15, both weighted toward smaller ships.

Rank	Operator	Ships	Passenger Berths	% of Berths
1	Effy Jewelry	151	524,303	38.30%
2	Starboard	92	253,645	18.50%
3	Harding+	74	155,799	11.40%
4	MSC Cruises (in-house)	23	109,647	8.00%
5	Avolta	21	64,068	4.70%
6	Gebr. Heinemann / Heinemann Americas	18	56,016	4.10%
7	Diamonds International	23	44,712	3.30%
8	Costa (in-house)	9	39,687	2.90%
9	AIDA Cruises (in-house)	11	37,872	2.80%
10	Disney Cruise Line (in-house)	8	32,126	2.30%
11	HFDF	19	29,588	2.20%
12	CDFG (China Duty Free Cruise Services)	3	12,606	0.90%
13	Explora Journeys (in-house)	3	3,872	0.30%
14	Ponant (in-house)	12	2,417	0.20%
15	Windstar (in-house)	8	2,022	0.10%
16	Orient Express (in-house)	1	108	0.00%

And the industry is still growing... fast!

Cruise retail isn't a static industry, and the newbuild numbers show why now is a good time to be looking at it. Of the 317 ships in our database, 85 — well over a quarter — have entered service since 2020, and 138, close to half the entire fleet, have launched since 2015. Thirteen more ships are confirmed for delivery this year alone, from Adora's Flora City to MSC World Asia, Royal Caribbean's Legend of the Seas and Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Luna to name but a few.

Photo: Adora Cruises

New ships mean new shops, new fit-outs and new retail teams being built essentially from scratch — which is exactly the moment concessionaires are hiring hardest. Legend of the Seas alone is entering service this year carrying 7,600 guests, making it the single largest ship in our dataset, and its retail is split between Starboard Cruise Services and Effy Jewelry — the same pairing that now defines so much of Royal Caribbean's fleet.

Photo: TUI Cruises

Where the ships — and the jobs — actually are

Almost half the global fleet (49%) sails the classic Caribbean, Mediterranean and Alaska rotations that most people picture when they think of a cruise. But a full quarter of the fleet — 78 ships — is classified as Global or Expedition, a segment that's grown fast and that our first post's trunk show operators (Kallati, Royal, Le Vian, Bellarri, Hubert) lean on heavily for world cruises and luxury itineraries.

If you're weighing up where you'd rather be based, it's worth knowing the split isn't as Caribbean-heavy as the industry's reputation suggests — there's a genuinely global spread of ships, itineraries and retail formats behind that first number.

Where you fit in

Our last post told you who the players are. This one shows you where they actually sit across the fleet — which is the more useful map if you're deciding who to apply to, or trying to work out why a ship you've sailed on runs its shops the way it does.

If you're ready to find out where you'd fit in this fleet, head over to our recruitment page to find the right ship — and the right company — for you.

Let's sail together!

Frequently asked questions

Q: Who runs the shops on cruise ships?

On most ships, retail isn't run by the cruise line itself — it's operated by a third-party concessionaire under contract. Our mapping of 317 ships found that 84.2% of onboard retail concessions belong to an outside company, with the cruise line running its own shops fleet-wide on only a handful of lines (MSC, AIDA, Costa, Disney, Ponant, Windstar, Explora Journeys and Orient Express).

Q: Do cruise ships have a separate jewellery concession from the main shop?

Very often, yes. Many ships carry two retail contracts at once — a general merchandise operator for the main boutiques, plus a dedicated fine jewellery concession layered on top. That combination is common enough that the jewellery specialist in our database is recorded on more ships than any single general merchandise operator.

Q: How many cruise ships are in the global fleet?

As of August 2026, our database maps 317 major ships currently sailing or confirmed for delivery, spanning every major cruise line from the largest megaships to small expedition yachts. Eighty-five of them have entered service since 2020 alone.

Q: Is cruise retail mostly Caribbean and Mediterranean?

Not as much as the industry's reputation suggests. Just under half (49%) of the global fleet sails the classic Caribbean/Mediterranean/Alaska rotations — the rest is spread across expedition, world cruise, Asia-Pacific and Northern European itineraries.

INDUSTRY DATA CORRECT AS OF SEPETEMBER 2026