The hottest global retail market is...

Paris isn't just the city of love among romance seekers.

According to a new study by commercial real estate firm CBRE, the French capital ranked as the most popular, global retail market last year, having attracted 50 new brands in 2013.

Tokyo came in second, attracting 48 new entrants last year—double what it saw in 2012—with Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi and Berlin rounding out the top five list.

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Retailers overall have been focusing on more mature markets that already have a strong retail footprint. Only one of 19 global cities—Hanoi, Vietnam—that CBRE ranked was not a mature retail market.

There were 18 mature retail cities on the list in 2013 compared to 14 in 2012. The firm defined mature retail cities as those with 25 percent or more of the 334 retailers that CBRE tracks.

"The improving economic prospects in Western Europe and North America [are] leading global retailers to refocus their expansion plans on mature markets and the world's major retail destinations," said Jose Luis Martin, a senior director of cross border retail at CBRE.

Although the U.S. did not boast any cities on the list, American retailers are "by far" the most global, with 80 percent having a presence in the Americas; Europe, Middle East and Africa; and Asia Pacific regions, according to the study. London was the top target for American retailers.

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"The maturity and density of the American market is encouraging retailers to look outside their home borders in order to seek growth," said Naveen Jaggi, senior managing director, retail services, at CBRE.

—By CNBC's Krystina Gustafson