Very last yr, Levi Strauss & Co. introduced two main plans: Extend its direct-to-shopper channel to account for 55% of overall revenue, and triple e-commerce product sales by the yr 2027.
The enterprise — which oversees the manufacturers Levi’s, Dockers and Past Yoga — is previously making progress. In 2021, DTC accounted for 36% of Levi’s income. For the initial 50 percent of 2023, DTC accounted for a “record” 44% of Levi’s full product sales, CEO Chip Bergh reported. Levi’s DTC web income for the three months ending May 28 greater 13%, largely due to e-commerce, as nicely as whole-price and outlet retailers.
Levi’s has been doing work to develop its electronic organization for fairly some time. In 2020, it debuted its to start with digital app and released a loyalty program with free transport referred to as Red Tab. Since of the pandemic, it also started offering curbside pickup, appointment scheduling and acquire on-line, pickup in-keep. Levi’s accelerated cell contactless and payment devices in its shops as very well, Marc Rosen, then-head of Levi’s Americas organization, told Modern day Retail in 2020.
To develop the phase even a lot more, Levi’s brought on Jason Gowans as its very first-at any time chief digital officer in February. Gowans joined Levi’s from Nordstrom, where by he invested a decade in a assortment of promoting, data science and digital positions, which includes senior vice president of digital commerce. At Levi’s, Gowans has been tasked with “bringing alongside one another LS&Co.’s engineering, information, AI and electronic product management to spearhead digital attempts each for e-commerce and the electronic go-to-current market,” the enterprise explained in a statement at the time.
Gowans spoke with Contemporary Retail about his initially six months in the job and his strategy for acquiring more shoppers to feel of Levi’s for on the web and in-application buying. This job interview has been edited for duration and clarity.
You are the very first human being to hold the title of main electronic officer at Levi Strauss & Co. Coming into the position, how did you decide what you required to deal with to start with?
A good deal of listening, a whole lot of digging into the data and a large amount of working with the group. And from that arise three things that we have to have to concentration on to get us to 3x the e-comm small business.
The initially is, focus on the fundamentals. So, think about what it usually takes to be an fantastic on the internet retailer at each section of that purchaser journey… whether it’s the discovery practical experience, irrespective of whether it’s the consider-and-acquire portion of the experience or whether it’s fulfillment…
The second massive option that emerged is an prospect to evolve the assortment. And so, for us, it genuinely will come down to a few points. The initial is driving a superior in-stock working experience for the purchaser. The second is growing our preference count, or our assortment, and range for the customer. And the 3rd detail is differentiation. So, as you navigate Levi.com, you’re faced with a large amount of alternatives. What is the ideal option for you? And the remedy is, it depends. So, people are all possibilities in evolving the assortment.
And then the third significant prospect is what we’re contacting build a digital flagship experience… Now, 75% of our targeted traffic is mobile. We have 26 million buyers in our loyalty method. And we previously see a meaningful range of prospects that are by now shopping in an omnichannel way. So, how do you genuinely amplify all of that?
What methods have you taken to get nearer to that purpose of tripling the e-commerce small business?
It’s really grounded in all those 3 matters I talked about… On the fundamentals, that would contain the discovery aspect of the journey. So, as you lookup, look through, navigate, filter, these are all methods that we can help consumers uncover what they want. As soon as you’ve landed on that pair of denims, how do we give you the confidence that this is the right pair for you? In this kind of a sizing and in good shape-intensive organization, there is a great deal of prospect to be much better there.
So, as an instance, one of the items we’re doing the job on suitable now is our new dimension and in shape guides. We’re performing on a new denim schooling guidebook, and there is a large amount that we can do there. In actuality, 1 of the exams that we’re jogging suitable now on the merchandise depth site for some of the products are stylists’ movies, where the stylist herself is conversing about her jeans and how they are likely to really feel and how substantially they are going to stretch and no matter whether you need to hence sizing up or size down… These are all ways that we can support the client.
Levi’s has talked about growing further than denim into other classes. Is that a thing you’re operating on, on the electronic aspect?
Yeah, it’s super important… It’s tops, it’s outerwear, it is non-denim bottoms — there’s a serious possibility there. And so, as a denim way of living retailer, aspect of that has to be, assistance me style these merchandise. And so, what must the excellent outfit appear like for any supplied occasion? When you believe about product suggestions now on Levi.com, you are going to see that those recommendations are inclined to be for a solitary product. But more than time, you can be expecting that we’re going to be screening recommending outfits.
The place do you stand on the metaverse?
That’s a big dilemma. For us, it genuinely [needs] to be grounded in… is there anything at all there to be discovered that is likely to help us generate a greater client working experience? We’re likely to be anywhere the customer would like to be… I mean, our ambition is to be the most effective omnichannel retailer out there. And so if the client would like to store in the metaverse, then for sure, we’re heading to examination that. For suitable now, however, all over again, we’re focusing on the fundamentals.