Levi’s main electronic officer on the method to triple e-commerce gross sales

Previous yr, Levi Strauss & Co. announced two significant ambitions: Develop its immediate-to-customer channel to account for 55% of overall profits, and triple e-commerce sales by the year 2027.
The enterprise — which oversees the manufacturers Levi’s, Dockers and Past Yoga — is presently building progress. In 2021, DTC accounted for 36% of Levi’s earnings. For the very first 50 percent of 2023, DTC accounted for a “record” 44% of Levi’s whole profits, CEO Chip Bergh explained. Levi’s DTC internet profits for the three months ending May well 28 improved 13%, mostly because of to e-commerce, as effectively as full-value and outlet suppliers.
Levi’s has been doing the job to develop its electronic company for rather some time. In 2020, it debuted its very first digital app and released a loyalty application with absolutely free shipping termed Purple Tab. Mainly because of the pandemic, it also began supplying curbside pickup, appointment scheduling and obtain on-line, pickup in-retailer. Levi’s accelerated cell contactless and payment products in its suppliers as nicely, Marc Rosen, then-head of Levi’s Americas organization, told Modern-day Retail in 2020.
To expand the section even a lot more, Levi’s introduced on Jason Gowans as its 1st-at any time main electronic officer in February. Gowans joined Levi’s from Nordstrom, wherever he invested a decade in a variety of marketing, information science and digital positions, together with senior vice president of digital commerce. At Levi’s, Gowans has been tasked with “bringing collectively LS&Co.’s engineering, details, AI and electronic merchandise administration to spearhead digital efforts the two for e-commerce and the digital go-to-current market,” the firm explained in a assertion at the time.
Gowans spoke with Present day Retail about his 1st six months in the career and his tactic for receiving additional consumers to imagine of Levi’s for online and in-app buying. This interview has been edited for size and clarity.
You are the to start with individual to hold the title of main electronic officer at Levi Strauss & Co. Coming into the work, how did you come to a decision what you wanted to tackle 1st?
A ton of listening, a large amount of digging into the facts and a great deal of functioning with the staff. And from that emerge 3 items that we need to have to concentrate on to get us to 3x the e-comm organization.
The to start with is, aim on the fundamentals. So, consider about what it will take to be an excellent on the net retailer at each aspect of that consumer journey… whether or not it is the discovery knowledge, no matter whether it’s the appraise-and-get aspect of the working experience or whether it’s fulfillment…
The 2nd significant option that emerged is an opportunity to evolve the assortment. And so, for us, it actually will come down to 3 factors. The to start with is driving a superior in-stock knowledge for the consumer. The second is increasing our selection depend, or our assortment, and range for the customer. And the 3rd factor is differentiation. So, as you navigate Levi.com, you’re confronted with a large amount of possibilities. What’s the proper choice for you? And the answer is, it depends. So, all those are all chances in evolving the assortment.
And then the 3rd significant prospect is what we’re contacting build a electronic flagship experience… By now, 75% of our targeted traffic is mobile. We have 26 million shoppers in our loyalty software. And we already see a meaningful number of clients that are by now browsing in an omnichannel way. So, how do you genuinely amplify all of that?
What steps have you taken to get closer to that intention of tripling the e-commerce business?
It is definitely grounded in those people three factors I talked about… On the fundamentals, that would incorporate the discovery portion of the journey. So, as you research, look through, navigate, filter, these are all strategies that we can assistance individuals come across what they want. Once you’ve landed on that pair of jeans, how do we give you the self-confidence that this is the ideal pair for you? In this kind of a sizing and fit-intensive company, there’s a whole lot of option to be greater there.
So, as an case in point, just one of the things we’re working on correct now is our new measurement and fit guides. We’re doing work on a new denim schooling guideline, and there’s a great deal that we can do there. In simple fact, just one of the checks that we’re jogging correct now on the merchandise depth page for some of the products are stylists’ movies, in which the stylist herself is conversing about her denims and how they’re likely to really feel and how considerably they are likely to extend and irrespective of whether you need to thus sizing up or measurement down… These are all methods that we can aid the buyer.
Levi’s has talked about increasing past denim into other categories. Is that anything you are functioning on, on the electronic aspect?
Yeah, it is super important… It is tops, it is outerwear, it is non-denim bottoms — there’s a serious option there. And so, as a denim life style retailer, element of that has to be, help me model these products. And so, what must the great outfit look like for any provided occasion? When you think about merchandise recommendations these days on Levi.com, you are going to see that all those tips have a tendency to be for a solitary merchandise. But in excess of time, you can hope that we’re likely to be screening recommending outfits.
In which do you stand on the metaverse?
Which is a big issue. For us, it seriously [needs] to be grounded in… is there just about anything there to be uncovered that is likely to aid us create a better purchaser working experience? We’re likely to be anywhere the consumer desires to be… I imply, our ambition is to be the best omnichannel retailer out there. And so if the shopper wants to store in the metaverse, then for confident, we’re going to take a look at that. For right now, nevertheless, once again, we’re focusing on the fundamentals.