Levi Strauss & Co has explained how its investment in digital transformation initiatives has helped in online business growth. Levi Strauss said its digital sales footprint grew more than 50 percent in the third quarter and comprised nearly a quarter of total company revenues.
Levi Strauss upgraded e-commerce sites in Canada, Europe and the U.S. They are faster and feature improved navigation and search functionalities allowing consumers to quickly find products and the streamlined cart and checkout capabilities are driving increased conversion, Levi Strauss said.
San Francisco, California-based Levi is also revolutionizing the way consumers can connect with the brand and shop with Levis on other digital platforms. For example, it re-envisioned the back-to-school season with a more digital approach.
Levi Strauss teamed up with Kohl’s to create a unique virtual closet experience on Snapchat, enabling consumers to browse an additive assortment of Denim, Truckers and Tees and then virtually mix-and-match options to create new looks.
Buy Online, Pick-up In Store, which has been successful will be in the majority of U.S. fleet before the holiday shopping season begins. In Q3 shipments store performed 20 percent of all e-commerce volume and drove optimization of margin in stores.
Levi Strauss is expanding U.S. loyalty program into all U.S. stores and Levi.com. Levi Strauss has more than 1 million loyalty members with increased acquisition rates across all channels and re-repurchase rates have risen to 40 percent. Levi Strauss is using artificial intelligence (AI) to personalize offers to each consumer, further cultivating loyal fans.
Levi Strauss said mobile app download and acquisition rates increased driven by frequent exclusive collaborations and early product access opportunities. 70 percent of those downloading the app are new users that are 50 and conversion with them is nearly double.
Levi Strauss said it is making good progress leveraging use of data analytics and machine learning in more aspects of business. “The ways we deploy AI go well beyond loyalty and mobile,” Levi Strauss CEO Chip Bergh said.
Levi Strauss expanded AI enabled e-commerce promotions in Europe, increasing profits, revenues and units in these promotions, and adding to the share gains in women’s products. By the end of this year, all e-commerce and store promotions will be AI powered across 17 countries in Europe.
Internally, it is also digitalizing our ways of working. We are preparing to execute second digital global line launch for the Levis brand this month using digital pools to assort the line and drive increased efficiency.
Levi Strauss in June opened omni-channel digital showroom in Europe, initially planned as a small-scale customer handful of accounts. Levi Strauss accelerated this capability due to COVID-19 and conducted full digital sellings for spring and summer 2021 with top 200 wholesale and franchise partners in Europe.
Levi Strauss’s third quarter net revenues fell 26 percent due to the pandemic. It has mitigated brick and mortar declines in wholesale and direct-to-consumer channels from lower traffic with strong digital business growth. Net revenue declined about 27 percent to $1.06 billion.
Levi Strauss said its own e-commerce business grew 53 percent and comprised 8 percent of total company revenues for the third quarter. And the per unit metrics in e-commerce business is very strong. Average revenue per unit is double that of wholesale.
Levi Strauss CEO said e-commerce business on a fully allocated basis was again profitable in the third quarter and year-to-date.
