Leona De Graft, VP of global ecommerce of Levi’s explains how you can “rewire” a 170-year-old denim bottoms brand into a head-to-toe business that works across all retail channels for its loyal customers.
The latest second quarter results from Levi Strauss & Co. highlights a digital switch for the denim giant, with 51 per cent of its net revenue now coming from Direct-to-Consumer (D2C). For De Grant, the bigger shift has been a cultural one.
“I have no doubt when you think about Levi’s, you think about denim bottoms, denim jeans. We are definitely evolving our business now to being more denim lifestyle. We have amazing tops, dresses, outerwear,” she stresses.
“You can really think about Levi’s as a head-to-toe business.”
A consumer strategy
Transitioning to a D2C strategy is more of a mindset shift for the legacy brand. De Grant explains: “You don’t have channel strategies without having a really strong overarching strategy. The reason we’re doing this is we want to have more direct relationships and connections with our end consumers – we want to better serve our fans.”
The biggest operational change, she argues, is less about the mechanics of ecommerce and more about attitude. Levi’s heritage as a wholesale-led business meant success was previously discussed through the lens of sales targets and units sold.
“When you think about DTC first, it’s not really a channel strategy. It’s around focusing on the consumer. So it’s a consumer strategy,” she notes. “Historically, we probably would have really talked about how many pairs of jeans we sold. When we think about DTC first and being consumer first, it’s really about what jeans did they buy, how many of those consumers came back and shopped with us again?”
Underpinning that shift is investment in connected data and systems. Levi’s is rolling out a new global ERP system designed to give the business a clearer view of inventory, operations and demand across channels. For a company founded in 1853, De Grant says this means “rewiring how our data flows across channels, but also systems as well”.
While the brand has an omnichannel approach to retail, De Grant says that term only matters if it translates into a consistent customer experience.
“We have to make sure that our consumers have an amazing experience, no matter what channel they choose to shop in,” she says. “Consumers don’t think channels, and internally we don’t either. It’s all about making sure that wherever they choose to shop, it’s an unforgettably Levi’s experience for them.”
Such an experience can be seen in their summer campaign. It demonstrates how product, storytelling and creative can be aligned across every touchpoint.
“Our teams are also not thinking in channel silos,” she says. “We think about the consumer flipping between ecommerce and retail, and with that, we make sure that connection and experience is seamless for them.”
Personalisation starts with loyalty
Levi’s Red Tab loyalty programme has become one of the central engines of its DTC strategy, helping the business move beyond a single transaction and build a more detailed understanding of its shoppers.
“I am a firm believer that you can’t talk about personalisation without talking about loyalty,” she says. “Red Tab is huge for us. We now have 16 million loyalty members in Europe, and more than 50 million members globally, which really gives us a powerful foundation of consumer-first data and insights.”
That data is being used both online and in stores. In Europe, where Levi’s has more than 700 stores, De Grant wants store teams to be able to recognise Red Tab members and tailor conversations based on previous purchases, preferred fits, washes and product interests.
Digital tools are also playing a bigger role. Levi’s launched fit guides and fit quizzes across Levi.com last year to help shoppers navigate its wide denim portfolio and build complete outfits.
De Grant explains: “These tools help consumers navigate our really wide portfolio of amazing jeans. But It also gives really great recommendations for head-to-toe purchases as well”. It will even ask: “What’s that perfect top that will tuck seamlessly into your cinch bag new jean?”. This not only drives up conversion, but also lowers returns rates.
Clienteling is another priority, particularly in the UK. Where customers have an active relationship with a store, Levi’s managers can message them directly about new products that may suit their wardrobe.
“We think about being as individual as possible because that’s what drives up retention,” De Grant says. “It makes us appear like we are a premium brand, and it means we get to serve consumers giving them the products that they genuinely love.”
Scaling ecommerce across Europe
Levi’s ecommerce momentum doesn’t come without challenges, in Europe alone it covers 18 markets each with different levels of digital maturity and competition.
“Being in the digital channel at the moment, Levi’s is a great place to be,” she says. “We have had many, many quarters of double-digit growth. But in Europe, it’s one of our most complex regions.”
The answer is to balance market relevance with shared technology and capability, she adds. Levi’s wants each market to feel locally relevant, while scaling platforms, communications and learnings across the region.
“We are currently redesigning our website, which is going to bring to the forefront a more premium, elevated experience for our consumers,” De Grant says.
That infrastructure investment is being matched by supply chain changes. Levi’s has remapped its European distribution centre network, consolidating ecommerce fulfilment into one facility in Germany and one in the UK, each serving wholesale, ecommerce and retail.
Levi’s is already seeing the benefits from this consolidation, not simply in efficiency gains but also in being able to reduce the UK delivery time to 24 hours for 90 per cent of its customers. A year ago, this led time sat at three days.
“I always tell my team that the consumer experience doesn’t stop when they check out on the website,” De Grant says. “Receiving your parcel super quick when you’ve found an item that you love is super important.”
For UK shoppers in particular, local nuance matters. “Your local postman is now delivering your item in the UK, which I always say is a bonus because my postman knows exactly where to leave my parcel when I’m not in,” she adds.
Wholesale as a DTC advantage
Despite the DTC-first pivot, De Grant is clear that wholesale remains an important part of Levi’s ecosystem. Rather than viewing it as a competing channel, she sees it as complementary, particularly because partners such as Zalando provide valuable insights and scale.
“We are so lucky as a business to have such diversified channels,” she says. “There is so much benefit that comes out of allowing consumers to discover our brands across retail, ecom and wholesale. One of the benefits with wholesale is the complement it has to DTC.”
Those partner learnings feed back into the brand’s owned strategy and help Levi’s serve wholesale partners better too. “The power that we get from the other channels is so beneficial across the board,” she notes.
AI as an accelerator, not a replacement
No modern ecommerce discussion is complete without AI, and Levi’s is already exploring how it can support both customer experience and internal productivity.
“AI for us is an accelerator of our strategy,” she says. “We’re thinking about AI in two lenses. One is consumer experience, and we’re using AI to enhance the shopping experience from discovery through to in-store engagement.”
That includes improving search, product recommendations and outfit recommendations, with a stylist chatbot due to launch soon to help shoppers find the right fit. The second lens is operational efficiency, where AI can support productivity across the business.
“AI for us is about amplifying human intelligence, not replacing it,” De Grant says. “This makes our teams even stronger, but it also means that it’s a core part of our operating model.”
For Levi’s, the DTC-first opportunity is not about abandoning the channels that built the brand. It is about using data, loyalty, stores, wholesale partnerships, faster fulfilment and emerging technologies to build a more direct relationship with shoppers wherever they choose to engage. As De Grant puts it, the goal is simple: “We want to better serve our fans.”
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