Taking one of America’s oldest and best-known brands into the future takes more than pluck and drive. It takes a plan — and forWhen Gowans joined the company nearly two years ago, Levi’s had hit a wall with its online business. It was also weighing even deeper changes to its core strategy, as well as leadership, with then-chief executive officer Chip Bergh preparing to transition out.
The wholesale business is important to Levi’s and will continue, she said, but the critical priority is its direct business with consumers. She believes that this is what will power growth across both e-commerce and its 1,200 brick-and-mortar stores. To do that, it started with a clear-eyed assessment of exactly where we were and where we had opportunity. So one of the first things that I did was assess the health of the business, top to bottom.The first is, what we’ve seen in external research is that 80 percent of consumers say that they care as much about the experience as they do the product. The second is, we see that 70 percent of consumers are willing to switch channel depending on the context.
On the fundamentals, a lot of that was just basic blocking and tackling. Another is evolving the assortment, and I think this has been a great unlock for us over the last two yearsDenim has gone through this transition in fits. We’ve seen that play out on the website and it’s a great momentum driver for direct-to-consumer, specifically online. We’ve seen that bear out in the mix between our men’s business and our women’s business, and our women’s business gaining share.
Working really closely with, in particular, Ken Worzel at Nordstrom, over 10 years, you learn just how much better decisions you can make through the applied use and surgical use of data. And so coming over to Levi’s,WWD: AI is essential for brands now, but it can be tricky territory. Levi’s knows that, after its plans for AI-generated fashion models drew some ire last year.