Omnichannel
Levi Strauss e-commerce leader talks customer experience
Priya Buening, VP of U.S. e-commerce, at Levi Strauss & Co., shares insight on the brand’s focus to create best-in-class experiences in all customer channels and the resulting business growth from the multi-pronged strategy.
August 25, 2025 by Judy Mottl — Editor, RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com
Levi Strauss has been driving a three-pronged strategy to create best-in class experience in all its customer channels while prioritizing serving as a direct-to-consumer-first retailer.
The three key pillars are:
- Fixing the fundamentals: Involves ensuring a reliable, trusted and seamless online shopping experience.
- Evolving the assortment: Focuses on expanding Levi's product offerings beyond its traditional denim roots to become a broader lifestyle apparel brand.
- Elevating the consumer experience: Involves creating a more personalized, engaging and rewarding online shopping experience.
The quest is to provide an exceptional retail customer experience no matter where the Levi customer is — in the store or in its online sites and has been doubling down on the e-commerce experience.
The results are paying off given three years of consistent e-commerce growth. In fact, over the last five years Levi Strauss' e-commerce business has doubled, growing from 5% of total net revenue in 2019 to 10% in 2024.
The brand is improving the digital experience through more tailored, personalized storytelling to local markets — tailoring assortment, site content and storytelling for individual country needs. One example is a 'Kings Day Edit' on its Netherlands site, tapping into the holiday spirit where everyone wears orange during parade-filled celebrations.
It's also heavily focused on the brand's loyalty program called Red Tab that has 38 million members worldwide. Levi Strauss expanded the program to four new markets — Poland, Ireland, Denmark and Switzerland.
RetailCustomerExperience reached out to Priya Buening, VP of U.S. e-commerce at Levi Strauss & Co, via an email interview to get deeper insight into the strategies that have resulted in 12 consecutive quarters of double-digit growth.
Q. What has been the prime driver for Levi's global double-digit e-commerce growth?
Buening: It comes down to focus. Over the last few years, we've stayed disciplined around three key pillars: fixing the fundamentals, evolving our assortment, and elevating the experience for our fans. This strategy has paid off. We've doubled our e-comm business over the last five years. In 2019, e-comm made up 5% of our total companywide global revenue and in 2024, it hit 10% and the momentum is still strong in 2025. We've been doing the work behind the scenes to build a foundation that can scale.
Q. How has Levi's achieved a seamless online shopping experience?
Buening: Getting the basics right has been our top priority. That means faster load times, better navigation, clearer imagery, more consumer reviews and a more reliable site experience overall. At the same time, we've also been layering in enhancements that make the experience more dynamic. Things like high-quality product videos, refreshed visuals, and better search functionality – all features making it easier for our customers to find exactly what they're looking for.
Looking ahead, we're building out even more storytelling using style-led content from seasonal and trendy opportunities, curated edits, and "shop the look" features to illustrate Levi's as a complete head-to-toe lifestyle brand. From bottoms to tops, dresses, skirts and accessories the site showcases the broadest expression of the brand while also inspiring full-outfit purchases and larger basket sizes.
Q. What strategies has Levi's put into place/tech deployed that is driving an elevated consumer experience?
Buening: To deliver a more seamless, personalized and engaging experience for our fans, we have implemented a range of strategies and technologies. These efforts focus on storytelling through imagery and collections, perks such as the Red Tab® loyalty program, connected omnichannel experience, full denim lifestyle product assortment, increased review coverage to help search engine optimization and increase purchase intent, a fit quiz tool that provides personalized recommendations, and elevated imagery and navigation to deliver an exceptional experience for our fans.
Using the data and insights from our site to understand how our fans shop, we can analyze our consumers' behavior, look at market trends, and our performance metrics to fuel smarter decisions. When we truly understand what our fans want, we can respond with personalized experiences driving repeat purchases.
Q. What does today's Levi's customer want and expect?
Buening: They want a seamless, accurate, and easy online shopping experience from the moment they land on the site to when their purchases arrive at their door. That includes fast performance, simple navigation, great visuals, and helpful recommendations. But beyond that, they want to see themselves reflected in the brand. That's why we've leaned into tailored storytelling, more lifestyle imagery, localized content, and personalized recommendations that resonate with their individual needs. And we are seeing the impact of customer satisfaction scores on our U.S. e-commerce business rising to the highest level ever.
Q. Can you provide details of Levi's strategy to provide tailored, personalized storytelling to local markets?
Buening: Personalized storytelling is a key part of how we show up for customers around the world. We focus on market-specific strategies like tailoring product assortment, site experience, and creative content to reflect the local culture that appear in seasonal events, tailored marketing campaigns or events uniquely tied to the individual market ensuring we show up with what matters most to each community.
For example, we leaned into music this year. Our "Get Tour Ready" campaign taps into the excitement around live music and cowboy-inspired style. It's designed to help fans find the perfect outfits for the season's biggest shows and festivals, offering a curated, style-forward way to connect with the cultural moment.
Q. What prompted the new search functionality and was that done internally or with a partner?
Buening: We wanted to make it easier for customers to find what they're looking for and discover new products along the way, so we've worked with an external partner to embed technology for our U.S. site that learns customer preferences to deliver personalized results.
The results have been impressive — we've seen a 10% increase in customers successfully finding products through search, as well as lifts to both Add to Cart rate and Conversion rate during testing. This summer, we'll roll out the enhanced search technology on our Browse pages too. With continued algorithm enhancements and the user-friendly merchandising suite that boosts key fits and spotlight seasonal campaigns, we're confident this next phase will deliver even more value for our customers.
Q. What technology is Levi's considering in the future for driving a more rewarding customer experience?
Buening: We're always looking ahead to how we can continuously improve our technology to help deliver the best experience for our fans. We're exploring ways to evolve our loyalty program, with the goal of offering even more meaningful rewards and connections to our customers. We want to make every interaction feel more seamless, personalized, and connected to what fans love most about Levi's.
About Judy Mottl
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