At Levi Strauss & Co., we know our brands are only as strong as the people who make them. And as LS&Co. becomes a direct-to-consumer (DTC)-first company, building and maintaining strong retail teams — the people who are face to face with our consumers daily — becomes all the more important.
With roughly 1,200 owned-and-operated stores around the globe, we also know not every consumer’s preferences are the same. That’s why we take care in hiring professional, seasoned store managers and allowing them the freedom to make decisions that make sense for their stores, running them as if they were companies. In turn, these “CEOs” of our stores help their teams thrive and create custom, tailored experiences for every consumer who walks through their store’s doors.
“In my opinion, everything starts with the store manager. As long as I act the right way, my team will too,” said Adrianna Żak, store manager of Levi’s® Gdansk Galeria Baltycka. “You always have to think outside of the box. Only you, as a store team, know the consumer profile. You have to adjust all the rules to your reality.”
These ideas all came together this summer in Berlin, as 500 store managers from across Europe and representing Levi’s® owned-and-operated stores in the region came together to learn from one another and share ideas around store performance and team success.
“We all know that operating as a DTC-first retailer requires greater agility to fully meet consumer expectations, every single day,” explained Brianna Carlsson, LS&Co.’s vice president of Retail, Europe, who presented on the CEO of your store strategy at the Berlin event. “No one knows the consumer better than our store managers, and every decision they take can make a big difference in driving our performance through operational excellence and exceptional service.”
For Valentina Nappo, store manager of Levi’s® Bologna Indipendenza, being the CEO of her store is an opportunity to support growth, both the company’s and her own.
“I think of the business of my store as something that is really mine,” said Valentina. “I feel fully responsible for the management of company resources. At the same time, I have carte blanche to develop ideas and strategies in which I believe and for which I work hard with my team, because I feel supported by the company.”
Providing store managers with that support is core to the CEO of your store approach. “All of us at LS&Co. — regardless of if we work in a corporate office or in a store — are responsible for owning our results,” explained Brianna. “That’s why we’re building a culture where store managers are empowered to tell us in corporate what they need to serve our fans and then we in turn can give them tools and processes to make their lives easier.”
Setting our stores up for success like this means that store managers can focus on what really matters: ensuring the satisfaction of our consumers. For store managers like Valentina, a store’s success is directly related to the happiness of their consumers. That’s why she takes care to train her team to build relationships based on trust, professionalism and friendliness, cultivated through active listening and empathy.
“There’s a constant study of product, history and evolution of the brand but, above all, of our consumers,” said Valentina. “Our consumers’ needs may vary over time, and we need to be up to date. We work to make them happy — if they are, we won!”
Adrianna agreed. “At the end of the day, we want to serve the consumer the same way we would serve a friend. We have to listen to all their needs and solve them,” she added. “That way the consumer leaves the store happy, and that’s the only thing that matters.”
Visit one of your local Levi’s® stores today to enjoy your perfectly tailored experience.
