Levi’s Report – Digital Marketing in Retail

Table of Contents

Cover Page………………………………………………..1

1.0 Introduction…………………………………………….3

2.0 Levi’s service blueprint and description of shopping bag and checkout processes…….3

3.0 Strength and weaknesses analysis………………………………..5

4.0 Recommendations…………………………………………7

5.0 Conclusion……………………………………………..8

6.0 References……………………………………………..9

Figure 1………………………………………………….4

1. Introduction:

The main focus of this report is to describe the shopping bag and checkout processes of Levi’s website journey using service blueprint in order to conduct an analysis of the strength and weaknesses of this processes. Moreover, it includes recommendations for better overall customer experience. Levi’s establishment dates back to 20^th May 1873 when Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis obtained a U.S. patent on the process of putting rivets in men’s work pants. This day is considered the ‘birthday’ of blue jeans and it led to creation of a brand with iconic and well established image. Levi’s targets the mass market, but more specifically the Upper Middle Class. The brand emphasizes more on the age group of adventurous youngster, although it has its product range for people above 30 years old. Its strategy is having long-term relationship with their customers, achieving this through being truly honest and responsible brand.

2. Levi’s service blueprint and description of shopping bag and checkout processes:

The main reason a service blueprint process should lead to standardized service procedures is that only by such procedures a service provider can achieve high levels of efficiency using the blueprint. This blueprint process in order to be effective should aim to result in a service delivery process that satisfies customer needs (Shostack, 1984). Comparing the first statement to the Levi’s service blueprint there is clear disagreement about standardization as Levi’s incorporates high divergence in its blueprint process, contributing to a unique performance. On the other hand, the second statement applies fully to the Levi’s service blueprint as being effective and targeting customer needs, which are supported by Levi’s low complexity and clear strategy towards customer satisfaction.

Fig.1:Levi’s blueprint

Product Page

p

Remove

Choose Quantity

Select a Size

Change/Remove Quantity

Add to Bag

Continue Shopping

Shopping Bag

Apply Coupon Code

Cancel

Terms and Conditions

Checkout with PayPal

Same/Change Quantity

Agree

Registered?

Yes

Enter Email Address

No

Choose Pick up Location

Guest Checkout

Signing in

Enter Personal Details

Shipping Address Details

Choose Delivery Provider

Payment

Checkout Page

The customer journey of Levi’s service blueprint starts with the ‘Product Page’, where it is required to select a relevant size from the available ones and choose the desired quantity of the items. The page possesses most of the elements of a successful layout template: well-arranged with good use of whitespace and clear sections, different color choices, excellent size guide, noticeable promotions and breadcrumbs, product description and reviews sections, ending with cross-selling opportunities. There is a clear delivery charge, only one price, plus quickly detectable ‘Add to Bag’ button colored in red, which promotes taking action. From clicking on this button Levi’s navigates through a rolling down mini-shopping bag, which disappears after several seconds automatically and leads to the dilemma to continue shopping or to proceed to the ‘Shopping Bag’. At this point there are multiple opportunities to select – continue shopping, apply coupon codes, or again ‘Change/Remove Quantity’, before proceeding to the choice of PayPal paying option or visiting the ‘Checkout Page’. Then, the choice between guest checkout and ‘Sign-in’ option follows before the entering of information such as personal and shipping details. After that, choosing a desired delivery provider from the available ones or the option of ‘Pick up location’ if desired. All this stages of the processes regarding Levi’s service blueprint ends up with the payment.

3. Strengths and weaknesses analysis:

The journey from the ‘Product Page’ to the ‘Checkout’ of the Levi’s service blueprint shows that the retailer possesses very efficient narrow and deep navigation of the processes, which includes consistency of the different pages, the simplicity in their design and the context in regards to identifying the position in the webpage. Regarding usability Levi’s finds the right balance between its characteristics and not only strive for an ‘ease of use’, but incorporating all 5 E’s of usability, which can be used to organize and analyze information from users. Furthermore, Levi’s has very strong approach towards the ‘Add to Bag’ process as it makes clear that this step is completed by showing a pre-shopping bag for limited amount of time, which gives the opportunity to choose between continuing shopping or moving towards the ‘Shopping Bag’ and the ‘Checkout Page’. Excellent impression is achieved by integrating a help service in the form of live chat, which assists the process of choosing the right product by collecting information about size and fitting, called Levi’s Indigo.

On the other hand, Levi’s services for customer interaction and more accurately the section of customers’ reviews hold some weaknesses. This particular channel is used to serve as a mechanism to increase site ‘stickiness’. Reviews that are perceived as helpful to customers have greater potential value to companies, for example increasing sales and conversion rate (Mudambi & Schuff, 2010, p.196). The reason that Levi’s reviews section fails to have an impact is the execution of it. The very good reviews section design and tools does contribute enough as there is not enough interaction from the customers. Even bad reviews to a certain extent are valuable for the customers in order to motivate them proceed with a purchase.

The last step towards the purchase is the checkout service page. Levi’s encompasses great checkout service, but there are some minor weaknesses as well. What makes it great are the speed of the process, the existence of no forced registration as this shows no barriers at all for new customers and contributing towards lower checkout abandonment rate, constant security reassurance, easy form filling, clear progress indicators, persistent basket summary and no presence of distractions. Levi’s adopts a one-page checkout guidelines, consisting of clear delineations of sections, fair error messaging, and fewer steps in processing the enclosed checkout. One guideline that Levi’s fails to establish is an alternative offer of a multipage checkout whether or not it is important for the customer (Retzlaff, 2016). Moreover, Levi’s applies persuasive techniques like entering address manually or finding the address via the postcode search, the ability to use billing address as delivery one, the ability to fully review and edit the previous processes and flexible delivery options. At this stage the weaknesses are not of substantial value, but there is always room for improvement. For example, there is a security assurance, but not in a way that will contribute to enhance trust as there is not a familiar security provider or money back guarantee and trustmark showing this. Finally, the last weakness is connected with the Click & Collect service as it has limited capacity towards orders and after reaching the maximum there is no room to accommodate the potential orders.

4. Recommendations:

A good way to ameliorate the online shopping journey and the online processes of Levi’s is by incorporating different future e-tailing strategies. One such strategy is called ‘Go physical at the front end’. It revolves around opening of physical sites for variety of reasons. In the case of Levi’s the sites are present and they should emphasize solely on the process of integrating new approaches towards improving the customer-brand interaction. For example, promoting a service in-store for trying out the Levi’s website in order to increase brand interaction and its web platform awareness. Another example is allowing the web customers to pay at local shops or at collection point, showing the customers the convenience and benefits of Internet shopping without requiring a credit card (Helft, 2000). Both these strategies will enhance the trust in Levi’s website and will definitely contribute to higher conversion rates and consequently increasing sales.

The ‘Shopping Bag’ and ‘Checkout Page’ processes of Levi’s have room for improvement in variety of directions. The registration frustration can be avoided by offering different incentives. The situation with the problematic reviews section of Levi’s website can be prevented by again offering incentives for reviews or encouraging the review of the review which is a very consistent way of learning about the customers’ beliefs and opinions. Another way to tackle the challenges of the reviews section of Levi’s is by acquiring a third party reviews provider, which is very useful to build a body for product pages without taking unnecessary time. A clearer and much more eye-catching emphasis on free returns, free shipping and promotions should be made on the sole purpose to strengthen the trust in the website’s processes and desire to shop from Levi’s web platform.

5. Conclusion:

To sum up, this report concerns with the service blueprint of Levi’s website processes starting at the ‘Product Page’ and ending at the checkout point just before entering payment details and placing the order. An extensive description of the processes is conducted in order to reach point where the strength and weaknesses analysis takes place. Considering all this information a section with recommendations is organized to show how possible improvements to this processes can be made and what are their potential outcomes.

6. References:

• Giannis Kostopoulos, Spiros Gounaris, Achilleas Boukis, (2012) “Service blueprinting effectiveness: drivers of success”, Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, Vol. 22 Issue: 6, pp.580-591;
• Helft D. Buy on the web, pay at the mall. Grok: the industry standard special reports on the Internet economy—focus on retail 2000;
• Mudambi, S. M., & Schuff, D. (2010). What makes a helpful online review? A study of customer reviews on Amazon.com. MIS Quarterly, 34(1), 185–200;
• Shostack, G.L. (1984), “Designing services that deliver”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 62 No. 1, pp. 133-9;

Websites:

• http://www.wqusability.com/articles/more-than-ease-of-use.html
• https://econsultancy.com/ecommerce-best-practice-the-basket-add-what-is-it-and-how-should-it-work/#print
• https://econsultancy.com/11-of-the-world-s-best-ecommerce-checkouts/#i.1w10wb6kt1efzy
• https://econsultancy.com/four-tips-for-reducing-checkout-abandonment/
• https://econsultancy.com/persuasive-checkout-best-practice-from-asos/
• https://econsultancy.com/eight-ecommerce-checkout-design-features-that-make-asos-great/
• https://econsultancy.com/ecommerce-consumer-reviews-why-you-need-them-and-how-to-use-them/#i.prc7vjk6gem0rg
• https://multichannelmerchant.com/operations/one-page-checkout/