Gigabyte Project: Key Insights for Levi’s Direct-To-Consumer Strategy
In 2025, partnered with the Digital Supply Chain Institute (DSCI) partnered with a global retail brand to accelerate its “DTC First” transformation, an effort to become a first-class digital retailer. The Gigabyte Project explored how customers across Europe—especially in Germany—experience the company’s delivery, logistics, packaging, and post-purchase services. Using surveys, interviews, focus groups, competitor benchmarks, and data analysis, the project uncovered clear opportunities for operational excellence powered by data and AI to improve consistency, strengthen trust, and enhance the customer journey.
Consumers expressed several recurring frustrations that shaped their online experience. Many complaints centered on customer service responsiveness, refund delays, and delivery issues such as late shipments, missing packages, or insufficient support. These problems, often tied to carrier performance, significantly influenced satisfaction and repeat purchasing.
Packaging emerged as another defining factor. Customers expected sturdier, more premium packaging for higher-priced items and increasingly weighed sustainability in their assessments of brand quality. Eco-friendly materials and transparent communication about environmental impact were repeatedly cited as differentiators that influence purchasing decisions.
A major theme across markets was inconsistency in the company’s omnichannel delivery and logistics information. Customers navigating between the website, mobile site, and app, encountered different details (sometimes incomplete) about shipping options, delivery costs, free-shipping thresholds, returns, and buy online/pickup in store (BOPIS) availability. In Germany, these inconsistencies created friction during the buying process. Customer benefits were not always recognized in the app, and queries about shipping often pointed customers to unrelated pages. These experiences undermine confidence and contributed to cart abandonment.
Stock visibility also suffered. Customers noted instances where items appeared available online, were purchased and charged, and were later canceled due to true out-of-stock conditions. These situations significantly eroded trust and represented a clear area where technology can improve reliability.
The project showed that customer expectations affect the company’s distribution and logistics at every stage from the information customers reviewed before buying, to the transparency and performance they expected during delivery, to the speed and clarity of return processing after a purchase. DSCI recommended strengthening these stages collectively to drive better customer outcomes and greater loyalty.
DSCI also identified a compelling strategic opportunity for the company to modernize its loyalty program. A Web3-enabled system could create an individualized and secure customer relationship across channels, generate new behavioral data, enable richer two-way engagement, and integrate reward mechanisms tied to sustainability actions such as BOPIS or product recycling. Such a program would align strongly with the expectations of Gen Y and Gen Z, who place high value on personalization, transparency, and purpose-driven brands.
Recommended Next Steps
DSCI recommends the following priorities:
1. Enhance customer service for delivery-related issues, including improved delivery support and faster refund resolution.
2. Assess carrier-management software to improve delivery reliability.
3. Introduce a clear, tiered packaging strategy balancing premium quality and sustainability.
4. Strengthen sustainability messaging within distribution and logistics communications.
5. Standardize delivery and logistics information across all digital channels.
6. Integrate delivery and logistics actions into the loyalty program, rewarding choices like BOPIS.
7. Use AI for real-time stock visibility to reduce cancellations and improve trust.
The Gigabyte Project provided the retailer with a clear roadmap for elevating its direct-to-consumer (DTC) customer experience. By addressing operational pain points, improving digital consistency, and modernizing loyalty, the company can improve customer trust, boost conversion, and reinforce its position as a leading digital retailer in Europe.