Levi Strauss & Co. modernizes global ERP; eyes digital DTC business
Levi Strauss & Co. is upgrading its enterprise resource planning (ERP) infrastructure on a single global platform as it eyes expansion in the digital direct-to-consumer vertical.
Over the last decade, Levi’s has been replacing a fragmented ERP landscape of nine legacy systems — each built and customized for a wholesale-first business model and customized by region — with a modernized, single global platform designed to support future operations and continued growth of its digital direct-to-consumer business.
This effort has involved the denim giant integrating its systems into the SAP S/4 Fashion cloud-based ERP platform with core SAP functionality that supports wholesale, e-commerce and retail models. The results to date include the retirement of more than 90 legacy systems, standardization of more than 80% of the company’s business processes globally, and placing more than 2,600 employees worldwide on a single platform with a common set of processes and data.
By adopting SAP’s standard capabilities rather than building customized workarounds, the company has created a “clean core,” or a platform designed to absorb new capabilities, including artificial intelligence, as fast as they become available. Levi's sees this migration as part of a broader effort to transform into a DTC-first, digitally-enabled global retailer.
As part of this ERP upgrade, AI agents are now processing sales orders, capturing invoices and managing vendor compliance tasks that previously required manual effort. The platform architecture also allows Levi’s to deploy these capabilities continuously, with the company co-developing an upgrade process with SAP that completes in around 20 minutes compared to the industry norm of 48 hours.
In April 2026, Levi’s migrated its East Asia Pacific and Greater China operations onto the new global ERP platform. This process brought 14 countries across the region, including Japan, China, Thailand, Taiwan and Australia, onto the system.
The migration followed go-lives in Mexico, Canada, the U.S., South Africa and India, as well as for the company’s Beyond Yoga premium activewear brand. The Andes, Brazil and Europe are currently underway, with completion expected by mid-2027. When the program is complete, Levi’s will operate its entire global business across all brands, channels and regions on a single ERP instance.
Other efforts Levi’s has made to streamline supply chain operations include developing robotic process automation (RPA) that enable it to create bots that automate labor-intensive and lower-level tasks, as well as launching an internally developed e-commerce fulfillment platform called the Business Optimization Of Shipping and Transport engine (BOOST).
[READ MORE: Levi’s optimizes e-commerce fulfillment with AI].
“We didn’t build this platform to solve today’s problems,” said Jason Gowans, chief digital and technology officer at Levi Strauss & Co. “We built it to move at the speed the market demands and to take advantage of AI and automation capabilities as they emerge. What excites me most is what this foundation now makes possible: real-time visibility across our global business, AI embedded directly into our operations and the agility to operate like the world-class retailer we’re becoming.”
San Francisco-based Levi Strauss products are sold in more than 110 countries worldwide through a combination of chain retailers, department stores and online sites. It has global footprint of approximately 3,200 brand-dedicated stores and shop-in-shops.
