How Coach is using experiential retail to reach Gen Z consumers

Coach, known as the ‘original American house of leather,’ is currently in its transformation era under creative director Stuart Vevers, merging its craftsmanship legacy with a cool, aspirational New York attitude, by focusing on immersive experiences designed to target Gen Z consumers by championing self-expression.

Its latest experiential retail experience has landed in London, transforming luxury department store Selfridges ‘Corner Shop’ into a space celebrating Coach’s spirit of playfulness and house codes, as well as its birthplace in New York, to bring fun and a sense of community to the UK consumer and strengthen its presence within the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) market, which the brand describes as a “huge growth” market, especially within the UK and France.

Matteo De Bortoli Albricci, senior vice president, general manager of EMEA at Tapestry, Coach’s parent company, said in a statement: “Partnering with Selfridge’s Corner Shop is a key landmark for Coach as we continue to explore new and exciting ways to authentically engage with our UK community and strengthen our presence within the EMEA market.

“With self-expression and community at the heart of our global spring 2026 campaign, collaborating with Selfridges on this localised activation allowed us to create a unique shopping experience within one of London’s most iconic retail locations with the aim of redefining the retail journey for the end consumer. As part of an exciting strategy of continued expansion within the region, this activation allows us to bring Coach’s heritage to life in an immersive community-focused way, placing our customers and icons at the heart of the experience”.

Coach opens immersive pop-up in Selfridges

The Coach Charm Playground, which runs until May 22, is the brainchild of Giovanni Zaccariello, who leads the global visual experience for the brand, and took a year to develop, and an overnight 12-hour installation, with the brand’s dinosaur mascot, Rexy, which takes over the main window in the space, arriving in four parts to fit easily and quickly into the space, reimagined into a fun slide that even adults can go down.

“The Corner Shop is the most productive space that Selfridges have, and when we pitched the idea, from the slide to the Tabby customisation station, they really loved the idea,” said Giovanni Zaccariello, senior vice president of global visual experience at Coach, in an interview with FashionUnited. “But like with any activation we’ve done in department stores, you need to pre-plan, you need to design for all pieces to be assembled to be disassembled, if you can’t do it in 12 hours, you can do it, as no one wants an area of their store cornered off for two days.”

As with all Coach experiences, it needs to be engaging and one-of-a-kind, and most importantly, centred around the concept of “personalisation and self-expression,” adds Zaccariello.

“With all experiences, we place emotional connection, community and co-creation at the heart of it,” states Zaccariello. “And with this space, you are instantly drawn into the charm bar. We wanted to do something very bespoke, and that felt a little bit like New York, so it builds awareness for people here in London that we are a New York brand. With the Empire State Building, yellow taxi and the Big Apple, there’s a story, while still being fun.”

FashionUnited speaks to Giovanni Zaccariello, senior vice president of global visual experience at Coach

At the heart of the immersive experience is the idea that there is more than products or shopping, but rather storytelling. The retail team are not overpowering to sell, they are friendly, helpful and knowledgeable about the brand, while also on hand to share the latest trends, how to style the pieces, as well as capture a photograph of you coming down the dinosaur slide. Coach wants the consumer to engage with its products while having fun.

Zaccariello adds: “A lot of luxury brands are quite stiff, so we designed this space to allow customers to touch everything. We are quite democratic and approachable as a brand, and every piece of creative in the space, whether it’s the apple, or people asking why Rexy, it starts a conversation.

“We wanted the space to be centred around our icons, that’s why there is a big Tabby bag in the window, our number one mascot, Rexy, and then you have the Big Apple, and even the Tabby has the hang tag, as every Coach bag has a hang tag. There is a lot to talk about, and it creates a conversation. You don’t need to buy, but at least you learn about Coach. We use these experiences as a way to educate customers.”

The space highlights the brand’s bestselling bag, the ‘Tabby’, by reimagining it as a larger-than-life interactive product display that doubles as a monogramming station to drive the brand’s vision of inspiring authentic self-expression. The installation also includes a charm and customisation station, and London-based fine-line tattoo artist The Social will be on-site for the four-week residency, doing personalised drawings directly onto bags. There is also an apple-shaped photo booth for visitors to capture, create and share their own photo printouts, and free stickers, including the Coach logo, Rexy, and even a giant pretzel.

Zaccariello said: “We just wanted this to be a place where you can just come down and have fun and don’t take life too seriously, as that’s what Coach is about. At Coach, we talk a lot about magic and logic, and I think the logic is as important as the magic. Without the magic, you’re not going to capture the emotion and the hearts of the consumers.

“Charms are the central theme throughout, because we wanted to underpin Coach’s belief in self-expression in a playful way, taking classic Coach codes and supersizing them, while the Rexy slide and apple photobooth act as the centrepieces of the experience, encouraging our community to come together and create memorable moments within the space.”

As well as being immersive, the space also offers customers exclusives. The Tabby is available in pebble leather and quilted suede iterations, in the brand’s classic staple colours such as black, chalk and warm brown, as well as exclusive colourways fuchsia and sky blue, while the personalisation station has special monograms, including a double-decker bus, and on the charm station you can pick up the viral book charms, which sold more than 80,000 units in one week in the US.

“The brand is democratic, but there is something about local exclusivity that is quite important,” notes Zaccariello.

Other pieces in the pop-up include Coach’s New York family of bags, including the Empire and Brooklyn, new Kisslock and Turnlock styles, and a limited selection of catwalk-ready-to-wear pieces and accessories.

Coach highlights consumer evolution with immersive experiences

Coach has seen success in targeting Gen Z consumers with its immersive activations, including a ‘Tabby Tour’ of universities in the US, where a yellow Tabby-shaped truck rolls onto campus complete with customisation stations to make custom bookmarks and book swap areas.

“When you hear craft, you feel like it's old. I’m like, actually, this can be fun,” explains Zaccariello. “We are looking to make craft fun and accessible to the next generation.”

Another way Coach is engaging with Gen Z and encouraging them to linger longer in its stores is with the opening of coffee shops alongside its retail offering, mainly in outlet malls in the US. The cafes, inspired by New York City diners, tap into Gen Z’s love of immersive and shareable moments, featuring Coach-branded coffee and Tabby-shaped cakes, and even a cute smiling coffee cup mascot called Lil Miss Jo. There is also coffee shop-branded merchandise, such as aprons, mugs, T-shirts, charms and tote bags, which is only available in the cafes.

“We’re opening two coffee shops this week in the US,” said Zaccariello. “Our strategy is to roll them out next to our stores, so that not only do customers buy a coffee, but then they come in and buy an accessory or a bag. For the ones already open, the dwell time has gone up by at least five to eight times.

“We’re not just doing it for marketing. It’s an extension of the brand beyond products. When you think about immersive retail – that’s what it is.”

Coach is also expanding its brand footprint for Gen Z consumers with its Coach Play spaces, an immersive experimental concept designed specifically to engage younger shoppers by dedicating up to 50 percent of the space to non-retail experiences, such as customisation stations. In addition, each store also has a localised bespoke fit, featuring decor and even playlists curated to reflect the specific city it is in. Currently, the brand has 12 globally, including Chicago and Salt Lake City in the US, but the majority are across Asia in Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and Macau.

The brand is also planning to open a new flagship location in Paris by the end of the year, as part of its strategy to expand its presence in the EMEA. Zaccariello promises that the space will be “really bespoke” as an expression of the Coach brand with "a Parisian feel".

So, why is Gen Z so taken with Coach?

“They’ve learnt how to shop online as part of their day-to-day, but they need more than just that; it’s not just about putting bags on shelves,” explains Zaccariello. “They expect more from every brand, they want a multi-sensory experience, and I think the brand that gives them that will win. They’re not just buying a Tabby; they’re buying a Tabby with which they can self-express.

“The more immersive the experience is, the higher the dwell time. If you only have bags to shop, maybe you spend two minutes, but if you have a slide, co-creation bar and a photobooth, they spend about 15 minutes with the brand, while also creating an emotional connection.”

Coach’s approach has been working, as Tapestry, the owner of Coach and Kate Spade, reported that group revenue reached 2.5 billion US dollars for the second quarter ending December 27, 2025, an increase of 14 percent, which was boosted by Coach growing its sales by 25 percent to 2.1 billion US dollars.

During the quarter, Tapestry also noted that it added 3.7 million new customers globally, of which a third were from Gen Z, driven by its strategy to build emotional connections with its consumers.