In this articleTPRFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNTWith its new coffee shop, Coach wants to drive more frequent trips to its stores and solidify its gains with Gen Z shoppers. One of its menu items is a Tabby Cake, a cake pop-inspired dessert that’s in the shape of Coach’s Tabby purse.Courtesy: CoachAt Coach’s new shops, the latest purse is made of cake batter and colorful shades of white chocolate.The legacy leather handbag maker’s recent venture is a coffee shop that offers Tabby purse-shaped sweets, tiramisu- and pumpkin-flavored coffees, matcha drinks and more. Each shop is attached to a store that sells Coach’s lineup of handbags, sneakers and other apparel and accessories.On Friday, the company opened another location of The Coach Coffee Shop – the third in the U.S. – in The Mills at Jersey Gardens, an outlet mall roughly 16 miles southwest of New York City. Coach will open the fourth in Woodbury Common Premium Outlets, also in the greater New York City area, on Oct. 3.It plans to open about 12 to 15 coffee shops each year around the world, while also adding to the menu, rotating seasonal food and drinks and selling exclusive tote bags and other merchandise, said Marcus Sanders, vice president of global food and beverage at Coach.With the coffee shops, the Tapestry-owned fashion brand wants to build on recent gains with shoppers, particularly Gen Z, by giving customers more reasons to keep coming back to its stores.”We understand the consumer today loves experience,” Coach CEO Todd Kahn said. “They want a full experience, particularly the young consumer.”Coach isn’t the only retailer that has tried to create experiences for customers. Ralph Lauren has coffee shops called Ralph’s and a restaurant, The Polo Bar. Luxury furniture and home decor retailer RH has opened restaurants across the country and even a hotel, which it calls RH Guesthouse, in New York City. And Uniqlo opened its first coffee shop in North America earlier this year inside of its clothing store on New York City’s Fifth Avenue.Coach Coffee ShopCourtesy: CoachSanders, who previously worked for Starbucks and Ralph Lauren Hospitality, said coffee shops offer a friendlier price point than Coach merchandise, especially for young teens. On a recent visit to The Coach Coffee Shop in Austin, Texas, he said he saw two teen girls split a Tabby Cake in half and clink the pieces against one another in a cheers while recording a TikTok video.Some of those teens don’t have the budget now for a handbag, but may become future shoppers, Sanders said. And even older customers have limits on how many fashion purchases they can make in a month or year, he said.”You can afford a coffee more often,” he said. “So I think that’s what we’re excited about is our customers being able to visit us more often.”Building on Gen Z growthCoach is trying to seize upon brand momentum that’s fueled sales growth, brought in new customers and sparked stock gains. The company has driven up the average paid by shoppers for its p …
