Global fashion house opens first Coach Coffee Shop in China, in Shanghai

Global fashion house Coach has opened the first Coach Coffee Shop in China, at the Shanghai New World Daimaru Department Store, in the latest initiative for the fashion house's venture to crafting interactive experiences for local consumers' evolving appetite and desire for self-expression.

The Coach Coffee Shop sits on downtown Nanjing Road E, and it reimagines the classic, one-stop New York corner store with playful flair, creating an atmosphere that feels imaginative, warm and inviting.

It is offering around two dozen items including classic espresso drinks, sweet treats, and special Shanghai-style beverages.

Joon Silverstein, senior vice president of Global Marketing and Sustainability at Coach, and Head of Coachtopia, told Shanghai Daily earlier this month that the goal of launching the coffee shop was to go beyond the traditional boundaries of fashion and luxury to create surprising experiences in products that help consumers express themselves.

"We aim to transform our stores into spaces that are not just about showing products or shopping experience, but rather community spaces for our consumers to immerse themselves in the brand and to connect with us in new ways," she said.

"The goal with the Coach Coffee Shop is to create unique and localized experiences that go beyond traditional retail and engage with our consumers with immersive, interactive, multi-sensory experience to bring our visions of expressive luxury to life," she added.

Silverstein said that Shanghai has some of the most sophisticated coffee tastes in the world so it was important to offer customers lots of customized, unique, surprising flavors to delight them.

The initial response to the new locations has already been impressive.

"Although we've been open only for a short period of time, over the past few days it's already been packed with consumers who were not only enjoying the unique treats, but also posting selfies on social platforms, and they were enjoying a moment to discover the brand and connect with us at the space," she said.

New formats such as the Coach coffee shop are not typical in fashion stores, and in recent years the brand has also been making efforts to engage emerging talent and designers in China.

Coach has also been spending considerable effort to connect with local consumers, for example, on occasions such as Chinese festive seasons and Chinese holidays, so that it can really understand how their needs, value and aspirations are changing.

This allows the fashion house to be able to adapt its experiences, products, and marketing in ways that are deeply relevant to GenZ consumers in China, Silverstein said.

"Across different areas in the world, we've seen GenZ consumers are increasingly focused on self expression versus brands, inclusivity over exclusivity and emotions and values over status and ownership," she added.

China has always been an incredibly dynamic market, and the brand has witnessed consumer needs, behaviors, and preferences evolving quickly here, and that offers exciting opportunities.

For example, customer awareness of sustainable consumption has changed rapidly over recent years.

That is one reason the fashion house launched the new sub-brand Coachtopia in 2023, which is focused on circular craft and collaborative creativity to echo the values and desire of consumers who want to be part of creating a more sustainable future.

It was conceived to reduce the creation of new materials by crafting with waste and designing products that can be reimagined, remade, and recycled to live multiple lives.

In April this year, the new sub-brand Coachtopia opened its first pop-up store in China in the southern city of Sanya in Hainan Province.

The initial response has been exciting and, based on that response, the company is expanding Coachtopia to more domestic cities across the country as well as further digital platforms.

"We hope that in three to five years, China will be leading Coachtopia around the world by keep bringing more local ideas to the global market," Silverstein said.