At Coach, retail isn’t just about selling bags – it’s about creating a moment, a memory, and, sometimes, a 12-foot dinosaur made from 400 of those bags. 

For Giovanni Zaccariello, the brand’s senior VP of global visual experience, the mission is clear: Turn every store, pop-up, and runway into a visceral encounter that makes you feel something. Whether it’s sipping a latte at a Coach Coffee Shop or stepping inside a giant quilted Tabby bag, Zaccariello is building retail spaces that look more like immersive art installations than traditional storefronts.

“We’re not here to just stack bags on shelves anymore,” he told Inside Retail’s Amie Larter at Shoptalk in Las Vegas for the video podcast Retail Transformers. “Everybody can shop online. What we’re creating is new ways to connect with the brand.”

That philosophy is behind Coach’s global push toward experiential retail: sensory-driven design, hyper-local insights, and Gen Z-first thinking, all anchored around how to make Coach stand out as the brand for this generation. It’s the foundation of the experiential Coach Play stores, pop-ups that typically last six months, designed to offer a localized, immersive experience. 

Zaccariello, a veteran of global brands including Uniqlo, Marks & Spencer, Topshop, and Esprit, has led demographic research at Coach, dating back to the brand’s adoption of its new positioning, Expressive Luxury, in 2022.

“Before we start designing a Coach Play Store, we travel to that location and spend time with the teams and the store manager to learn why the consumer in that space is different from any other consumer in the area, so that we really put the consumer truly at the heart.” 

That taught him that consumers were craving experiential retail. So, since 2022, the activation and marketing teams have been on a journey of testing, learning and experimentation. 

This is not just consumer-first marketing jargon, he clarifies. “We actually go and meet with them and really understand why they think Coach needs to change, what they expect more of from Coach, and what resonates with them.”

That process included having most of the Coach marketing team, accompanied by researchers, visit customers’ homes to understand what their closets and clothing choices look like. He recalls the experience was “fascinating” because the customers did not necessarily know the visitors were from Coach, and were thus more honest about the brand and its offering. And the Coach team could see what customers were grasping and what they were not.

The results of that research helped shape initiatives like Coach Play, the Coach Coffee Shop, experiential pop-up stores and the brand leaning into gaming in different ways. “What works in one region may differ from what works in another. So we do a lot of customization and localization by country to make sure that we are really speaking to them on a deeper level, versus just about the brand talking to them. 

Having a clear strategy has helped the brand maintain a sharp focus. “We know Tabby’s our brand’s iconic bag, so for the past four years, all of our pop-ups have been around Tabby versus in the past where there would be a new pop-up creative every season. Now we know we’re going after Gen Z. We know she’s reacting to it, so why not just keep doing it. If you think about it, we have billions of Gen Z customers out there. We want to reach so many, so why keep changing?”

Coach’s strategy to capturing the engagement and wallets of Gen Z is to connect with them through an immersive merger of the five senses. 

“For me, that’s what makes that experience different from shopping online. Number one is sight, so most of our experiences are quite arresting; you can’t miss them in a mall, whether it’s their color, their size, or their impact. The second one is touch – the materials and the quality.

“As much as we are an entry-level brand, I think there are a lot of things to touch and play with. One of our latest Tabby pop-ups was a quilted Tabby. You can actually jump inside the bag, which is unheard of. 

“Music and sound have been another big play for us, not only in Coach Play, but now we’ve rolled out a new music strategy in all our stores. And then taste with the rollout of Coach Coffee Shop.”

Some installations may lean on one or two of the senses more than others, but Zaccariello says all five play a key role in the Coach experience. 

With teams across the US, Asia, and Europe, Zaccariello believes merging global and local talent is the secret to ensuring activations resonate with a deeper consumer connection. Local teams have to be empowered to understand their audiences at a regional level. 

“That’s also happened because the strategy my team is working on in New York is the same strategy as the China team. We are all focusing on the same principles. We all want to acquire Gen Z, so we’re all after the same pie.”  

• Watch Gio Zaccariello talk with Amie Larter for the Retail Transformers series and hear him talk about the most effective and unique emotional connection concepts or strategies he’s seen retailers use – and tell the story of an amazing Tabby bag-shaped hot air balloon in Taipei that took more than two years to plan, his favorite activation for Coach. 

“This awesome mix of visionary creative ideas and really smart, strategic thinking makes Gio Zaccariello a real Retail Transformer.” – Amie Larter.