Uniqlo and Coach join Ralph Lauren and Capital One in opening cafes

From monogrammed lattes at Louis Vuitton to handbag-inspired pastries at Coach, retail stores are increasingly doubling as cafes.

It’s all part of companies trying to lean into experiences.

“I’ve long said that the easiest way to get in the experience business is to add a cafe because it engages all five senses and it gets customers to spend more time with you,” said Joe Pine, co-author of the Experience Economy.

As the retail landscape evolves post-pandemic, some of the early pioneers in the branded cafe concept are continuing to expand, and new entrants are entering the space.

Uniqlo brought its first coffee bar to the United States in March. It has nine locations worldwide, with the first opening in Japan in 2021.

Uniqlo’s head of marketing, Nico Cessot, told CNBC that the primary reason for the cafes is to bring in more customers and enhance their shopping experience. 

“The interest behind and the concept behind [it] is to make you feel at home, to be part of the brand, to feel the brand, to also spread the Japanese culture. Because we are a Japanese company,” Cessot said. He added that New York City’s Fifth Avenue store uses coffee beans imported from Japan.

Over the past few years, fashion house LVMH has opened a Dior cafe in Dallas and Louis Vuitton Cafe in New York. It has also remodeled the Tiffany brand’s Blue Box Café. All three locations are collaborations with Michelin-starred chefs.

Prada, which is not a part of LVMH, is also rumored to be opening a New York location in 2026. The luxury retailer opened a cafe in London in 2023 and in Singapore in 2025.

Coach, meanwhile, opened its first cafe in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2024. Since then, it has opened four in the U.S. and over a dozen more internationally.

Marcus Sanders, Coach vice president of global food and beverage, said the company is seeing double to triple digit sales at stores where it added a cafe. 

“Ultimately what I see happening is there’s this really cool nexus of fashion meets hospitality,” Sanders said. “People are excited to be able to experience their favorite brands in a different way.”

The cafe rollout is also an effort by Coach to tap into popularity with Gen Z, Sanders said, which has been the core demographic driving its cultural resurgence. The brand saw a revenue increase of 22% in its fiscal 2026 first quarter.

While more brands are adding cafes to their stores, this trend is not a new phenomenon. Barnes and Noble and Target have both partnered with Starbucks for their in-store cafes since 1993 and 1999, respectively.

Capital One and Ralph Lauren both opened their first cafes in 2014. Capital One told CNBC that it now operates 65 cafes nationally. Ralph Lauren, meanwhile, operates over 40 cafes across the world, including in cities like London, Barcelona, Hong Kong and Singapore. Both companies are continuing to…