How COS is Winning Over Gen Z Shoppers | Lauren Price at CommerceNext 2025

Hello, everyone.

Welcome back.

This is Omnitalk Retail live from Commerce next 2025.

I'm Anne Mazinga.

And I'm Chris Walton.

And we are here today with a very special guest.

But before we dive into that, we want to give a big thank you to the team at Gray Orange, the G Store team, for helping us bring you all of our coverage here from Commerce next 2025.

The G store platform from Gray Orange helps retailers like H and M achieve real time inventory visibility, providing H and M with the same inventory data as they have in store as they have online Commerce Next attendees.

If you live in New York, you're visiting the area, you can go visit the G Store and see it live at H and M's flagship in SoHo at 591 Broadway.

Or you can check out our video on our OmniTok YouTube page where you can see our very own tour of that store from last year.

Yeah, and you were in there last year.

It was pretty cool.

It was.

It was amazing.

Well, we want to introduce somebody from the H and M group.

We have Lauren Price, the SVP of E commerce and digital marketing at Cost.

Lauren, welcome.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Absolutely.

How's the show been going so far?

It's good.

I mean, we just kind of kicked off so, you know, kind of keeping my stamina for the next few days.

But I did a panel this morning on Gen Z kind of marketing to Gen Z.

So that was really fun.

We had Reformation and Walmart and kind of shared a lot of different perspectives.

Yes.

Sarah Henry, who we just had on not too long ago, was on that panel as well.

Well, let's start by giving our audience just a sense of you, your background and then a little bit about costs in your role there too.

I have been in E commerce for almost 20 years now.

Oh my gosh.

Wow.

Yep, yep.

Kind of a lifer.

Where did you start?

Where was like the first E commerce breakthrough?

I started at an E commerce agency that is called Create the Group.

It's longer, but they are.

Those who know will know.

There's a lot of just amazing talent that kind of started in the early days there when we were building websites for brands for the first time that had never had an E commerce site before.

So you really kind of saw it from the ground up.

Right, right.

I bet.

Yeah.

And then I've kind of been in the technology space.

I was at Demandware, then was at L2, kind of consulting with amazing retail brands.

That led me to J.

Crew, which was one of my clients that I got to know at L2, and that's kind of when I made the jump to the brand side.

And then here I am at Koss, which was one of my favorite brands.

So I'm really excited to now get to be kind of part of that team.

And I know Kaas well, but maybe just tell our.

I mentioned it's part of the H and M group, but tell our audience just about the cost.

Totally, totally.

I mean, it's.

You know, we're not necessarily a household name in the US yet, but we're working on that.

I personally am.

So we are founded in London in 2007, and we have now 239 stores globally.

So the footprint is really big.

We're in 48 markets worldwide.

But again, you know, the US is still one of our kind of big growth markets.

So we have apparel and accessories for men and women and stores and E comms.

So, you know, watch this space.

I think we're having an amazing year so far, and we will be a household name soon.

Yes, absolutely.

All right, so Ann alluded to it before you, and you mentioned it too.

You're on stage.

What were some of the key things you all talked about today this morning?

Yeah, I mean, with Gen Z, I think there was a lot of talk about authenticity and just how good they are, kind of sniffing that out if you aren't kind of engaging with them in an authentic way.

I mean, the kind of anecdote I shared was about how we kind of had to almost like push ourselves away from just this more sort of formal campaign, kind of brand campaign approach to really kind of having the conversation that we found our Gen Z customer wants to have.

We have this T shirt that's called the Clean Cut tee, and it was our top acquisition style, really, for the last year.

And what made it jump up and really kind of become this big hit for us, actually, was this creator on TikTok, and she did this whole deep dive comparing our tee to a Uniqlo tee.

Our tee was quite a bit more expensive, but she sort of broke down the construction and the stitching and the fabric and why this was such great quality and really kind of a good.

A good buy.

And.

And so that really took off and kind of resonated with this younger audience.

And then other creators were like, well, let me get the tea.

Let me share my take on it.

And there was just this great momentum that came from that.

So it was kind of a good cue to us that, like, okay, we actually need to kind of participate in that Conversation and talk about our quality and our attributes.

And actually this Gen Z customer wants to have this really sort of honest conversation about why our product is special and, you know, why it costs what it costs.

So that was kind of a good, a good push for our team.

Yeah, we heard at Shop Talk Europe not too long ago about the concept of spaving where you spend more now so that you can save more money later.

Yes, but, but I mean, I think it gets to what you're talking about with, you know, making a slightly larger investment up front and then also having the confidence from the creators that you follow and trust to know that it is worth that, that additional saving.

Okay, I'm filing that one away.

So, Lauren, I want to make sure we key in on something too.

You said it was your top acquisition product.

Does that mean it's the top product that brings in new customers to cause.

Is that what you mean when you say that?

Exactly.

So when a new customer makes a first purchase with us, this is the style that they're most likely to buy and it's kind of perfect.

Interesting.

I've never heard anyone say that before.

We talk a lot about that because, you know, it's you obviously you want them to then kind of move into other categories and sort of buy everything you put.

But what's that first one?

That's the hook that kind of gets them in the door.

And I mean, oftentimes it is a kind of classic product, a lower priced product if you think about taking a chance on a new brand.

But I think what's so great about this is it also really represents who we are as a brand.

It's just great quality, great construction, a very sort of versatile piece, kind of a wardrobe builder piece.

So if that's what kind of structure, that's what made you want to shop with us, then, you know, we have a pant that kind of fits the same bill.

We have, you know, a cashmere sweater that will be your perfect kind of staple.

So it's, you know, if I could pick a product to kind of be the entry point, this one really makes a lot of sense for us.

Is there like a second product that people typically buy too?

Like, I'm curious, like, is that the entry point and then people, you know, typically go one of two places next or how does it work?

I mean, I guess depending a little bit on the season.

It was funny.

Shanna Hausman, who hosted the picture panel, I did not plant the seed at all.

But she said, well, if you like the tea they have this amazing tank.

It's this rib tank.

It's a dust tank.

So I was like, thank you, Shauna.

But I mean, I think for us, I mean, we always say fall is our season and our cashmere is above and beyond.

And I say that as someone who has been a big cashmere consumer for a while.

It's truly the best texture, quality, construction.

So that is what we're really focused on, kind of moving our customers to.

Moving them to.

Nice.

Love me some cashmere.

Yeah, we just had this KAAS product and looked at some other KAS products and tried them for our platform as well.

And the thing that I think best describes KAS is quiet luxury for the masses.

Like it allows you to have these really high quality products but not spending overspending.

You still get the look and the design, but not having to spend that much.

Well, I'm curious now, you know you've been in the industry, in the E commerce industry for a while.

Lauren, as you're at a show like Commerce Next, outside of participating in the panels and sharing your expertise, what kind of technology right now or topics here at the show are of great importance to you when you're kind of planning out your time here?

Yeah, I mean, on one hand, kind of particular to us, but we just launched a full kind of tech stack overhaul, re platformed the site and new CRM and kind of every.

And you're still standing.

I know.

Oh my God.

This was a couple weeks ago.

More power to you.

Oh my God.

I've just kind of come up for air.

But you know, I started a year and a half ago and this kind of transformation project was sort of in the early stages then.

So in a sense I kind of had to wait and be a little hands off on what I could do to the site itself.

Really focus on the marketing side of my role.

But now that we have this site live, we get to kind of layer on all the bells and whistles.

And so it's actually really good timing for me to just get kind of a good sense of what's going to really help me with my conversion rate.

My AOV being kind of of really specific about the kind of areas that we think have the most opportunity after seeing that first month kind of live on our new tech stack.

So I'm kind of excited to get to this more sort of innovation step now that we've reset the foundation.

Is there anything you're excited to experiment with or that you think, especially as you're trying to bring in these Gen Z consumers, you're working more with creators.

Anything that you're like, I want to know more about that or I'd like to check it out.

We sort of a joke internally, but everything is an experiment.

If we position it that way, then we can kind of like gives you.

A lot of license.

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

So it's all.

It's all an experiment.

But I mean, I think to this point about creators and the Gen Z conversation, there's so much more room for us to go there.

And it's obviously not.

It's not a flash in the pan.

I mean, this is literally just how you market now and where a big portion of our kind of attention and our budget has shifted.

And so, you know, we just really want to kind of accelerate this even more quickly and really build out more of this kind of sense of community.

And through our creators, it's hard to kind of say who your brand is directly yourself in a way that feels authentic.

And so the more that we're kind of taking on the community around us to kind of of help introduce us to the market here, I think it helps us feel even more relevant and not just kind of like this European brand that I've seen when I was in Europe, but really kind of localize our approach a little bit more.

Yeah, interesting.

Creators are going to be a great way for us to do that.

Yeah, absolutely.

So to that point, you know, you mentioned fall being the key season, so you're gearing up for that.

And E commerce, you're always a little bit more close.

More close to the consumer than you say I would be in the stores.

Although, you know, you're always thinking about the season seasons at the same time.

And you talked about foundations and experiments.

But if you look at your job for the next six months, what are you really hoping to drive or accomplish?

I mean, it's.

I think we've felt really good about where the last couple months of the business has been.

And there's a little bit of this sense of just with the macro, like, is the other shoe gonna drop?

You know, can we kind of keep this momentum going?

I mean, this isn't the most exciting answer, but kind of honest in a way of just like really shoring up and kind of securing our execution and our foundation.

We, as much as I think the decisions I make are important from a marketing e.

Comm perspective.

I mean, we're a fashion brand and we live and die on how good the collection is.

So, you know, we really believe in our fall collection, and it's going to be really strong.

So it's just my job to kind of make sure that I'm bringing that to market as effectively as I can and doing that in a way that's really nimble and really kind of cautiously optimistic as we're trying to kind of get a sense of where the consumer is going to be, you know, where their head's going to be in the next couple months.

Yeah.

Retail is detail, right.

At the end of the day, and particularly in E commerce, so the foundational work kind of never goes away.

Right.

I mean, you will fight tooth and nail for that half a percentage point and convert all day long.

And, I mean, I think that's one of the best things about my team is they're just so scrappy and, you know, if we have a couple days that are soft, I mean, they come together with a plethora of ideas and they sort of never cease to amaze me with a little.

That's impressive.

Yeah, chip away, chip away.

And you kind of get that.

That half a percent back.

Right.

Wow, that's so impressive.

Well, thank you, Lauren.

Yes, thank you.

It was great meeting you.

Yeah, thanks for stopping by.

All right, well, thanks to Loren Price of COS for sitting down with us and here at Commerce Next.

And thanks to Gray Orange for sponsoring and partnering with us on all of our content from the show.

Again, you can check out their store live at H and M in SoHo at 591 Broadway.

That's great.

That's the address, if I remember correctly.

And also you can check out our video too, if you want to see it firsthand from our point of view.

But again, thank you to Lauren Price of Cause, and for all of you out there, we'll be back soon.

And Ann, be careful out there.