Q&A: Boux Avenue chief product officer Zoe Price-Smith on in-house design, innovation and never fearing the competition

First founded in 2011 and owned today by entrepreneur Theo Paphitis, Boux Avenue is a specialist retailer offering a range of lingerie, nightwear, loungewear, and swimwear to shoppers. Designed bespokely in-house in London, Boux Avenue offers lingerie in sizes ranging from a 28A to a 40G and from UK sizes six to 18.

On a mission to “empower” through its product, Boux Avenue has 27 stores across the UK and prides itself on being the go-to shopping destination for customers looking for quality product and a personalised shopping experience. With third-party partners including Next, Marks & Spencer, Asos and most recently Very, Boux Avenue said it sees wholesale as a “key growth strategy” for the business moving forward.

Having previously worked at Dutch lingerie retailer Hunkemöller as well as six years at Boux Avenue to date, chief design and product officer Zoe Price-Smith is continuing her work on ensuring the brand is established as a leader in its field, especially when it comes to design.

She sat down with Retail Week to discuss the brand’s 2025 ‘Amore Forever’ Valentine’s collection, why inclusivity is key as a lingerie specialist, the importance of the customer experience and what’s on the horizon for Boux Avenue moving forward.

How far ahead do you look at trends and how do you stay at the forefront of them?

“You seriously cannot switch off as it’s really about forward thinking. Travelling culture also inspires us massively and there’s been a bit of a Scandinavian vibe coming through now. There might be other cities and locations that we need to visit to inspire us otherwise you just become the same and we don’t want to become the same.

“We’re constantly looking at our competition because we have to, we’ve got to be ahead. I’m never afraid of the competition – if anyone wants to follow our path or inspiration, it’s a compliment. The runway is also key for us in terms of inspiration for colour and shapes.”

What role do your stores play in the Boux Avenue shopping experience?

“Our stores are leading and fantastic, and the expertise that runs through our stores in terms of fitting is fantastic. We are really taking the time to make sure that the experience is lovely. You come into our stores and feel rewarded to go out with something you love.

“It’s quite a small market and if you haven’t got your eyes on what’s going on, you’re obviously going to fall behind. We’re an in-house design team and we are design-led which allows us to be more unique to some of our competitors. Over the last two years, we’ve seen such huge growth in lingerie and nightwear where there’s huge opportunity. At the moment, nightwear is a huge growth area.  

“We had a fantastic Christmas and now we have Valentine’s Day. Swimwear is already flying so there are great opportunities. I think expansion within nightwear is going to be a challenge and there are always challenges in every business. I don’t think you can become complacent in retail, though. I think if you are complacent and are having a great time with it, it can come back to bite you. 

”The challenge is making sure that you are motivated and driving your team because you have a team that need motivating every day. You’re only as good as the people who work on your team. It’s about staying on top of what we need to give our customers and keeping our eyes on everybody because otherwise they could catch us quickly.”

How important is it to win over new customers in 2025 and how do you plan on doing that?

“Everyone in retail talks about new customer recruitment, which we also do at Boux Avenue, but we’re equally invested in retention. In fact, retention is probably one of the best indicators of brand health, so understanding the customer data is key.

“From the product side, we’re constantly looking at design and fit – in fact, you could say we’re obsessed with fit and improving how the product looks and feels on the body. That commitment goes right through to store level where we’re committed to ensuring 100% of our store team members are fully bra-fit trained. We’re also doing many fun new things like our designer collaboration with Dilara Findikogu, which has certainly caused a lot of people to re-evaluate the Boux Avenue brand.

“The social commerce trend is something we’ve been all over for a while, launching on TikTok Shop just over a year ago. For Boux, it’s about meeting the audience where they hang out. Similarly, third-party partners are another great way for us to get eyeballs on the brand.” 

Talk to me about the importance of size inclusivity at Boux Avenue

“It’s quite important because you shouldn’t be ruling any customer out. We go through such a lengthy fit process to make sure that the expertise is there and it does what it says.

“We’ve got beautiful designs that we create in-house and those beautiful embroideries which are our signature handwriting is what our customer is absolutely buying into at the moment.” 

What’s next for the brand in 2025?

“Product innovation is key. We have certain styles that customers love and want season after season, however, we’re always looking to design new, exciting and beautiful fashion collections, while researching and developing new and innovative products that we know our customer are searching for.

Period pants are launching in late March too. They are functional, eco-friendly and in true Boux style, they’re pretty too. Everyone has their version of them but it’s really technical so it does take a long time to get right. Shapewear is also back on the market and in this department, innovation is really important to us so we are trying to develop shapewear that doesn’t feel like you are wearing it.  

“There are a lot of interesting things you can work with at the moment, such as technology, so that is a big opportunity we are working into. We’re launching a mastectomy bra at the end of the year and we’ve worked with a cancer patient on that. We are tapping into really sensitive areas and making sure we can give something to every customer.”