Ulta Beauty Leverages Trends, Marketplace & Omnichannel for Growth
Ulta Beauty is strategically adapting to evolving consumer behavior and leveraging digital innovation to enhance the shopping experience and drive growth. The company closely monitors social media, particularly TikTok, to identify emerging beauty trends and quickly capitalize on them. According to Dave Friedman, Ulta’s Chief Digital Officer, TikTok is currently the primary driver of beauty momentum, and Ulta tracks multiple platforms to identify spikes in product popularity. Category managers swiftly evaluate brands and products gaining traction online.
to accelerate the integration of trending products into its offerings, Ulta launched a curated marketplace earlier in the year.This allows for significantly faster brand onboarding – weeks rather of months – and expands ulta’s product assortment into areas like wellness, grooming, and beauty technology. Friedman describes the marketplace as “the second floor of our digital store,” designed to encourage larger purchases, loyalty point accrual, and exploration of complementary categories. Though, the marketplace operates on an invitation-only basis, with Ulta rigorously evaluating brands based on product quality, content, and fulfillment capabilities.
Ulta recognizes the increasing fragmentation of the digital landscape. Jodi Webster, highlighted the proliferation of “touch points” beyond a single online channel.Friedman anticipates further shifts in consumer behavior with the increasing adoption of large Language Models (LLMs), envisioning scenarios were customers begin their search for solutions outside of Ulta, then turn to the retailer for specific product recommendations or services like shade matching.
A key focus has been unifying digital and physical infrastructure. Ulta has achieved a “buy anywhere, fulfill anywhere” capability by ensuring inventory visibility across all channels - online, in-app, and in-store. This allows customers to find items locally, enables associates to access beauty profiles at the point of sale, and ensures seamless transfer of account and loyalty details. While achieving this unification presented fulfillment and inventory connection challenges, they have been successfully addressed.
The marketplace contributes to an “endless aisle” experience, offering greater product variety and encouraging trial through promotions like gifts with purchase and samples. Ulta is also actively experimenting with AI-powered tools, with a recent virtual beauty advisor proof-of-concept yielding positive results. Customers utilized the advisor not only for beauty-related questions but also for information regarding store details, inventory, return policies, and loyalty programs. Ulta is currently evaluating whether to develop a single, complete AI agent or multiple specialized agents.
Ultimately, Ulta aims to deliver a highly personalized experience. Leveraging data from its 45 million loyalty members – both implicit and explicit signals - the company intends to refine recommendations and deepen personalization across both its app and physical stores. Friedman emphasized Ulta’s commitment to providing customers with the shopping experience they desire,nonetheless of their preferred method.
