This story was first reported on and published by Glossy sibling site Modern Retail.
Beauty retailer Ulta currently has more than 1,400 stores, with plans to open about 200 more in the next three years and expand internationally. But as the company celebrates its 35th anniversary, it’s taking a new approach to store design with a focus on discovery, exploration and experiences.
Modern Retail spoke with Paul Loux, the vp of store design and experience at Ulta, at the Future Stores conference in Los Angeles. In partnership with other departments like marketing and merchandising, Loux has recently helped implement the company’s partnerships around “Wicked,” as well as the launch of Beyoncé’s hair-care brand Cécred in Ulta stores. In May, Ulta started hosting Cécred Sundays at select Ulta Beauty salon locations to promote the partnership.
Ulta recently announced during its first quarter earnings that net sales increase 4.5% compared to the same timeframe last year, to $2.8 billion.
With about 80% of Ulta Beauty’s sales coming from in-store, the store experience is a critical part of the customer journey. But Loux emphasized that the company is looking to make the experience more seamless, with many customers starting their shopping journey online.
“Shopping for beauty and seeking inspiration around it is an always-on experience,” he said. “So that transcends where you’re engaging with it.”
Here are some highlights from the conversation.
This year, Ulta Beauty is celebrating its 35th anniversary. Tell us more about Ulta Beauty’s brand value proposition and how that manifests in retail?
“Our brand proposition is rooted in using the powers of beauty to unleash the possibilities in all of us — so, a very deliberately broad and inclusive statement, because beauty is a very personal thing. And we’ve been, over time, on a very long journey to shift from being functional to experiential. We offer 29,000-plus SKUs and 600 brands in any given store. So we’ve been thoughtful about how we put forward a spectrum of brands and price points for the guests to navigate what can be a treasure trove. But it can be an overwhelming treasure trove at the same time as it’s fun — and we help them find the joy inside of that.
We’re also thinking lots about how that goes beyond the bounds of the store. We’re launching the Ulta Beauty Marketplace this year, and we’re in a fortunate position where we have thousands of brands that want to partner with us. We don’t have space in the store, and we love them, and the guests want to hear from them. So it’s a curated, invitation-only platform to enable the guests to have access to many more brands outside of what we offer in stores.”
What are some in-store strategies that have helped transform Ulta from a product-based store to a more experiential one?
“We put the guest experience at the center of everything we do — especially as we think about designing the experience we want guests to have in our physical and digital stores. … One important thing I want to underscore is that you don’t have to sacrifice functionality for experiential. You can do both. We remain focused on providing an excellent shopping experience, from a functional standpoint — helping guests find what they need in a timely manner at a great price — while elevating the guest experience through events, services and marketing.
We’ve heard from our guests that they want two main things: easier navigation and the ability to discover new products and trends. We really want our guests to be able to navigate our stores based on what products they’re looking for, but also highlight for them key trends and promotional moments so they can find inspiration and joy in discovering new products.”
As you’ve improved the store experience, what hasn’t worked?
“When we were first envisioning this update to the store concept a couple years ago, we created a space in the front of the store called Cue the New. The intention behind it was leaning into: ‘Help me find newness and trends.’ Working with our merchant partners, they were really craving an area to spotlight newness. So we thought it would be smart as the fifth category of the store. We created this destination in the front that was cross-category — newness, no matter if it was skin, makeup, hair, etc. What we found was that it went counter to everything else we had done in pulling the categories together.
In hindsight, you go, ‘Oh, of course that was not the move to make.” And the guests were a bit confused. ‘What is this area? You’ve now very clearly shown me where all my options are in makeup. But then over there, you’re talking about the new launch of makeup.’ We did it in about 60 stores and then undid it going forward. They wanted newness, but they wanted that to launch within the categories. That made a lot more sense.”
What’s your strategy around in-store events, and how has that changed over the years?
“The beauty bar (which offers services like brow tinting and makeup consultations) was really the main stroke that set the stage for our ability to do that. We’ve been trying to tie it to in-store events, and brands that want to partner with us and come in and are able to do that. And it’s really taken off nicely — that space can be totally overtaken. We’ll work with a brand to add collateral and presentations, and they’ll staff it in partnership with our associates.
Our own teams will bring events to birthday parties or gatherings or things like that that are very bespoke to a particular market. In 2024, we actually did over 50,000 events once we set the stage for this. And then my partners on the retail team really put together a wonderful structure around all of that. So far in Q1, we’ve already done over 20,000 events across our stores. Guests have a great appetite for it. It’s adding that human connection and experiential layer inside of the store.”
One big recent experiential strategy was store takeovers to promote “Wicked,” in partnership with Universal Studios. What were the ways you brought that partnership into stores?
“We had a wonderful partnership with them well before the movie was released, actually, which was fun because you got to see what they were willing to with the look and feel of it. We [talked] with them about the branding and translating it to the store. It was a feature we did in every single store at the front of the store, but then we also worked with them to launch full-store takeovers at our Herald Square store in New York and our Santa Monica store, which were very tied to a lot of their launch activities — and we really blow those out. We even did a yellow brick road in front of the store on the sidewalk in New York.
They had some very distinct things that were important to them. There had to be completely equal balance between the pink and the green and the two characters, because it’s about the bond and friendship they had. So we started with that.
And because it was going to be launching at holiday, we actually thought about those colors in relation to the creative we developed for holiday: How would those two things live together to give great presence for ‘Wicked’ but also still have the holiday identity for us inside the store? So there was a lot of color scheme development with that.”
What are some of your best practices working with brand partners on in-store events and experiences?
“It’s immersed in knowing one another, as much as anything. What is the brand about? What are they going after with a consumer base? And that starts everything. That’s what you’re going to communicate about. That’s how you’re going to showcase the configuration of the product with them. They will, of course, have multiple touch points that they’re doing. And we’ve set up a spectrum of [checks]: Where’s the overlap that will make the most sense with us? How does it come to life digitally and complement the in-store presence? It’s really getting into the kitchen and the thought process together to come up with the right recipe. And then having that back and forth of, ‘OK, that’s what you’re about. Here’s how we can manifest that based on what we already do.'”
This year is Ulta’s first international expansion with stores to open in Mexico and the Middle East. How are strategies different there?
“We’re very excited about that and how we bring our our unique brand proposition of “all things beauty, all in one place,” which I think is going to be especially welcome in both of those markets. We fill a space like we do in the U.S. that the guests are craving there.
At the same time, as we’re preserving our brand identity to bring it over there, we’re looking at what needs to be regionally tuned to the markets, as well. We felt like guests have been looking for us and are aware of us in both markets, which is great. We’re working to strike that balance between: ‘Here’s our prototype, our guidebook and how we do things, plus local and/or regional flavor.’ In Mexico, the derm category is particularly important in skin, so that’s something we’re dialing up as we prepare to open in Mexico. In the Middle East, our spectrum of price points fills a really big opportunity, we believe, in the market. But there’s also a craving for prestige and luxury brands in a slightly different way than we’ve done it. We actually have a number of treatments that we’ve done in our top doors that are really making sense to amplify as we prepare to open there.”
