The French tech company Mirakl is on a mission to overhaul how global retailers approach and manage e-commerce through its unique marketplace software.
In 2025, Mirakl successfully launched digital marketplaces for Ulta Beauty and Best Buy, adding to a roster that includes some of the biggest names in American retail, like Nordstrom, Urban Outfitters and Lowe’s.
“What we’re seeing [in 2025] is a pretty big surge in retailers bringing on marketplaces,” Scott Eckert, CEO of Mirakl Americas, told Glossy. “One of the real advantages is the ability to try new things, whether that’s a whole new category, to see if it will resonate with your customers, or you need to get some hot new product that takes off on TikTok into your assortment as soon as you possibly can.”
Mirakl provides software that enables retailers to launch and manage a marketplace offering on new or existing retail websites in months, not years. For example, Ulta Beauty’s goal for its October launch was to diversify and grow its selection without the logistical burden of onboarding and managing new brands or additional merchandise. It took six months, from concept to launch, and resulted in more than 100 new brands on Ulta’s site.
UB Marketplace launched with 100 brands, including Ogee, HeLight, Manucurist, Apotheke, Atwater, Oars + Alps, Babe Lash, Nuxe and Saturday Skin. “We have seven key categories we’re really leaning into,” Muffy Clince, Ulta Beauty’s director of marketplace category management, told Glossy. “The first one, which has been near and dear to us over the last 18 months, is really wellness.” The others include men’s grooming, beauty tech, general personal care, luxury, artistry hair and color cosmetics brands, and what the company calls “discovery,” which includes global beauty finds like K-beauty.
Unlike a traditional e-commerce model, the retailer doesn’t hold merchandise. Instead, sellers are seamlessly integrated onto a retail site but drop-ship products directly to the buyer through Mirakl’s internal seller portal, called Mirakl Connect.
Ulta Beauty can now launch a new product online in four to six weeks, down from 12-26 weeks previously. “[Speed has been] one of the biggest wins,” said Clince. “Having this flexibility has been phenomenal.”
Eckert joined Mirakl as Americas CEO earlier this year after a five-year tenure at Walmart, where he served as svp of Store No. 8, Walmart’s venture incubator. He worked for Dell computers in the 1990s under founder Michael S. Dell and later led tech companies like Motion Computing and Rethink Robotics.
“[Mirakl is] a really mature, solid platform that can scale to some of the biggest retailers in the world,” said Eckert. “[We are] invested really heavily in new technology, particularly AI, and releasing hundreds of features every year onto the platform that customers have asked for [as well as] new features that are surprise-and-delight opportunities for us.”
Mirakl — which is pronounced like “miracle” — was launched in France in 2012 by Philippe Corrot and Adrien Nussenbaum, the current co-CEOs. Mirakl’s ecosystem currently includes more than 100,000 sellers across around 450 marketplace operators.
“What Mirakl is doing is so interesting because you’ve got this great core technology that enables marketplaces and is the industry leader by far, yet has a ton of growth opportunity in front of it,” Eckert said. “The U.S. is about a third of the business and has the opportunity to be a much bigger part of the Mirakl business worldwide.”
The firm’s roster of retailers currently includes American companies like Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Urban Outfitters, Macy’s and J.Crew, plus grocery juggernaut Kroger, as well as European retailers like luxury department store Galeries Lafayette, specialty beauty leader Douglas, and mass clothing companies like H&M and Happy Size. Mirakl onboarded Lowe’s in 2024 and, in 2025, launched platforms for Ulta Beauty and Best Buy.
According to a report released by Mirakl in October, retailers leveraging its marketplace and drop-ship programs grew by more than 34% in 2024, far ahead of the global e-commerce industry’s estimated growth of 8-9%. Meanwhile, Mirakl set its sales-day record on Black Friday, with a 45% year-over-year increase, selling more than $154 million in merchandise across its platforms, according to the company.
Mirakl is privately held and has taken on $1.1 billion in investment. The lion’s share came from a $555 million series E round in 2021 that valued the company at $3.5 billion. It was led by American private equity firm Silver Lake with support from existing investors like 83North, Elaia Partners, Felix Capital and Permira Advisers.
As Mirakl grows, so do the opportunities for brands selling across one or more Mirakl marketplaces. For example, Mirakl’s internal seller portal, called Mirakl Connect, allows brands to sell across any Mirakl marketplace it is accepted onto. This is juxtaposed with the management of bespoke backend platforms that brands must navigate to sell across various retailers. For example, beauty brands like Sigma Beauty and Prai Beauty use the Connect software to sell through both Macy’s and Ulta’s marketplaces.
With Mirakl, brands pay a set fee to access Mirakl’s Connect platform, often ranging between $479 at the base level and $1,599 per month for brands that sell up to $2.4 million in sales annually across Mirakl platforms. Pricing for retailers is bespoke, Eckert told Glossy.
Looking ahead to 2026, Eckert is most excited about a suite of AI-driven updates and efficiencies now being built that will reduce friction for brands and retailers and enable faster growth for Mirakl.
“Retail has always been a dynamic and nimble world,” he said. “But [with our marketplace model] the inventory risk is not held by the retailer, it is held by the seller, so it creates the opportunity for the retailer to try lots of different products in front of their customers. … Helping retailers be even more nimble in their assortment, in their pricing, in their inventory management — that is a big part of what marketplaces enable them to do.”
