Ulta Beauty, Inc. (Ulta Beauty) operates as a specialty beauty retailer in the United States.
The company is the premier beauty destination for cosmetics, fragrance, skin care products, hair care products, and salon services. Key aspects of the company’s business include:
One-of-a-kind Assortment: The company offers guests a differentiated assortment of approximately 29,000 products from approximately 600 established and emerging beauty brands across a variety of categories and price points. T...
Ulta Beauty, Inc. (Ulta Beauty) operates as a specialty beauty retailer in the United States.
The company is the premier beauty destination for cosmetics, fragrance, skin care products, hair care products, and salon services. Key aspects of the company’s business include:
One-of-a-kind Assortment: The company offers guests a differentiated assortment of approximately 29,000 products from approximately 600 established and emerging beauty brands across a variety of categories and price points. The company offers a wide selection of beauty and wellness categories, from mass to prestige price points, across cosmetics, fragrance, haircare, skincare, bath and body products, professional hair products, and salon styling tools.
Store Footprint: The company operates various stores predominantly located in convenient, high-traffic locations. With a bright and open store environment, the company makes it easy for guests to discover new products and services. Its store design, fixtures, and open layout provide the flexibility to respond to consumer trends and changes in its merchandising strategy. The company also offers beauty services in nearly every store, including a full-service hair salon and a Benefit Brow Bar. In addition to its free-standing locations, through its partnership with Target Corporation, the company has Ulta Beauty at Target shop-in-shops, which provide guests with a highly curated, prestige beauty assortment in a unique and elevated presentation in 1,000 square feet of dedicated space within certain Target locations.
Leading Digital Experiences: Through its website, Ulta.com, and its mobile applications, the company offers guests convenient, immersive, and personalized digital experiences. Its digital channels enable always-on shopping and discovery, and its diverse fulfillment options, including buy online pick-up in store, buy online pick-up curbside, ship from store, ship from distribution center, and same-day delivery, provide guests with value and convenience. In addition to e-commerce platforms, the company offers guests a variety of unique digital experiences, including virtual try-on and skin analysis tools, which leverage augmented reality capabilities and artificial intelligence tools to provide guests with personalized experiences.
Best-in-Class Loyalty Program: The company’s best-in-class loyalty program, Ulta Beauty Rewards, enables members to earn points for every dollar spent on products and beauty services at Ulta Beauty, through purchases on its private label and co-branded credit cards, and purchases at Ulta Beauty at Target. In addition to unique membership benefits, members can redeem points for discounts on any product or service at Ulta Beauty. With more than 95% of total sales coming from members, the company is uniquely positioned with a deep understanding of its customers and their preferences, enabling it to personalize experiences, recommendations, and promotions through its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform and support its brand partners’ growth.
Great Guest Experiences: The company cultivates human connection with warm and welcoming guest experiences across all of its channels. Its knowledgeable and approachable store associates its differentiated service offerings, and its efforts to create relevant, compelling digital content are competitive advantages that enable it to build strong engagement with guests.
The company developed a unique specialty retail concept that offers a broad range of brands and price points, select beauty services, and a convenient and welcoming shopping environment. The company defines its target consumer as a beauty enthusiast, a consumer who is passionate about the beauty category, uses beauty for self-expression, experimentation, and self-investment, and has high expectations for the shopping experience. The company estimates there are approximately 140 million beauty enthusiasts in the U.S.
Strategy
The company targets beauty enthusiasts across multiple demographics and shopping behaviors. The company’s proprietary consumer research confirms engagement with the beauty category remains strong.
Reflecting the company’s understanding about how the consumer and beauty category are evolving, in 2024 the company refreshed its strategic framework. Through a focus on four foundational areas, its strategies are designed to position Ulta Beauty as the destination for beauty enthusiasts for a lifetime, drive market share leadership in beauty and wellness, and deliver long-term profitable growth.
The company’s strategic priorities include curating the best of all things beauty and wellness for all beauty enthusiasts; fostering authentic, empowering human connections that inspire, delight and engage guests at every touchpoint; building lifelong loyalty and brand love through member growth and personalization; and engaging its guests wherever they want to shop by expanding the company’s reach through seamless and immersive omnichannel experiences.
Market
The company operates within the large and growing U.S. beauty products and salon services industry. The company has full-service hair salons in substantially every store and operates brow bars in most of its stores, as well as makeup and ear-piercing services through the company’s salons. In addition, it offers skin services in approximately 150 locations.
Retail Channels
The company is committed to meeting guests where and how they want to shop and strive to offer guests a compelling, personalized shopping experience through the company’s stores, digital platforms, and partnerships.
Stores
The company’s member data suggests its guests prefer to transact in physical stores, where they can discover and interact with products and other beauty enthusiasts. In the company’s fiscal year ended February 1, 2025 (fiscal 2024), 75% of the company’s loyalty members transacted with the company solely in one of its stores. The company’s retail stores are predominantly located in convenient, high-traffic locations, such as power strip centers. The company’s typical store is approximately 10,000 square feet, including approximately 950 square feet dedicated to the company’s full-service salon. The company also have a smaller footprint store prototype ranging between approximately 5,000 and 7,500 square feet which provides increased flexibility to enter smaller markets or shopping centers.
The company offers a full range of beauty services in its stores, focusing on hair, makeup, brow, and skin services. The vast majority of its stores include an open and modern salon area, with most of its stores offering brow services on the salon floor. In addition, stores offering skin services include a skin treatment room or dedicated skin treatment area on the sales floor. The salon features a concierge desk, approximately five to ten stations, and a shampoo and hair color processing area. The company employs highly skilled, licensed professional stylists and estheticians who offer services, as well as educational experiences, including consultations, styling lessons, makeup applications, skincare services, and at-home care recommendations.
As part of its ongoing efforts to enhance and evolve its in-store experience to engage its guests, the company also has a layout in select stores that brings together like categories with intuitive adjacencies to magnify its differentiated assortment. This additional layout features elevated gondolas to showcase key, iconic, and service brands, as well as Beauty Bars that offer its brow and makeup services, support in-store events, and highlight beauty-in-action. In addition, select store layouts may vary due to square footage or location.
Digital Platform
In addition to store expansion, the company continues to expand its digital capabilities as more of its guests choose to engage with the company across physical and digital platforms. The company’s omnichannel guests are extremely valuable, historically spending nearly three times as much as retail-only guests.
The company’s e-commerce platform has two key roles: generating direct channel sales and profits by engaging its guests in an interactive, enjoyable way that reinforces the Ulta Beauty brand, and driving traffic to its stores, website, and native applications. As part of its digital store transformation, the company recently completed a large-scale upgrade of its digital and e-commerce infrastructure to enable it to deliver immersive commerce experiences and position its e-commerce business for growth and scalability. It continues to develop and add new website and mobile features and functionality, marketing programs, new products and brands, and omnichannel integration points. In 2024, the company launched Ulta Beauty Community, an online destination where beauty enthusiasts can connect and engage with one another over their shared joy for all things beauty. The company continues to grow its digital business by providing its guests with a unique, rich online experience, with personalized recommendations, expanded assortments, engaging experiences, including virtual try-on and analysis capabilities, and social media content.
The company continues to improve its order fulfillment capabilities with increased speed of delivery through existing distribution centers, fast fulfillment centers (e-commerce only), market fulfillment centers, and select retail stores, through more efficient processes designed for e-commerce order fulfillment. In addition to ship-to-home order fulfillment, the company offers guests Buy Online, Pick-up in Store, Curbside Pickup, and Store 2 Door, which provides the ability for customers to order in-store and have products delivered to their homes. Furthermore, the company offers same-day delivery for e-commerce orders in virtually all markets.
Partnerships
To expand loyalty member engagement and introduce new guests to Ulta Beauty, the company has a partnership with Target Corporation to create Ulta Beauty at Target, a shop-in-shop concept that offers a curated assortment of more than 60 established and emerging prestige brands across a variety of categories. Co-designed by Ulta Beauty and Target, the Ulta Beauty at Target shop is intended to reflect the Ulta Beauty experience with a unique and elevated presentation in 1,000 square feet of dedicated space, separate but adjacent to Target’s core beauty department. The shop is staffed by Target team members who are trained by Ulta Beauty to provide recommendations and answer product questions. Members in the company’s loyalty program, Ulta Beauty Rewards, can earn points for purchases made in the Ulta Beauty at Target shop. Loyalty points can only be redeemed in Ulta Beauty stores, on Ulta.com, or through its mobile applications. As of February 1, 2025, Ulta Beauty at Target was available in over 600 Target locations and on target.com.
The company is committed to growing its business outside of the U.S. through international expansion in Mexico and the Middle East. In Mexico, it has a joint venture partnership with Grupo Axo, an experienced operator of global brands, to launch and operate Ulta Beauty in Mexico beginning in 2025. In the Middle East, the company entered into a franchise partnership with Alshaya Group, a leading international franchise operator, whereby Alshaya will license the Ulta Beauty brand name and operating model in the Middle East.
Merchandising
The company offers one of the most extensive product and brand selections in its industry, including a broad assortment of branded and private label beauty and wellness products in cosmetics, fragrance, haircare, skincare, bath and body products, and salon styling tools. Across its stores, Ulta.com, and its mobile applications, the company offers approximately 29,000 products from approximately 600 well-established and emerging beauty and wellness brands across all categories and price points, including Ulta Beauty’s own private label, Ulta Beauty Collection. Its merchandising team continually monitors beauty and wellness trends, sales trends, and new product launches to keep Ulta Beauty’s product assortment fresh and relevant and to ensure that its assortment reflects the diversity of its guests.
Ulta Beauty Collection is a strategically important opportunity for growth and profit contribution. Its objective is to provide quality, trend-right private label products to continue to strengthen its guests’ perception of Ulta Beauty and serve as an important pillar of the Conscious Beauty at Ulta Beauty program. The company manages the full development cycle of these products from concept through production to deliver differentiated packaging and formulas that enhance its brand image. Ulta Beauty Collection has been certified in the Clean Ingredients and Cruelty Free pillars within the Conscious Beauty at Ulta Beauty program. The company also offers products such as Tarte Double Duty Beauty cosmetics and IT Brushes for Ulta that are permanently exclusive to Ulta Beauty. Similarly, it offers a number of brands and products that are exclusive for a limited period of time or are offered in advance of its competitors, such as Morphe, Peach & Lily, and R.E.M Beauty.
Categories
The company offers a balanced portfolio across six primary categories: cosmetics; skincare; haircare; fragrance; services; and other, which includes other revenue sources, such as the private label and co-branded credit card programs, royalties derived from the partnership with Target Corporation, and deferred revenue related to the loyalty program and gift card breakage.
Brand Partnerships
The company has strong, active relationships with its brand partners. The company’s top ten brand partners, such as L’Oreal and Estee Lauder Companies, among others, represented 54% of its total net sales in fiscal 2024.
All brand partners and respective subcontractors and their facilities are subject to the applicable Ulta Vendor Standards, which set forth the ethical, legal, social, and workplace standards to meet in order to do business with Ulta Beauty.
Marketing and Advertising
The company employs a multi-faceted marketing strategy to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to the company’s stores, website, and mobile applications, acquire new loyalty program members, improve guest retention, increase frequency of shopping, and increase spend per member. The company communicates with its guests and prospective guests through multiple vehicles, including print advertising, digital and social media, television and radio. These vehicles highlight the breadth of the company’s selection of prestige, mass and salon beauty products, new products and services, and special offers, as well as build the company’s emotional connection with guests. The company’s comprehensive public relations strategy enhances Ulta Beauty’s reputation as a beauty destination, increases brand awareness, and drives awareness of new products, in-store events, and new store openings.
The Ulta Beauty Rewards loyalty program is an important tool to increase retention of existing guests and to enhance their loyalty to the Ulta Beauty brand. The company’s CRM platform enables sophisticated analysis of the customer data in the company’s loyalty member database, as well as greater personalization of the company’s marketing campaigns, digital experiences, and day-to-day communications. The company’s data demonstrates that loyalty members spend more per visit as compared to non-members. Ulta Beauty Rewards enables customers to earn points based on their purchases at Ulta Beauty stores, through the company’s digital platforms, and at Ulta Beauty at Target. Points earned are valid for at least one year and may be redeemed on any product the company sells or services it provides in Ulta Beauty stores or through the company’s digital platforms. To enhance the company’s loyalty program, the company offers co-branded and private label credit cards. The credit cards drive higher wallet share and greater loyalty from the company’s rewards members, provide increased consumer insights, and offer attractive economics.
The company is directing a growing percentage of its marketing expense towards digital, social media, and streaming advertising. In social media channels, influencers and affiliates play an important role in beauty, and the company engages talent from its UB Collective, its affiliate program, and Ulta Beauties, its associate ambassador program, to support its marketing efforts. Its digital marketing strategy includes search engine optimization, paid search, mobile advertising, social media, display advertising, and other digital marketing channels. Digital marketing, coupled with its national TV and radio advertising, has helped the company increases brand awareness and consideration among those not familiar with Ulta Beauty, which has resulted in new guests.
Retail Media Network
The company has a deep understanding of its Ulta Beauty Rewards loyalty members and their preferences. This unique understanding combined with the company’s ongoing investment in data analytics and CRM capabilities enables the company to create personalized experiences and value for the company’s guests and has unlocked new ways for the company to support its brand partners and drive additional vendor income. In 2022, the company launched its retail media network, UB Media, to transform the way the company’s brand partners can connect with beauty enthusiasts. UB Media offers brands a suite of media and advertising capabilities that aim to personalize guest engagement and drive the acquisition of new guests.
Intellectual Property
The company has registered trademarks in the United States and other countries. The majority of its trademark registrations contain the ULTA mark, including Ulta Beauty and two related designs, Ulta.com and Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance (and design). The company maintains its marks and monitors filing deadlines for renewal and continued validity. All marks that are deemed material to its business have been applied for or registered in the United States and select foreign countries, including Canada, Mexico, and other countries in Latin America, Europe, and Asia.
The company’s trademarks, especially those related to the Ulta Beauty brand, ‘All Things Beauty. All In One Place.’, ‘The Possibilities are Beautiful’, ‘21 Days of Beauty’, and ‘Conscious Beauty at Ulta Beauty’ have significant value and are important to building brand recognition.
Seasonality
The company’s business is subject to seasonal fluctuation. Significant portions of the company’s net sales and profits are realized during the fourth quarter of the fiscal year (year ended February 2025) due to the holiday selling season. To a lesser extent, the company’s business is also affected by Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day.
History
The company was founded in 1990. It was incorporated in 1990. The company was formerly known as ULTA Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance, Inc. and changed its name to Ulta Beauty, Inc. in 2017.
