A Closer Look at Ulta's Store Experience

As a female Millennial and longtime beauty product consumer, I know Ulta Beauty. I’ve watched the retailer and the general beauty industry evolve while spending much of my paychecks at Ulta, Sephora and online over the years.Unlike rival Sephora, which is dominated by prestige brands (i.e. L’Oreal’s Urban Decay and Lancome), Ulta's product assortment is comprised of about two-thirds prestige brands and one-third mass/drugstore brands like Revlon Inc.'s flagship, offering all beauty shoppers options regardless of budget. Stores are structured like a house without walls, giving the biggest brands or categories their own “room” (or vendor shop/gondola display). Perhaps the most captivating is Benefit’s Brow Bar, though brands such as Bare Minerals and Lancome also "wow" with extravagant use of illumination and product presentations.Offering more affordable, mass products means Ulta also competes with drugstores like CVS/pharmacy and Walgreens as well as beauty salons. Ulta stores are much larger than Sephora locations and stock a wider assortment of items, including fragrances as well as skin, hair, bath and body products. They also offer beauty services including haircuts, coloring and styling at the in-store “Salon at Ulta Beauty."Across all price points, Ulta focuses on merchandising brands that resonate with Millennials and Gen Zers, primarily emerging indie and digitally native brands with strong social followings. Ulta stores provide a physical testing ground for those online vendors, which in turn drive traffic to stores.On a recent visit to an Ulta in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood, I took a closer look at how the Bolingbrook, IL-based retailer has bolstered its unique merchandising strategy, product assortment and in-store experience to better suit tomorrow’s shopper. And I was surprised at how walking down the aisles resembled scrolling through my Instagram feed.See Related Updates below for the highlights, and view more Ulta images and the full photo audit from my visit here.

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