10.20.21
Ulta Beauty is making a bigger bet on skin care. Ulta Beauty CEO Dave Kimbell unveiled the retailer's expansion plans during an investor event yesterday. It calls for 50 net new stores per year; testing small-format retail locations; launching the “digital store of the future;” setting up its own editorial operations, and launching a new business called UB Media, a retail media network.
“As we look forward, we must acknowledge that we are operating in a time of unprecedented change,” said Kimbell. He called 2020 an “incredibly disruptive year, globally” and noted that the pandemic has created “permanent shifts in behavior.”
Kimbell said beauty retailing is evolving, and now includes self care and wellness. Ulta will cut unproductive stock keeping units, and move around the format for new and renovated stores to push the skin care assortment to the front.
Plans call for operating 1,500 to 1,700 in the US. To get there, Ulta will add 50 new stores a year. Prior to the pandemic, Ulta had plans to enter Canada.
To meet continued strong demand for online shopping, Ulta will expand services, experimenting with same-day delivery in some markets and implement Beauty to Go, a two-hour buy online, pick up in store option, executives said.
By the end of this year, Ulta expects to have 100 shops-in-shop in Target, too. Digitally speaking, Ulta is reworking its website and app with more personalization and better navigation and purchasing tools. At the same time, the company is expanding its relationship with innovative indie beauty brands operated by people of color.
To manage its growing presence on- and offline, Ulta will invest $160 million-180 million during the next three years to upgrade its resource planning platform.
“As we look forward, we must acknowledge that we are operating in a time of unprecedented change,” said Kimbell. He called 2020 an “incredibly disruptive year, globally” and noted that the pandemic has created “permanent shifts in behavior.”
Kimbell said beauty retailing is evolving, and now includes self care and wellness. Ulta will cut unproductive stock keeping units, and move around the format for new and renovated stores to push the skin care assortment to the front.
Plans call for operating 1,500 to 1,700 in the US. To get there, Ulta will add 50 new stores a year. Prior to the pandemic, Ulta had plans to enter Canada.
To meet continued strong demand for online shopping, Ulta will expand services, experimenting with same-day delivery in some markets and implement Beauty to Go, a two-hour buy online, pick up in store option, executives said.
By the end of this year, Ulta expects to have 100 shops-in-shop in Target, too. Digitally speaking, Ulta is reworking its website and app with more personalization and better navigation and purchasing tools. At the same time, the company is expanding its relationship with innovative indie beauty brands operated by people of color.
To manage its growing presence on- and offline, Ulta will invest $160 million-180 million during the next three years to upgrade its resource planning platform.