Ulta Beauty is Specialty Retailer of the Year

Ulta Beauty has ended a year of transition better equipped to augment its leading position in beauty care through enhanced operational efficiency, merchandising innovation and expansion — both geographically and in terms of the products it sells. Ulta Beauty Unleashed, the strategic plan unveiled last March by chief executive officer Keica Steelman (who just two and a half months prior to that succeeded Dave Kimball in that role) is intended to reenergize a business that, since its debut in 1990, has garnered an estimated 9% of the beauty products market in the U.S. and become the preferred destination for millions of shoppers.

“Ulta Beauty Unleashed is about strengthening what has always set Ulta Beauty apart while evolving to lead what’s next. And it’s working,” Steelman said. “We are driving even stronger engagement with both our guests and brand partners by bolstering our brand positioning, leveraging a more connected go-to-market approach, and intensifying focus on brand building and the guest experience. I’m proud of the progress we’ve made and deeply grateful to our associates, teams and partners whose passion and collaboration bring this strategy to life every day.

“From the beginning, our promise has been to deliver all things beauty, all in one place, for all. As the definition of beauty has become more inclusive, expressive and holistic, we’ve evolved our model to meet those expectations across products, services, expertise and borders as we expand globally. Today, that vision comes to life through a differentiated omnichannel experience, where our stores anchor discovery and connection, amplified by passionate associates, digital tools, content and personalization. It’s all about meeting our guests everywhere they are.”

Evidence of the plan’s effectiveness emerged in the latest quarterly results for the company, which operates some 1,500 stores. For the 12 weeks ended November 1, Ulta posted a 12.9% sales increase to $2.9 billion, with comparable sales, including business at stores open 14 months or more plus e-commerce, rising 6.3%. Gross profit grew 14.9% to $1.2 billion. 

Commenting on the results, Steelman said, “The third quarter highlights include positive comps across all categories and channels, with notable double-digit strength in our e-commerce results; continued market share gains in mass and prestige beauty, including prestige market share gains in both brick-and-mortar and digital channels; loyalty member growth of 4% year over year to a record 46.3 million members; and ongoing improvement across several key performance indicators, including brand engagement, earned media value and app engagement. 

“The investments to support our Ulta Beauty Unleashed strategy are fueling our strong top-line results. At the same time, we know we have opportunities to tighten SG&A [selling, general and administrative] spend and to optimize resources to drive long-term profitable growth, which will be a key area of focus as we turn to fiscal 2026.”

For the skill that the company has exhibited in developing and executing a thoughtful, forward-looking strategic plan focused on the needs of customers, the editors of Mass Market Retailers have named Ulta the publication’s Specialty Retailer of the Year.

Ulta Beauty Unleashed rests on three pillars — driving the growth of its core U.S. operations; scaling new, accretive businesses; and buttressing the company’s foundation to ensure future success. Together with recent investments in infrastructure — including a new enterprise resource planning platform, an updated point-of-sale system and supply chain optimization — those efforts should enable to retailer to raise the bar in beauty and personal care.

The first pillar emphasizes execution, brand building and personalization, with digital technology playing a key role in all those areas. “We have been focused on the fundamentals and elevating our go-to-market approach through operational excellence, marketing leadership and compelling merchandising innovation,” said Steelman. “Our enhanced go-to-market collaboration between our merchandising, marketing and store teams has been a key to improving our performance, and we’re leveraging this new approach to accelerate our brand building, digital and personalization efforts.

“In stores, our team’s dedication to disciplined execution continues to underpin our performance. Stores are elevating and energizing the guest experience with improved in-stocks, well-staffed stores, friendly service and engaging events, all translating into improving guest satisfaction results for the quarter. We drove solid in-store traffic and sales growth with successful execution of key moments and events, including Back to School, 21 Days of Beauty and Fall Haul.”

The experiential nature of the stores provides a competitive edge. During the third quarter, Ulta conducted some 33,000 in-store events, including celebrity appearances, brand launches and product education. That activity, coupled with the other changes Steelman noted, resulted in sales gains across the store. 

Going forward, Ulta will continue to sharpen its mix of 600 brands and 29,000 SKUs. “We are intensely focused on strengthening and modernizing our full low-to-luxury assortment,” Steelman explained. “During the quarter, we launched more than 35 new brands, many of which were exclusive. 

“Strengthening our brand building capability is key to the strategy, and we are focused on leveraging our unique advantages to be the retail partner of choice to launch, build, scale and globalize brands. Our enhanced focus and capabilities are already delivering, with Beyoncé’s hair care line Cécred, only available at Ulta, being a great example of how we can uniquely unlock the power of 46 million loyalty members to launch and scale a new retail to brand successfully in just a few months.”

The improvements in store execution and product mix were supplemented by the launch of Beauty Happens Here, Ulta’s new brand equity marketing campaign. Appearing on social media and broadcast and cable television, Beauty Happens Here emphasizes the retailer’s commitment to empowerment, connection and community. 

“The new campaign aims to inspire and reinforce that Ulta Beauty is where beauty lives and is the destination for all ages and all life stages,” Steelman said. “The campaign is already driving significant awareness gains broadly and with key cohorts and is also driving strong brand health gains.”

Ulta has moved quickly to actualize the second strategic pillar — scaling new businesses. In October, the company launched UB Marketplace, a curated assortment of brands — not third-party sellers — on ulta.com and the retailer’s app. Shoppers now have access to more than 120 new brands and over 3,500 SKUs on the platform, a number that will grow over time, as a complement to the retailer’s core in-store and online offerings.

“Through our Marketplace initiative, we are expanding our assortment for our guests, offering a broader and complementary array of beauty, wellness and lifestyle products from both established and emerging brands on ulta.com with minimal inventory risk to our business,” said Steelman.

In addition, Ulta is revving up expansion of its global brick-and-mortar footprint. The company’s first stores in Mexico and the Middle East debuted last fall. In partnership with Grupo Axo, Ulta launched nine locations in the former country in 2025. Together with the Alshaya Group, the retailer unveiled a store in Kuwait last November, with additional openings set for 2026 in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. 

“I had the privilege of attending the unforgettable grand opening of our first store in Mexico City,” recalled Steelman. “The energy was palpable, and we had many key brand founders on site, including Isamaya founder and Grammy-winning musician Shakira, to celebrate this important milestone for our business. 

“Similar to Mexico, the guest response to our arrival in the Middle East has been very positive, and our grand opening celebration, which featured Orebella founder Bella Hadid, was an exciting way to introduce Ulta Beauty to this new market. We are excited about the uniquely Ulta Beauty experiences and curated assortments that we are bringing to these markets, which feature a mix of local brand favorites, exciting new-to-market brands, and Only at Ulta exclusives.”

In light of the increasing convergence of beauty and health care, Ulta is aggressively extending its reach in the burgeoning wellness category. The expansion enables the retailer to take a more holistic approach to customers’ health and beauty needs. 

“Expanding our wellness offerings is a natural extension of how our guests care for themselves,” said Steelman. “I believe this convergence will only accelerate, creating even greater opportunity to lead with credibility, scale and innovation. We’re excited about what’s ahead.

“We believe Ulta is uniquely positioned to meet guest wellness needs in approachable, welcoming ways that celebrate an individual guest’s journey. We’re continuing to add new brands to our assortment — like Therabody, Bird&Be and Hatch sleep products — as well as our in-store expansion efforts with the introduction of elevated fixtures in about 50 stores.”

During her first year as CEO, Steelman has laid a strong foundation for future growth. In addition to the infrastructure investments noted above, she has realigned the management team. Several c-suite changes were part of the Ulta Beauty Unleased initiative: Amiee Bayer-Thomas, who had been chief store operations officer, assumed the newly created role of chief retail officer; Kelly Mahoney, formerly senior vice president of customer and growth marketing, was named chief marketing officer; and Mike Maresca was named chief technology and transformation officer. From 2020 to 2023, he served as global chief technology officer at Walgreens Boots Alliance. 

The company subsequently appointed Lauren Brindley, whose previous positions included group vice president of beauty and personal care at Walgreens, as chief merchandising and digital officer, and named Christopher DelOrefice chief financial officer. Previously he held the same position at Becton Dickinson & Co.

Steelman’s goal is to ensure the dedication, expertise and passion shared by members of the new management team permeate every level of the company. “In addition to shaping our leadership team, I’ve been keenly focused on reenergizing our culture,” she said. “Over the past several months, I’ve had the opportunity to spend time across our broader organization. From store visits in key regions to walking the floor of our distribution centers and engaging with our international teams and partners, I’ve been truly inspired by the energy, pride and purpose that our teams bring to their work. These visits strengthen my belief that our success is built on people, their commitment to our values, their relentless focus on the customer and their ability to adapt.”