Ulta Beauty’s Second NYC Flagship: A Virtual Tour

Ulta cut the ribbon on a second NYC flagship this morning. Judging by our phone tour with chief store operations officer Kecia Steelman, this store’s a 3D model of beauty retail’s biggest pandemic shifts.

Aisle spreading: Display tables fronting most Ulta stores are out, registers at the back of the store are in. Steelman said this layout frees up space for more merchandising; it also happens to aid social distancing.

Swatch parties: For a hands-off world, shelves include QR codes redirecting shoppers to Ulta’s GlamLab try-on app. The tech’s already caught on without shelf call-outs...

• Shoppers tested 171+ million shades across 7,400 products via GlamLab last year, Steelman told Retail Brew.
• The service sticks to customers like MAC glitter: 88% of GlamLab shoppers were repeat users.

Looking ahead…“We're continuing to look at building out more locations in 2021,” Steelman told us. “There's this perception that brick and mortar is going away. We don’t ever see that as being the case because it’s a key to our success.”

Zoom out: In another vote for in-person eyeshadow tutorials, Sephora said it plans to open ~60+ new standalone stores this year. Unclear if they’re also adding 2050 tech finishes.