Ulta Looks to Rekindle the Magic With Cowboys, Squishmallows and Prada

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS — At 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, much of San Antonio was still asleep. But Ulta Beauty World was just saddling up.

A DJ blasted Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter tunes into the lobby of the Henry B. González Convention Center, which housed close to 200 branded booths inside the retailer’s first ever consumer-focused convention. The first of 1,500 attendees were greeted by the event’s official host, Ulta Beauty associate-turned-mega-beauty influencer Mikayla Nogueira. Many wore sparkly cowboy hats and rolled in empty suitcases, which they were told to bring for the haul they were about to experience. When doors opened at 9:00 a.m., some broke into a run.

The Apr. 26 event was one part of what executives Amiee Bayer-Thomas, Ulta Beauty’s new chief retail officer, and Kelly Mahoney, its new CMO, described as a strategy to cultivate more “love” for the Ulta Beauty brand. As a one-day, consumer-facing extension of the company’s annual Field Leadership Conference for store managers and regional executives, Ulta Beauty World featured activations from brands that spanned hair, makeup, brow and skincare services, claw games to win products and photo opportunities. It also came with a country-western twist that complemented the retailer’s recent sponsorship of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour (and its exclusive on her hair line Cécred). Admission cost $160, and came with mountains of free beauty samples.

The event was part of Ulta Beauty’s back-to-basics strategy to re-engage the core US customer base that helped it achieve rapid growth after the pandemic, going from $8.6 billion in net sales in 2021 to $11.2 billion in 2023. After a slower pace in 2024, the retailer is betting that its accessibility and democratised curation will help it retain its number-one position in the US, according to the company, even as it plans its first international expansions to Mexico via beauty company Axo and the Middle East with Alshaya Group.

“We have the mix of everything all in one place — every single category, every price point, low to high,” said Bayer-Thomas, who took on the newly created role of chief retail officer in January.

Bayer-Thomas was one of several additions to the company’s C-suite after former COO and longtime Ulta executive Kecia Steelman succeeded Dave Kimbell as CEO in January. Others include chief marketing officer Kelly Mahoney, chief technology and transformation officer Mike Maresca and chief merchandising and digital officer Lauren Brindley.

This new guard is announcing a slew of changes to reinvigorate the business and excite the core Ulta Beauty customer. In 2024, sales grew by less than 1 percent with a 1.9 percent net sales decline in the fiscal fourth quarter. Ulta Beauty has faced a variety of headwinds, including dampened US consumer sentiment and increased competition from Sephora to Amazon.

“This year is going to be a ‘reset year’ of maybe investing a bit more to improve that brand engagement,” said Korinne Wolfmeyer, an analyst at Piper Sandler who downgraded Ulta Beauty to neutral last year. The Ulta Beauty World debut is part of a “new strategy from this leadership team, to drive stronger customer engagement and better brand relevance for Ulta.”

Reengaging Its Core

True to the event’s name, ticketholders were treated to a world of brands, each of them denizens of Ulta Beauty’s greater assortment. There were booths for mass labels like E.l.f. Beauty and Nyx; not one, but two Squishmallows beauty collaborations; and classic luxury names like Lancôme and Estée Lauder. Plush mascots of beauty products danced around the convention center, while visitors clad in cowboy boots and denim could take photos with large “Welcome to Texas” and Ulta Beauty logo signs.

Just as the retailer reinforced its name recognition, Ulta Beauty World also gave prime billing to its biggest partners: some of the most central booths were those for the Estée Lauder, L’Oréal Group and Coty-owned brands. Luxury labels included names like Prada, Valentino, Chloé, Marc Jacobs and YSL Beauty.

That approach is also evident in the retailer’s brand lineup, where the “number one” priority “would be our established brands – MACs, Cliniques,” said Bayer-Thomas, who added that brands in the “prestige” category drive 70 percent of Ulta Beauty’s sales.

While competitor Sephora’s “Sephoria” event has been held mostly in major international hubs like New York and Dubai, Ulta Beauty World’s San Antonio location is part of the retailer’s embrace of its core American audience. Attendance was a broad mix of mostly women from Gen Z to Boomers, many of whom flew in from other parts of the country.

The new leadership team is “ultra-focused on the core business and getting that back on track,” said Wolfmeyer. ”Then you can start seeking out some additional growth levers.” Beyond its upcoming international launches, it is launching a new curated marketplace feature to compete with Amazon.

At a time when Sephora has been making inroads with buzzy it-girl brands and celebrity lines like Rare Beauty, Bayer-Thomas said the development of emerging and exclusive brands is also still a priority.

The brands present — many of whom count Ulta Beauty as their biggest retailer — were enthusiastic participants. One of the most prominent was Beyoncé’s hair-care line Cécred, which featured an oval booth and presentation stage. The star’s mother and brand’s vice chairwoman Tina Knowles made an appearance at the event for managers and local executives earlier the week. The retailer is going all-in on Cécred promotions, and announced on Friday that it is the beauty sponsor for the singer’s Cowboy Carter tour, which kicked off Monday night.

Brands also used the event to talk up their Ulta Beauty exclusives. The Ordinary, whose booth representative said the label is the specialty retailer’s top seller in skincare, teased that an upcoming product would be an Ulta Beauty exclusive for several months.

“People are a little bit exhausted with social media and social media is still a great tool, but nothing can beat being in person with your consumer,” said Naturium founder Susan Yara, who was one of several founders who stayed through the consumer-facing event to meet with customers.

A Reset Year

The event is also indicative of what is to come in Ulta Beauty’s 1,445 stores. Bayer-Thomas said the retailer’s “differentiated experiential model” will feature 70,000 events — such as branded masterclasses across skin, wellness, hair and makeup — in its stores in 2025, up from 50,000 last year. Eighty percent of the retailer’s sales still occur in store, she said.

The goal for these events, and a new platform set up to help market them to members of Ulta Beauty’s 44-million-person loyalty programme, is “really about those shopping with us on an existing level,” but they do also function as a “hook to bring new customers through the doors,” said Mahoney.

Investing in its own infrastructure is top of mind at the retailer. This month, Steelman announced the abrupt halt of its expansion of Target shop-in-shops. While Bayer-Thomas did not specify whether the partnership will end, she said that the pause was meant to “ensure we were delivering on the Ulta Beauty experience in those locations” and recalibrate its approach.

The retailer’s revamp and investment in marketing is a factor in the retailer lowering its margin target, said Wolfmeyer, who noted that a combination of initiatives would be needed to get it back on track.

“It’s not like you just flip a switch on one thing, and it fixes it all,” she said. “It is making sure you get those new brands into the stores, re-engaging the consumer and doing these types of events to get consumers more excited.”

That excitement was apparent in San Antonio, where attendees lugged their hauls out the front doors. A full-to-the-brim Beis gift bag with products like Marc Jacobs’ newly launched Daisy fragrance was added to the top of their pile on the way out. An unboxing post by Nogueira going through the bag earned 2.3 million views on TikTok.

The sheer level of free products certainly didn’t hurt to drum up enthusiasm, but Ulta Beauty’s test now is to translate that into sales at a time when consumer sentiment has taken a hit due to ongoing tariff uncertainty. According to Bayer-Thomas, the combination of both affordability and accessibility will both be needed to keep customers’ interest.

“Some of it is monetary, for sure,” she said. “But also during times like this, people are looking for a place to go where they feel welcome, where they feel seen, where they can get an experience.”

Sign up to The Business of Beauty newsletter, your complimentary, must-read source for the day’s most important beauty and wellness news and analysis.