Ulta Beauty is leveraging its 47-million-member loyalty program and significant data infrastructure investments as a foundation for AI-powered personalization and demand forecasting (Retail TouchPoints). CEO Kecia Steelman emphasized that prestige brands including L'Oreal, Estee Lauder, and LVMH exited Ulta's Target partnership alongside the company and returned to Ulta's ecosystem, bringing valuable customer data that enables direct marketing efforts to win those shoppers back (Retail TouchPoints).
Steelman highlighted that years of investment in cleaning up underlying data systems are now paying dividends as the company applies AI to that information (Retail TouchPoints). She noted that without clean data, AI-driven initiatives risk producing hallucinations and poor results. The clean data infrastructure also strengthens Ulta's retail media business, UB Media, by enabling the company to demonstrate return on investment to brand partners (Retail TouchPoints).
Beyond loyalty optimization, Steelman identified wellness as a $400 billion category opportunity, positioning it as a potential next billion-dollar business for Ulta (Retail TouchPoints). The company reported Q2 fiscal 2026 net sales of $3 billion, up 8.9% year over year, with comparable sales rising 3.8%, and raised its full-year net sales growth outlook to between 6.7% and 7.2% (Retail TouchPoints).