Lauren
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on businesses spanning a variety of industries. It has been particularly challenging for beauty and makeup stores, like Ulta Beauty, which relies on customers being able to come into their stores to view products and use testers in order to sell their products.
Like other beauty salons, Ulta did struggle as COVID forced them to temporarily shut down stores and limit the number of people who were able to enter stores or use their hairstyling services.
However, unlike many retailers that were forced to close their doors or shut down several stores during the pandemic, Ulta has been able to push through this crisis with all of its 1,000+ stores reopened and ready for business.
Why was Ulta Beauty, a business that thrives on customers visiting their traditional brick and mortar stores, able to survive while other businesses were not?
It all lies in these strategic pivots Ulta made throughout 2020:
Offering alternative shopping options
When government mandates prevented Ulta from opening its doors to the public, they adapted quickly. Ulta Beauty, which had never provided this service before, began offering curbside pickup at over 700 of their stores, promising their guests a convenient and safe way to obtain their beauty products.
Even as stores were allowed to reopen, Ulta has continued to offer customers the option to use curbside pickup as a safe alternative to in-person shopping, which has allowed those who do not feel safe entering the store an easy way to receive the beauty products they need.
In addition to curbside pickup, Ulta also allowed customers to buy online and pick up in the store, reducing the time that customers needed to spend inside their stores, and they continued to allow shoppers to buy products online or through the Ulta Beauty app.
Providing multiple safe options for shoppers to use to get their desired products helped Ulta maintain a steady stream of customers throughout 2020.
Providing a virtual product try-on experience
In order to maximize guest safety during the pandemic, Ulta Beauty has not been able to provide in-store testers for their guests to use to try-on products. When testers are unavailable, it can be difficult for potential customers to want to buy new products. A lack of testing options also deters many online shoppers from buying beauty products online from any retailers.
Ulta Beauty addressed this concern with GLAMlab®, an online interactive try-on experience that allows shoppers to test and match different shades. Shoppers can use GLAMlab® to see how different products will look on their skin, which provides the push they need to try new products without stepping foot in a store or physically trying these products out first.
With this tool, their shoppers are able to feel more comfortable buying products online or in-stores without being able to test them first.
Supporting healthcare professionals
There is no denying that healthcare workers are heroes, having worked tirelessly on the frontlines saving lives and helping patients fight COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic. Ulta Beauty made the choice to honor these healthcare workers by offering them discounts on haircuts and styling services and donating thousands of products to organizations that serve these healthcare workers.
While Ulta made this move in order to thank the healthcare professionals who are working hard to keep people safe, it also helped consumers to see the heart of this business and recognize that Ulta Beauty cares about healthcare workers.
Changing their digital marketing strategy
Ulta Beauty shifted their digital marketing strategy in order to focus more on self-care in their ads. During a time when people would typically be less likely to buy makeup products since they were staying at home, Ulta reminded consumers that using their products was an act of self-care that many people needed in order to help combat the stress of the pandemic.
Their marketing strategy reflected the idea that beauty is about more than just products, but about people feeling good about themselves, and they made participating in self-care the call-to-action for their social media posts and email newsletters.
When reporting quarterly earnings, Ulta Beauty CEO Mary Dillon said, “In this new normal, beauty has become more than makeup, more than a product…Ulta Beauty is well-positioned to lead and shape how guests experience beauty in this new normal.”
The changes Ulta Beauty made during the pandemic have paid off and will help this beauty company continue to stay afloat in 2021.
