By Kayla Cheung
As if Target did not have enough all-day entertainment available in their stores with both Pizza Hut and Starbucks, Ulta has joined them in a partnership as of early November. Ulta will be opening 100 in-store boutiques that resemble that of their full-size shops sometime near the end of 2021 — albeit more curated for Target’s customer base.
Both the New York Stock Exchange Target corporation and the Nasdaq Ulta received a great increase to their stocks on the day of their announcement, rising 1.6 and 12.05 percent respectively.
Ulta’s realm of skin-care, hair-care, and make-up will supposedly be replicated on a smaller scale, approximately 1,000 square feet. This space is to be located in Target’s existing beauty section, which already provides an abundance of options. On that account, what Ulta brings to the table is going to determine their success, after people stop shopping in their new mini-stores simply because of convenience.
Target and Ulta already share quite a bit of their product line-up when it comes to skin-care and make-up, so the latter company has an especially important choice to make when it comes to the items they want to display in their new locations.
“…[W]e are able to expand our growing beauty business with new, exciting brands, an immersive experience, and loyalty benefits to transform how our guests shop for all their beauty needs,” the Target CEO and chairman, Brian Cornell, stated in a news release.
In addition to some new, more luxurious items that Target has never made available at their stores, there will also be an incentive for those who fill their usual in-person or online baskets of serums, primers, and conditioners at Ulta, according to the company’s CEO, Brian Cornell. Included in this package are free shipping with select orders — a commodity among online retailers, and comforting curbside-pickup. Shoppers can explore Ulta’s selections on both their own website and Target’s, opening up some extra digital lanes for those who are in need of some products that can build their confidence to some degree, even if only for a short while.
Department stores have had beauty kiosks from different brands or miniature versions of makeup stores at select locations of theirs for years, but incorporating an Ulta within a Target is an entirely new experience. Shoppers have access to a greater variety of items in this partnership between a titan of beauty and supermarket empire, equipped to shop not only for an aesthetic but a lifestyle.
Target and Ulta are ushering in a new era for beauty shopping in the retail market. People will come across a full spectrum of products: from clothes to food, and even luxury beauty products, with both simplifying the shopping process and diversifying it simultaneously by limiting the need for people to visit other stores.
