NEW YORK — Walgreen Co. and Ulta Beauty, two of the most influential retailers in the U.S. beauty landscape, outlined their divergent blueprints for growth at Wednesday night’s Cosmetic Executive Women Newsmaker Forum.
Speaking before a sold-out audience at the Harmonie Club, Ulta chief executive officer Mary Dillon emphasized the importance of the in-store experience as the beauty powerhouse seeks to double its 3 percent share of the cumulative $113 billion U.S. beauty business within the next five years.
Walgreens’ strength, as illustrated by Sona Chawla, president of digital and chief marketing officer, is its multichannel approach encompassing brick-and-mortar stores, the allure of the Boots beauty business and a booming e-commerce platform.
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While paying respect to the importance of digital, Dillon zeroed in on the experience in Ulta’s 775 stores. “Services are key in our strategy and no one else does it all in one place,” she said of Ulta’s blend of mass, class and professional products fused with salons. She believes Ulta’s stores provide a playground for beauty enthusiasts that can’t be duplicated, “unless a drone can start coming to your house to do brows.”
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Dillon sees opportunities for technology to be added within the stores, such as iPads. “We can use technology to make it easier and faster to get personalized service. That is what our guests are looking for,” she said.
With the importance of luring customers to stores, Dillon said Ulta is considering national advertising — which it has never done before — to introduce the store to those who haven’t shopped there. “The image of Ulta can be vague if you haven’t been in one. We are on a journey to drive awareness,” she explained.
Although digital is important (Ulta recently added shoppable videos and interactive chats), Dillon doesn’t expect e-commerce to account for more than 10 percent of volume in the next five years.
Walgreens, the nation’s third-largest beauty retailer, drives shoppers into its 8,200 stores, but also believes in building loyalty and transactions through other channels.
“Going big in beauty is a big focus,” said Chawla. “It is all about being customer centric, driving loyalty and taking friction out of the process.” Not only can customers visit the many conveniently located drugstores where they can get attention from the 26,000 beauty advisors, they also have 24-hour a day access to myriad products on walgreens.com, drugstore.com, beauty.com and skinstore.com (which offers upscale lines such as Clarisonic, Molton Brown and Philosophy). Its partnership with Boots elevates the ambience and quality of products in beauty.
Walgreens is hailed as a digital innovator, most notably for an app for prescription refills using barcode scans. Some experts believe there’s potential for similar beauty applications. Walgreens also was among the first to jump on Apple Pay for its stores, which Chawla said, is building in usage.