Ulta Beauty is expanding its digital presence with a new marketplace set to launch in the second half of 2025. This initiative aims to broaden its eCommerce offerings and provide customers with more beauty and wellness products.
What Sellers Need to Know
- The marketplace will be invitation-only, allowing Ulta Beauty to curate high-quality brands.
- Customers will earn points on their marketplace purchases.
- Marketplace items can be returned in Ulta Beauty stores for convenience.
Ulta Beauty’s Digital Growth Plan
- Enhancing the app and website to improve the shopping experience.
- Increasing personalization with automation and real-time content.
- Strengthening its business operations with new leadership roles.
We learned about this news from the Shopifreaks newsletter #217, which also covered it nicely. Shopifreaks highlighted how curation is becoming a major trend in online retail, moving away from the “Everything Store” approach.
For years, eCommerce focused on offering the widest selection possible, but this often led to choice overload for shoppers. While reviews and recommendations helped, finding the right product still felt like searching for a needle in a haystack. Retailers like Ulta Beauty and Shein are now turning to curation to make shopping easier and more personalized.
Shein introduced Trend Stores to organize products into curated fashion storefronts, while Ulta Beauty is taking it further by carefully selecting which brands get access to their new marketplace.
With this shift toward curation, Ulta Beauty’s marketplace will offer selected brands a valuable opportunity while giving customers a simpler, more rewarding shopping experience.