Dive Brief:
- Ulta Beauty's loyalty membership is soaring, the success of which CEO Kecia Steelman credits to its customer relationships and knowledge, she said on a Q1 2026 earnings call Tuesday. Ulta Beauty Rewards membership is up 4% year over year to 47 million.
- The beauty retailer’s loyalty members understand the return on investment they receive for providing their personal data, according to Steelman. In return, Ulta offers them a range of benefits that go beyond promotions.
- “A lot of times, it's not even about discounts,” Steelman said. “It's about education. It's about product recommendations. It's how you can continue to help them build the basket and then be predictive on what it is that they might need to be purchasing in the future.”
Dive Insight:
The value of Ulta Beauty Rewards lies in personalization, according to Steelman. This will play a role in the retailer’s goal of keeping up with evolving customer needs.
“Our teams are building around key customer journeys and actions to maximize incremental sales-driving opportunities,” Steelman said. “This includes utilizing our loyalty data to understand behaviors, predict replenishment purchases and drive cart conversion.”
The retailer’s storefront on TikTok Shop, which launched in March, is a loyalty opportunity, too, Steelman said. TikTok serves a younger audience, and there is an opportunity to bring this audience into Ulta’s broader ecosystem.
“The main focus is not necessarily to drive e-commerce revenue,” Steelman said. “It's really to get new guests into our database and to be front of mind and center where guests are already shopping today.”
Ulta is using loyalty-fueled personalization to power its AI ambitions, which include its digital shopping agent Ulta AI. The tool only rolled out recently, but early results show promise, according to Steelman.
The company’s emphasis on personalization helped drive a solid quarter. Comparable sales were up 5.3% year over year in the first quarter of 2026, according to an earnings report. Net sales rose 11.1% year over year to $3.2 billion.
