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Ulta Beauty recently launched UB Marketplace, an online marketplace promising a “broader, complementary assortment across beauty, wellness and adjacent lifestyle categories.”
The marketplace, built on the Miraki platform, will initially add more than 100 new brands on the Ulta.com platform across beauty, wellness, and adjacent lifestyle categories.
Unlike open marketplaces such as Amazon, participation in UB Marketplace is by invitation only and limited to brands, prioritizing authenticity and avoiding resellers.
Josh Friedman, SVP of digital and e-commerce at Ulta, told Business of Fashion, “We’ve heard that loud and clear from our [customers], that they expect us to make sure that they’re getting first-class quality and first-class sellers, and not someone else trying to sell other people’s stuff. We take that obligation very seriously,” said Friedman.
Ulta listed a number of benefits of UB Marketplace:
- A curated selection of brands across beauty and wellness, selected and vetted by Ulta Beauty, that supplements and “strengthens Ulta’s category leadership across makeup, skincare, haircare, fragrance and wellness” while tapping emerging sub-categories and trends.
- An integrated shopping experience linking UB Marketplace to the Ulta Beauty retail and online experience, with unified search, cart and checkout; Ulta Beauty Rewards on eligible purchases; and in-store returns.
- Speed to newness with an extended aisle of brands enabling rapid test-and-learn across emerging categories and trends while giving newer brands visibility to more than 45 million Ulta Beauty Rewards members.
“UB Marketplace allows us to deliver more newness, faster entry into emerging subcategories and trends, and deeper category authority – while keeping the guest experience unmistakably Ulta Beauty,” said Lauren Brindley, chief merchandising and digital officer at Ulta Beauty. "This thoughtfully curated model scales discovery and brand building for our partners.”
Third-Party Marketplaces and Ulta's Greater Gamble
Josh Friedman, senior vice president of digital and e-commerce at Ulta, stressed that the focus isn’t about finding brands that could be sold directly to Ulta Beauty. He told WWD, “While that’s a great goal, and I’m sure the aspiration for many of these brands, that’s not the only measure of success. We are not here to test brands and say, ‘Well, you’re not going to make it to the shelf, so we’re going to let you go.’ There’s a very successful marketplace only business.”
Some differences from the traditional Ulta.com experience is that products are drop-shipped directly to the consumer from the brand, arriving in separate boxes from the rest of their online order. Marketplace items also can’t be picked up in store.
Ulta becomes the first major beauty chain to open a third-party marketplace. Walmart in 2009 became the first major retailer to introduce a third-party marketplace to better compete with Amazon. Other retailers launching curated online marketplaces in recent years include Target, Best Buy, Lowe’s, Kroger, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Saks, Victoria’s Secret, Urban Outfitters, Madewell, and Michaels.