Ulta Beauty is leaning into IRL connections in a bid to get even more personal with consumers.

Though beauty is still largely a brick-and-mortar business and the company’s predominance in physical retail isn’t new, the next 35 years entail looking at the future of eventing and IRL experiences to maintain existing customers and attract new ones.

“This year, we are projecting to execute over 70,000 events,” said Amiee Bayer-Thomas, chief retail officer of Ulta Beauty, noting that figure represents a 40 percent uptick from 2024. “In the first quarter alone, we delivered over 20,000 events.”

The rationale behind the strategy, she said, is simple, noting that roughly 80 percent of the company’s sales come from its physical stores. “We know that beauty happens everywhere, and while we are going to be amplifying that and bringing it to life in our stores, we know it happens everywhere. We are also going to be showing up in places and spaces where beauty is present.”

Bayer-Thomas pointed to the key cultural moments outside of beauty where that strategy will come to life, from Ulta’s activation at the Super Bowl earlier this year to a similar one at the “Cowboy Carter” tour, the stadium tour of Cécred founder Beyoncé Knowles-Carter.

“We are returning to Lollapalooza where we’ll be doing a takeover, and we’re going to be leaning in and redefining what festival glam looks like in our hometown of Chicago,” Bayer-Thomas said. “It’s a great destination — come get some hair tingling, makeup touch-ups and interact with our design team members in addition to gifting we’ll be doing in partnership with some of our brands.”

At Lollapalooza, the retailer is bringing 30 members of the press and influencers to “share and amplify the story around festivals and trending beauty looks that are going to help Ulta Beauty support those looks,” Bayer-Thomas said.

That also includes events of Ulta’s own making. It unveiled its first consumer-facing festival, Ulta Beauty World, earlier this year in San Antonio, timed to its field leadership conference; next year, the company will be taking the concept to Orlando.

“It was our inaugural large-scale consumer-facing event, and we are very encouraged by the success that we had. It continues to help set a path as we think about future experiences that we want to deliver to our guests,” Bayer-Thomas said. “We had nearly 1,500 attendees and around 195 brands participate, and it served up an opportunity for us to step out in a bolder way and bring our strategy around human connection and brand engagement to life within the beauty community.”

The in-store approach is also taking a high-touch mindset.

“The stores are our beauty playground,” Bayer-Thomas said. “It’s where we bring Ulta Beauty to life in ways that only we can. We’ll be leaning into brick-and-mortar. That in-person connectivity is priceless.”

Ulta has historically led the business in terms of hair care, given the salon component to the business, and earlier this year inaugurated a first-of-its-kind partnership with Knowles-Carter’s Cécred that entailed a salon activation. If Pattern Beauty’s eventing is any indication, it won’t be the last.

“We have trainings monthly that our education teams do, and they are always checking in with the store teams,” said Tiffani Carter, Pattern’s chief marketing officer. “Since 2019, we’ve been participating in their Black History Month salon experiences. This year, we added a component of in-store eventing and we saw a tremendous response.”

That included Pattern educators demonstrating products in-store and more. “In February we did a ‘Refresh and Reset’ tour. We had a DJ, our branding everywhere and salon chairs pulled out from the salon,” Carter said. Our head of education was doing demos. And if you wanted to refresh your braids or a silk press or a wash-and-go, she had models sitting in the chair.”

That’s become a big learning for Pattern, given that in-real-life experiences monopolize consumers’ attentions beyond a quick scroll through social media.

“That captivated and halted people in their tracks,” Carter said. “The hair space has become more crowded, especially in the prestige price points. We have to ensure that we’re giving consumers a full experience of the brand as much as we possibly can.”

Even for hair care incumbents, such as L’Oréal-owned Redken, the services offered by Ulta on behalf of the brand play a key role in maintaining market leadership.

“Ulta is our number-one retail partner, a true force in bringing our professional hair care innovations directly to consumers nationwide,” a Redken spokesperson said. “Through our dynamic partnership with Ulta Beauty, we are actively accelerating hair as a destination within the beauty industry. Ulta’s unique layout: a vibrant retail experience integrating Redken salons services, transforms each door into a comprehensive hub for all things hair. We’re not just selling products; we’re creating immersive hair experiences that draw consumers from all ages in and foster deep brand loyalty.”

Ulta’s services aren’t localized to hair, though, with Benefit Cosmetics reaping rewards for its brow services offered in-store. Bayer-Thomas said that salon clients shop in-store at Ulta 10 times annually on average, and that frequency doubles if they get brow services, too.

“It’s a differentiator for us, it’s personalized, and it’s really tailored to our guests’ needs,” Bayer-Thomas said. “We offer services in brow, skin, makeup and ear piercing. We do educational workshops to help our guests learn about how to style at-home and what products to use.”

As for how Ulta thinks about expanding the in-store treatment offerings, it’s just as strategic as how the merchandising team thinks about brands. “It’s rooted in enhancing the experience and rooted in category leadership,” Bayer-Thomas said. “There’s an operational component that is like nothing else, so it’s important that the education and the artistry they have delivers on that. We also look at how they continue innovating, and it’s a bit more operational in nature.”

Benefit is gearing up the services component to its Ulta partnership, with hairstylists being trained to offer brow services, too.

“Events and services both are strategically important for the business we have at Ulta,” said Vivianna Blanch, senior vice president of U.S. marketing and international liaison, Benefit Cosmetics. “They’re a way for us to increase our brand visibility, acquire new customers and gain some foot traffic. For us, our services specifically lead to service-led product sales.”

Nailing those sales conversions at Ulta has been years in the making, with the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned brand having offered them for a decade prior at the retailer.

“We’re the number-one brow brand worldwide and the U.S. market,” Blanch said, adding that Benefit has 1,400 aestheticians at Ulta.

Blanch said the menu of services offered evolves based on trends and consumer feedback. “A lot of people don’t even know we offer services until they come in-store and see our service bar,” she said. “We started off with just brow waxes, and now lip, face and chin. We offer threading, and as we see things like tints and lamination trending online, we’re able to train our estheticians to provide those, too.”

Benefit is doubling down on service: As of Aug. 10, Ulta Beauty’s own salons — not just Benefit Brow Bars — will be offering the services from 8,500 different stylists.

“We’re evolving the partnership with Ulta,” Blanche said. “As an Ulta guest, if you’re going to get your hair done and your hair is processing, the fact that a stylist is now trained to say, ‘Can I offer you a brow wax?’ it’s an addition to our business and also an incredible service.”

Turns out there’s more on the horizon.

“Through our Prisma Ventures, we’re going to be bringing in robotic manicures to 10 stores,” Bayer-Thomas said. “There’s a lot of innovation in this space, a lot of technology, and so we’re looking at how we can continue to partner with some of those innovators that are starting to show up in the beauty space to try some things out.”