Ulta Announces Its Own Retail Media Network in Beauty - How NIche is Too Niche?

eCommerce

May 20

Ulta, the leading specialty beauty retailer in the US operates over 1,300 stores and claims 37M rewards members.

Retail media networks have been sprouting up all over obviously with the decline in usefulness of third-party data from Amazon to Walmart to Target to Instacart to Home Depot.. but new entrants like GoPuff, Albertsons, Lowes, Dollar Tree, and now Ulta are cropping up.

Which leads me to my question -- how many retail media networks will the market support?

Overall, I have more questions than answers at this stage.

At what point does this give rise to a "network of networks" approach?

How many platforms can a brand or even an agency support in good conscience?

Is the effort worth it?

Will the category splintering of retail media networks lead to agency splintering as well after the last few years of general agency consolidation?

Side note:

By contrast, Sephora operates about 500 stores in the US but there are about 850 Shop in Shops planned in Kohl's stores (which - who knows how long there will be Kohl's stores ;-) )

In contrast, Ulta chose Target as a partner and is looking to rollout in ~800 stores. Are you more worried about Kohl's or Target? lol.

Despite the recent market activity, I know which horse I would bet on.

retailmediaadvertisingfirstpartydataultasephora

Rick Watson

Rick Watson founded RMW Commerce Consulting after spending 20+ years as a technology entrepreneur and operator exclusively in the eCommerce industry with companies like ChannelAdvisor, BarnesandNoble.com, Merchantry, and Pitney Bowes.

Watson’s work today is centered on supporting investors and management teams incubating and growing direct-to-consumer businesses. Most recently, in partnership with WHP Global, Rick was a critical resource in architecting the WHP+ platform, a new turnkey direct to consumer digital e-commerce platform that powers AnneKlein.com and JosephAbboud.com.

Watson also hosts a weekly podcast, Watson Weekly, where he shares an unbiased, unfiltered expert take on the retail sector’s biggest players.

In the past year alone, Rick has spoken at many in-person and virtual events as well as podcasts on topics ranging from retail/ecom to supply chain/logistics and even digital grocery including CommerceNext IRL, ASCM Connect, and Retail Innovation Conference.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/

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