Key Takeaways:
As Sephora is pulling back on wellness, Ulta Beauty is doubling down.
In January, the nation's largest beauty retailer introduced Wellness by Ulta Beauty, an evolution of The Wellness Shop at Ulta Beauty, which first launched in 2021. More than just a rebrand in name, Wellness by Ulta Beauty is an immersive, education-led platform brought to life for the first time through a dedicated, experiential in-store concept.
Beginning January 26, Wellness by Ulta Beauty boutiques will debut in four stores: Columbus, Ohio; Short Pump, Virginia; and Peabody, Massachusetts, with an additional location planned in April for Naperville, Illinois.
The shop-in-shop boutiques range from approximately 300 to 600 square feet, depending on the store layout, and will feature an edited assortment of brands, including The Nue Co., Stripes (founded by Naomi Watts), and Playground (co-founded by Christina Aguilera), all of which are launching simultaneously within the select wellness boutique doors and on ulta.com. The launch also coincides with the transition to four simplified wellness pillars: Nutrition & Supplements, Intimate Care, Rest & Reset, and Essential Routines.
“From a design standpoint, the goal was to create a space that feels distinct yet approachable— rooted in education, discovery, and inspiration,” Laura Beres, Vice President of Wellness at Ulta Beauty, told BeautyMatter. “Guests will see dedicated focal walls that bring our wellness vision to life, clear navigation by product pillar, interactive tables for testing and trial, and thoughtful storytelling throughout the space.” Beres said that it’s an elevated but accessible environment designed to invite exploration and build confidence in the category.
The dedicated retail footprint intends to set wellness apart from Ulta’s other beauty offerings, signaling that Wellness by Ulta Beauty is “evolving from a category into an experience,” according to Beres.
In keeping with this separation, Ulta Beauty will also introduce dedicated wellness advisors to staff the shop-in-shop boutiques and guide shoppers through discovery and the path to purchase. As specialized sales associates, wellness advisors are there to answer questions and build trust through one-on-one conversations, enabling guests to “feel supported rather than sold to,” per Beres.
“Wellness can feel personal,and at times overwhelming—so we invested in specialized training to ensure these advisors are deeply knowledgeable not only about our assortment, but also about wellness trends, benefits, and how products fit into different life stages and routines,” she added. “Ultimately, they bring the boutique to life by turning education into a human, personalized experience.”
The decision to launch Wellness by Ulta Beauty in four Midwest stores was very intentional, according to Beres. Ulta Beauty is headquartered in the greater Chicago area, and the Midwest has long been a meaningful part of the company’s heritage and growth story. While the retailer serves guests nationwide, the Midwest is one of its most established regions, with a strong store presence and deeply engaged guest base.
As BeautyMatter first reported last year, wellness is increasingly resonating with consumers in the middle of the country. With over 45 million loyalty members accounting for 95% of sales, the company has unprecedented insight into consumer behavior at both a national and regional level. As Ulta Beauty has grown its wellness assortment over the past several years, the retailer closely tracked guest engagement, category performance, and feedback across regions.
“These four locations demonstrated strong interest in wellness through performance, align [with] wellness-friendly demographics, and also give us a diverse set of markets to test, learn, and refine the concept,” said Beres. “This pilot allows us to better understand how different guests engage with an immersive wellness experience, while ensuring we’re meeting them where they are in their wellness journeys.”
Ulta Beauty hopes that by combining discovery, education, and trusted guidance in one place, shoppers will gain the confidence they need to pull the trigger on purchasing. A recent McKinsey report found that wellness is more important to consumers than ever, representing around $500 billion in annual spend and growing at 4% to 5% each year. 84% of US consumers say wellness is a “top” or “important” priority, indicating a major opportunity for brands and retailers to connect products and services to help consumers holistically address their wellness needs.
Over the past five years, Ulta Beauty has steadily expanded its wellness assortment, but more recently, the retailer has shifted its focus toward positioning services as a key point of differentiation. In September, Ulta Beauty’s Chief Marketing Officer, Kelly Mahoney, told BeautyMatter that the company plans to elevate services as a competitive advantage within the broader beauty retail ecosystem.
“We can create experiences where we can invite our guests in, and they get to play with products and learn about the products and discover new products in a way that only we can do,” Mahoney said.
With an average store footprint of approximately 10,000 square feet, Ulta Beauty has ample space to host immersive experiences. Combined with its expansive, cross-category assortment, the store environment becomes a platform for discovery, education, and connection. Wellness by Ulta Beauty will naturally be included in that effort to bring services to the forefront.
“Services and wellness are both core differentiators and key pillars of Ulta Beauty’s retail strategy, and we believe they can become even more connected as interest and demand in the wellness category grows,” said Beres.
While the initial focus of the boutiques is on learning and feedback through product discovery, education, and assortment, Beres added that Ulta Beauty is always exploring new opportunities and avenues rooted in guest interest, and services is one of those potential areas as part of the retailer’s long-term vision.
“This initial pilot gives us an opportunity to understand how guests want to engage with wellness in-store, and those learnings will help inform how services may thoughtfully integrate into the space over time,” she said.
The Wellness by Ulta Beauty boutiques signal the retailer’s long-term commitment to wellness at a moment when the connection between beauty and wellness has grown stronger than ever. In the United States alone, McKinsey estimated that this category represents more than $500 billion in annual spend, growing at 4% to 5% each year.
Perhaps even more importantly, Ulta Beauty’s approach underscores the need to treat beauty and wellness as distinct, stand-alone categories, each with dedicated resources and support. This stands in stark contrast to Sephora’s approach to wellness. In recent years, the LVMH-owned beauty retailer brought in a range of brands and products under the wellness umbrella without a clearly defined strategy. As Sephora ultimately discovered, selling wellness is not synonymous with selling beauty. In late 2025, Sephora confirmed it would be exiting the supplement category. Online, its wellness assortment is now folded into the broader bath and body section.
As Sephora steps back, it leaves significant white space for Ulta Beauty to claim leadership in the category.
Rachel Hirsch, founder and general partner of Wellness Growth Ventures, called the launch of Wellness by Ulta Beauty “brilliant,” particularly as dollar spend in wellness continues to rise rapidly.
“The repeat purchase behavior and the way wellness consumers shop are very similar to what Ulta [Beauty] already sees across its core categories,” she told BeautyMatter. “I think they have an opportunity to execute it really well.”
The in-store education is a key differentiating factor that sets Ulta Beauty’s wellness strategy apart from its competitors, according to Jane Merten, founder at AllOut Advisors, an agency that helps Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) brands navigate their retail expansion strategy. Wellness requires a high level of education, and expanding the space creates room for stronger educational tools to not only help shoppers learn at the shelf and ensure they’re choosing the right products for their needs, but ultimately improve conversion.
“People are looking for experiences in-store that make them feel good,” Merten told BeautyMatter. “If you have trained staff that can help the shoppers when they need it, that is what is going to help drive higher basket sizes and spend in-store.”
Anne Kurtz, an angel investor and advisor, sees the shop-in-shop as a strong opportunity for wellness brands at the retail level, but also flags the challenge of converting loyal beauty shoppers into equally loyal wellness consumers.
“Overall, I think the intent is strong, particularly in addressing areas where Sephora may have fallen short, [such as] investing in education, spotlighting the brands they truly want to champion, and, because this is a physical in-store experience, creating a uniquely differentiated opportunity,” she said. “Where I see it potentially falling short—and what ultimately happened to Sephora—is competing with Amazon.”
On Amazon, vitamins, minerals, and supplements are growing +32% year over year, with non-branded searches up two times faster than branded ones, according to Front Row. For Kurtz, the challenge will be retaining customers in categories like supplements, which are built around repeat purchase and subscriptions.
“While [Wellness by Ulta Beauty] may be where customers first discover a product, if it’s not an exclusive brand or SKU, where they ultimately repurchase it could be a hurdle for Ulta Beauty,” she told BeautyMatter.
Cross-category plays and bundling—such as offering a discount on a hair loss supplement to a customer interested in a hair growth shampoo—will be critical for the success of wellness at Ulta Beauty, according to Kurtz.
In the race to integrate beauty and wellness, this latest move by Ulta Beauty places the Chicago-based retailer squarely in the lead in terms of brick-and-mortar beauty retailers, but the game is far from over, and the competition is fierce: Amazon, Walmart, Target, and natural grocery chains like Whole Foods are all in hot pursuit of the wellness-minded consumer. Ulta Beauty may have checked Sephora, but at the same time, it also entered a new, much more crowded arena. The race is on to see which retailers will capture the greatest share of the $2 trillion global wellness industry—and which will be left behind.
