03.29.18
Beauty bloggers are excited — Chanel Beauté is launching at Ulta Beauty.
Headlines like these were showing up all over social media last week: “Chanel Beauty At Ulta Is Now A Reality & I'm Filing For Bankruptcy” at Elite Daily; Chanel Beauty Products Are Coming To Ulta, But It's OK Because You Never Needed Savings Anyway at Bustle; and Ulta Beauty is Going to Sell Chanel Beauty Products: Run, don’t walk, at Teen Vogue.
However, Ulta’s website states: “Discover Chanel Beauty, only at Ulta Beauty Westport,” referring to its store in Westport, CT.
Racked reported on Ulta’s recent 2017 fourth-quarter earnings call, and says that Mary Dillon, CEO, said: “…we’re thrilled to announce a prestigious addition for 2018 — Chanel Beauté. Following our long-standing partnership with Chanel offering their iconic fragrances in hundreds of our stores, we are honored to introduce Chanel Beauté in a small number of Ulta Beauty doors this year. This will be an edited assortment featuring a Chanel-branded makeup station with the first Chanel store opening in Westport, Connecticut, in just a few weeks.”
So it seems that — in an unusual mash-up — the luxe makeup brand will sit alongside mass and masstige cosmetic lines (in another aisle, no doubt).
WWD recently reported that Ulta is “retooling its mass market business” with the addition of ‘masstige’ brands “that cater to the trend-driven Millennial and Gen Z customers.” These masstige brands have all launched at Ulta within the past two years — Morphe, Flower Beauty, ColourPop, e.l.f., and Wet n Wild.
Stocking makeup at every price point — all in one place — may prove to be a huge advantage for the retailer. The WWD article points out that 77% of Ulta’s customers shop both the prestige and mass categories, while only 23% stick to shopping only one category, mass or prestige.