[MUSIC PLAYING]
CHRIS HOOD: Welcome to "The Transformation Debrief."
I'm Chris Hood, a digital strategist at Google Cloud
and your host.
In each episode, we aim to stir visionary thinking
and share unexpected insights on transformation initiatives
and lessons learned along the way.
I'm happy to be joined today by my co-host, Amy Eschliman.
Amy, would you mind sharing a little bit about yourself
and your role at Google?
AMY ESCHLIMAN: Hi.
I'm Amy.
I'm part of our Retail Industry Solutions group at Google.
CHRIS HOOD: Ulta Beauty is the largest US beauty retailer,
carrying over 25,000 products from 500 established
and emerging beauty brands, including Ulta Beauty's
own private label.
In April 2022, Ulta Beauty announced a 12-month revenue
of $9 billion, an increase of 30.6% year over year.
Ulta Beauty is redefining the beauty industry
by creating personalized experiences that
blur the lines between store and digital.
Their focus on innovation has been a true point
of differentiation.
And in this episode, we're going to dive
into that transformation.
We have an incredible guest joining us today
from Ulta Beauty.
Please welcome Prama Bhatt.
PRAMA BHATT: Hi, Chris.
Hi, Amy.
It's great to be here.
My name is Prama.
I'm the chief digital officer of Ulta Beauty.
CHRIS HOOD: When we think about technology
and we think about these digital experiences,
we often lose that human connection in the process.
Prama, how are you maintaining that relationship
as you're driving more sales through digital channels?
PRAMA BHATT: Yeah, human connection and being personal
is at the heart of all things digital and physical.
I would say, interestingly enough, through the pandemic,
I think we've all learned that--
even prepandemic, but definitely during the pandemic--
that our phones and our digital devices are key connectors.
They are relationship builders, whether it's
your family or your friends or your favorite brands,
your communities.
And so the idea that that technology and device
is a connector is at the heart of how we think
about the digital experiences.
CHRIS HOOD: So one of the things that I think a lot of retailers
are struggling with is actually connecting
the dots between that digital personalization
and the in-store experience.
How are you looking at that?
PRAMA BHATT: Yeah, I mean, we really love the fact
that our store experience is at the heart of our entire beauty
journey.
It's where all things digital and physical come together.
We've made some really great strides,
in terms of thinking about digital experiences.
Obviously, our loyalty program allows for our store associates
to have insight about our loyalty members.
And that helps provide a little bit more color.
But we have a way to go, quite frankly, Chris,
in terms of really powering our associates with all
of the information, because there's so much to sort through
from an assortment perspective.
And so what we're working on currently
is thinking about what I would consider clienteling
2.0 of the future, where we really power our understanding
like we do in our digital channels,
whether they be our marketing channels or our owned channels
on our site and app, and create kind
of a super-powered associate with all that knowledge base.
And that's something the team's in the middle of concepting
right now.
And we're really excited about how
that incremental knowledge can really
help guide the experience.
In the meantime, we have really great digital tools
that oftentimes a guest can do on their own,
but will do with an associate.
It might be a hair color try-on tool.
It might be a virtual try-on experience.
It might be taking the skin analysis with the associate
and then going through a guided journey in the store.
So we have these tools that help guide
the relationship between our associate and the guest,
but really looking forward to this evolution and next step
in super-powering our associates.
AMY ESCHLIMAN: Prama, so many lines
were blurred during the last two years
during the pandemic, especially the line between digital
and the store.
And I'm curious, as you think about the customer
behavior that changed, first because it had to,
and then because we just got into some new habits, what
do you think about--
or how do you think about that consumer experience
going forward?
PRAMA BHATT: From a digital perspective,
like most retailers, we saw our digital adoption
significantly increase.
And early days, we all were wondering
whether that increase would stick
or whether it was going to kind of revert back.
And we're really, really enthused
by what we're seeing, which is continued sticky behavior
in digital and omnichannels, as well as store traffic not only
stabilizing and going back to prepandemic levels,
but exceeding prepandemic levels.
So the idea that we were able to sustain and stick
the adoption versus not for us is really critical
as we think about our future strategies.
So it's not that that's something new coming out
of the pandemic, but the ease in which it's just
part of the experience now and an expectation
in every industry is really awesome.
And what we're seeing is our buy online, pick up in-store growth
is one of our largest-growing channels.
So I would say omnichannel behavior, digital adoption
of tools, as well as the channel,
and just a real portfolio view on what's
relevant to people coming out of the pandemic.
CHRIS HOOD: How does cloud help you be nimble
and to maintain that customer-centric perspective
that you have?
PRAMA BHATT: Yeah, I mean, the cloud
is a key part of our ecosystem of the future.
When we think about our digital stack
that powers all of our experiences
and we think about data and capturing insights,
our partnership with the Google Cloud
and a choice we made early on, both through our Guest 360 as
well as our Digital Store of the Future program,
really set us up for what we believe will allow our insights
and data to be mined and captured faster so that we can
use those to create experiences, and more importantly,
the ability to deliver performant and expected
experiences from our guests.
So really, really excited as we stand up
the Digital Store of the Future in partnership
with Google and Google Cloud.
CHRIS HOOD: Part of transformation
is definitely a culture of the organization.
So how have you been able to maintain that culture at Ulta
Beauty, or have you seen any major changes
over the last couple of years, just
from your employee perspective?
PRAMA BHATT: Yeah, the culture at Ulta Beauty
is magic, in my mind, quite frankly, Chris.
It's a values-based culture.
It's a highly inclusive culture.
And it's definitely a culture that believes in collaboration.
And so we really, like most organizations,
saw even more collaboration coming through the pandemic,
in terms of being able to stabilize, rebuild, and get
everyone pointed in a direction that kept safety first,
which was key, and then also kept the consumer
at the center.
CHRIS HOOD: When we think about transformation,
obviously we've transformed, as we've already talked about,
over the course of the last couple of years,
and retail has transformed over the last decade or so.
But how has your team transformed, maybe recently?
And what does the next three or four, five years
look like from your team perspective?
PRAMA BHATT: Yeah, that's a great point, Chris,
because this really is all fueled by people.
There's no question, it's people and culture.
And we've been on a journey of building capabilities,
in some cases catching up, in some cases taking steps
forward.
But the focus on really thinking about the guest at the center
and thinking about experiences and thinking about those
as the outcome and letting that be
the starting point versus a feature or a function
or a set of requirements is probably
the largest transformation that we're undergoing,
along with a program that we call our Digital
Store of the Future.
And that starts to bring digital optimization, user experience,
customer insights in a next-level way
into the way we think about creating
products and experiences.
AMY ESCHLIMAN: OK, I'm going to ask my final question.
And you will see that my retail roots are showing here
because I know that holiday planning is in full effect
right now.
Always, but especially right now.
And every holiday season is totally
different than the last.
What do you think is going to be different about 2022?
PRAMA BHATT: Yeah, I think 2022--
I wish I had a crystal ball, Amy, because this is a--
it's a very robust year already.
I think we have some of the lingering elements.
I feel like we've done a really great job,
our supply chain team and our inventory teams
have done an awesome job getting ahead
because, as you mentioned, holiday is
a full-year, 365-a-day process.
You're either in it or you're working on it, right?
So there's no question that is a key strategy around holiday.
But our expectations are that, from a macro perspective,
guests are going to be highly engaged on holiday,
that this revival that we're seeing right now in getting
back to opening up and being connected and human connection
is going to continue on through the holiday season,
and that it will be a really critical part of the year,
like it always is, but even in a bigger way.
CHRIS HOOD: Well, once again, thank
you, Prama, for joining us.
It's been a true delight.
PRAMA BHATT: Thank you so much for having me and allowing
us to share a little bit about our team and the Ulta Beauty
story.
CHRIS HOOD: And thank you, Amy, for being my co-host.
AMY ESCHLIMAN: Of course.
It was really fun.
CHRIS HOOD: If you would like to learn more about Ulta Beauty,
we have two channels for you to explore.
At cloud.google.com/transform, we dive deeper into this
transformation journey.
And you can tune into "That Digital Show"
to hear the extended podcast version of this conversation.
And don't forget to hit Subscribe and join us again
for more visionary thinking and lessons
learned on the next episode of "The Transformation Debrief."
[MUSIC PLAYING]