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Ulta Beauty Pauses Target Shop-in-Shop Openings

The beauty retailer will instead focus on ‘optimising’ its existing 610 locations, said CEO Kecia Steelman at an investors event.
A rendering of an Ulta Beauty at Target location.
A rendering of an Ulta Beauty at Target location. (Target)
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After debuting 610 in-store shops over the course of its five-year-old Target partnership, Ulta Beauty is putting the brakes on new openings.

With an original goal of reaching 800 Ulta Beauty at Target locations, CEO Kecia Steelman told the crowd at J.P. Morgan’s 2025 Apr. 3 Retail Round Up Conference that the beauty retailer has “taken a little bit of a pause in opening more stores” at Target.

“Ulta Beauty at Target continues to be a meaningful way we meet guests where they are, offering convenient access to the best in beauty and wellness. We remain focused on working with our partners at Target to optimize the experience in our more than 600 existing shop-in-shop locations and identify the most strategic opportunities for future growth,” an Ulta Beauty representative shared with The Business of Beauty via email.

“We haven’t announced what we’re going to do past 2025,” said Steelman at the investor event, noting that 101 locations were added in 2024.

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Analysts have described potential issues with “cannibalisation” of Ulta Beauty’s business at strip malls containing both standalone Ulta Beauty stores and Target shop-in-shops. The retailer has faced additional pressures from the competition of new Sephora openings in Kohl’s stores.

For 2025, Ulta Beauty is “focused on improving and leveraging the learnings that we’ve had already,” with its Target locations, said Steelman.

Learn more:

Ulta Beauty Braces for a Challenging 2025

The largest beauty retailer in the US indicates a soft start to 2025 amid a global beauty slowdown.

About the author
Liz Flora
Liz Flora

Liz Flora is a Beauty Correspondent at Business of Fashion. She is based in Los Angeles and covers beauty and wellness.

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