A view of Ulta’s new wellness shop-in-shop retail concept.
Array Marketing
Ulta, which developed its wellness concept back in 2021 with a curated assortment of wellness products, is evolving into a dedicated in-store experience with the launch of “Wellness by Ulta.” The concept will take the form of a dedicated shop-in-shop section and is being rolled out in four locations this week: Columbus, Ohio; Short Pump, Virginia; and Peabody, Massachusetts. As Laura Beres, VP of Wellness at Ulta Beauty, said in a statement: “Wellness by Ulta Beauty is evolving from a category into an experience.”
This initiative highlights Ulta’s ambition to move wellness beyond product merchandising and into experiential retail. “Our first-ever wellness boutiques will deliver discovery, education and trusted guidance together in a way that helps guests easily find what works best for them,” Beres explained—highlighting a move that goes beyond merchandising alone. By hiring expert staff and focusing on providing guidance to customers, Ulta positions itself as a credible retail destination for both avid wellness shoppers and new entrants into the category.
This commitment resonated with various wellness brands whose genuine purpose is to provide self-care solutions and functional benefits to consumers, such as The Nue Co. The clean supplements brand, which also has a range of functional fragrances, is exclusively rolling-out its mood-boosting fragrances to over 1,000 Ulta locations nationwide, including in the wellness corners of these Ulta shop-in-shop concepts. Jules Miller, founder of the wellness brand, shared with Glossy.co one of the reasons she felt compelled to work with Ulta: “The staff within that section are actually trained to talk to the things that I’m passionate about. The thing that I’m so adamant about is that, if you put these products in just a normal fragrance aisle, you’re going to lose the point of them. These are tools for well-being”.
Wellness products don’t always perform well in retail because they require more education and trial than beauty products, so educating staff that can advise shoppers really makes all the difference. Investing in staff training, interactive screens with additional product information and intuitive layouts will help shoppers navigate these wellness aisles and engage with potentially new brands and concepts, such as The Nue Co’s functional fragrances.
Another new brand being listed in Ulta’s new wellness corners is Naomi Watts’ “Stripes Beauty”, a personal care and skincare brand focused on perimenopause and menopause. This move signals an authentic interest in offering solutions to a large portion of women whose needs are still very much underserved, and sends the message that Ulta’s wellness concept aims to offer products for every consumer profile, across a range of preoccupations, from gut health to sexual wellness, energy and many more categories. In fact, Ulta Beauty has transitioned to four wellness pillars: Nutrition & Supplements, Intimate Care, Rest & Reset, and Essential Routines.
Over time, beauty and wellness have become increasingly intertwined, evolving into complementary and overlapping categories. While beauty has traditionally focused on self-expression and outward appearance, wellness has centered on inner balance and health. Today, those boundaries are blurring: beauty brands are adopting the language of wellness by emphasizing confidence and inner well-being, while wellness brands increasingly frame feeling good as a path to looking good. It comes as no surprise, then, that many beauty brands are expanding into wellness.
As Ulta tests and refines its wellness shop-in-shop concept, the pilot offers a glimpse into how beauty retailers may evolve next: not as places to simply buy products, but as trusted destinations for guidance, education and holistic routines. If successful, “Wellness by Ulta” could set a guiding example for how mass beauty retail captures a more engaged, loyalty-driven wellness consumer—one who increasingly expects self-care to be as thoughtfully curated as makeup or skincare, while also capturing beauty shoppers who are now becoming equally invested into wellness.