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Ulta Beauty and Target will not renew a joint partnership that saw the beauty retailer operate shop-in-shops within 610 Target stores, the companies announced on Thursday. The current agreement will conclude in August 2026, and customers will be able to shop the assortment both online and in-store until then.
Participating Target stores currently have a dedicated Ulta Beauty area with a selection of its premium brands like hair care line Ouai, cosmetics maker Milk Makeup and skincare line First Aid Beauty.
In April, Ulta Beauty’s chief executive Kecia Steelman told investors at a J.P. Morgan conference that the company had decided to pause openings of new locations, after originally setting a goal of reaching 800 stores.
In a statement, Ulta Beauty’s chief retail officer Amiee Bayer-Thomas said the closure of the partnership was in line with its overarching Ulta Beauty Unleashed plan to reinvigorate sales and gain further market share, and that its assortment of services and in-store experiences would help further reinforce its “leadership” in beauty. Rick Gomez, executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Target described the partnership as a success and said it would remain focussed on offering new beauty brands.
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Analysts had previously warned the partnership could cause cannibalisation of Ulta Beauty’s strip mall business, as some locations throughout the US contained both standalone Ulta Beauty stores and Target shop-in-shops.
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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.
