This document compares the cosmetics retailers Sephora and Ulta. Sephora was founded in France in 1993 and focuses on luxury brands, operating over 500 stores primarily in major cities and JC Penney locations. Ulta was founded in 1990 in the US and has around 400 stores, usually in suburban areas, offering both prestige and mass brands at a variety of price points. While Sephora has a more upscale image, Ulta generates more revenue due to its wider selection at multiple price tiers, making it more affordable and accessible to most American customers. Both companies offer loyalty programs with rewards, though Ulta does not allow customers to roll over points from year to year.
2. Sephora
• Founded in France by Dominique
Mandonnaud in 1993.
• Leading cosmetic/ fragrance in France and in
13 other countries.
• Over 500 locations in the U.S. The majority are
in metropolitan cities and in JC Penny.
• They carry brands of prestige makeup and
have their own private label.
3. Ulta
• Founded in 1990 by Terry Hanson and Dick
George.
• Found in 40 States and approximately 400
locations in the U.S. Usually located in more
suburban cities.
• Not only carries prestige make-up but mass
product brands as well as their own private
label.
4. Brand and Affordability
• While Sephora holds more luxury brands, Ulta
wins by offering a more price variety from
lower priced to high priced.
• For $200, you can get more beauty products at
Ulta than Sephora.
• For most of America, Ulta is more accessible
than Sephora. The more variety and availability
gives Ulta a greater potential for sales.
5. Loyalty Programs
• Both use cards and reward points.
• The only thing, you can roll over your
points at Sephora, but not at Ulta.
• For Sephora, you earn 1 point ever dollar
spent. In return you get free deluxe
samples you want.
• Ulta has a step level program where you
can receive free products with each level
reached.
6. Loyalty Programs
• I think that once the Sephora addicts realize
that Ulta carries the majority of what Sephora
does plus so much more, and also has a salon
and makeup artists as well, then they’d be
more likely to go to both. And when Ulta
customers want a more boutique experience,
they’re likely to shop Sephora. However, with
the economy as it is today, the wide range of
price points at Ulta give it an edge over
Sephora’s luxury positioning.
7. Customer Acceptance (Social Media)
• For Facebook: Ulta has 1,199,940
likes with 26,644 people talking about
them. Sephora has 5,644,295 with
27,624 people talking about Sephora.
• Twitter: Ulta- 193,997 Followers.
Sephora-1,252,808 Followers.
• However Ulta generates more
revenue with 1,776M (2012) and
$900M for Sephora.
8. Positioning
• Ulta wants to put all their
focus on one-stop
shopping. They
encourage natural beauty.
• With Sephora… they want
to position themselves
has a boutique,
professional shop with
highly trained staff. Their
origin of France already
gives them an air of
luxury.
9. So in conclusion…
• Ulta is more affordable and carries more
products from low to high prices.
• Sephora has more higher priced products but
is has more customer acceptability.
• Sephora wins for brand consistency/
recognition and their push in social media
while Ulta wins in affordability and revenue.
