They got back to the basics…

When the pandemic hit last year, few were fully prepared. How could you be? In our lean and mean industry where shelf space is precious and timing is key, there’s little room for catastrophic, once-in-a-century events to come pushing through the supply chain. But that’s exactly what happened. So aside from prognostication, successful retailers and brands relied heavily on nimble adaptation and data to light the path forward. Keys to Ulta’s success in doing just this:

• Find your advocates and leverage their voice. Ulta found existing super-users that were already pushing the brand and amplified their messaging.
• Engage with the community, listen, and take note on what they want you to be to them. The team reached out to the community and adapted to become what the market wanted/needed during the pandemic.
• Remain nimble and adapt quickly. Continued analysis of the market and omnichannel optimization were top of mind for CEO Mary Dillon.
• Use all available tools. Without daily data in hand, it’ll be difficult to plot a proper course and adjust like Ulta has learned to do.

As we work our way back to normal (or some semblance of it), how are your data tools looking? To learn more about how our reporting can help you make better use of your retail sales data and what makes us different than the retailer reporting tools you may be using, be sure to set up a quick walkthrough of our platform and review of your operations here.