The Speed of Culture Podcast Intelligent Beauty: How Ulta Beauty uses AI personalization to power loyalty and relevance at scale
Feb 24, 2026
Kelly Mahoney, Chief Marketing Officer at Ulta Beauty and data-driven loyalty leader, explains how Ulta’s massive rewards program and first-party data power personalization at scale. She discusses motivation-based segmentation replacing demographics. AI-powered recommendations, omnichannel journeys, creator-driven discovery, and cultural partnerships shape relevance and growth.
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Beauty Journeys Are Nonlinear And Omnichannel
- Customer journeys in beauty are non-linear and often start in social, move to online browsing, and end with in-store trials.
- Ulta focuses on seamlessly picking up the experience across social, web, and 1,500+ stores.
Loyalty Program Powers Nearly All Sales
- Ulta drives nearly all sales through its loyalty program, with 46 million members and 95% of sales coming from members.
- Kelly Mahoney credits structured first-party data and in-store associate-driven signups for that membership depth and predictive power.
Segment By Motivation Not Demographics
- Ulta segments customers by motivation rather than demographics, using signals like store discovery behavior and online replenishment.
- That allows predictive recommendations (e.g., introduce hair care after skincare) to drive relevance and emotional loyalty.