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While the demand for the brand’s variety of custom eyelash extensions, lash lift treatments, brow lamination and retail products has grown since its start, the popularity has recently taken off as pop culture, TikTok, influencers and celebrities show off the unique looks available beyond mascara.

“As a mother of four, I saw firsthand how unrealistic it was to afford the upkeep, let alone the accessibility, so my family and I set out to redefine everyday luxury. From everyday looks to more ‘dense and dramatic’, we have something for everyone,” said Jennifer Blair, founder and co-CEO of Deka Lash. “We show our commitment to our guests and owners, by our application techniques, robust training and technology advancements to maximize efficiency.”

The beauty brand uses Artificial Intelligence to manage all calls and augmented reality to offer realistic virtual try on for their signature lashes. To continue the mastery of the service offerings, Deka Lash believes in ongoing innovation to offer an assortment of adhesives for different skin types, including multiple sensitive skin options.

“From our R+D department to our proprietary training, we have developed a product line specially formulated for our lashes, and will continue to cater our services to the needs of our customers,” said Michael Blair, co-CEO of Deka Lash. “For our customers and our franchisees, we aim to stay steps ahead to remain relevant as the demand grows for what we do and how we do it.” 

Deka Lash is the first and only eyelash extension studio to develop a technique that allows Lash Artists to apply extensions to every other lash, cutting the usual application time in half. This service is called TrueXpress and it takes 60 minutes to complete, 30 minutes for refills.

The brand that started in Jennifer’s living room has now grown to 125 studios across North America. The company anticipates it will have 140 studios by year end and is projected to have 200 studios open by 2023.

“We’re growing rapidly and as a result, we have been expanding our head office team to strengthen our infrastructure of support, so our studio owners and lash artist can focus on the customer experience,” said Jennifer Blair. “Our franchisees are a testament that the beauty business is rewarding and empowering as they get to see the confidence that comes with lashes and the value of investing in the expertise of the lash artists who build trust with members and guests who are looking for the superior and more cost-effective solution.”

Deka Lash has a mix of membership models and lash extension service offerings for a variety of signature looks including MegaVolume, TrueVolume, TrueExpress, Hybrid and Classic. The studios also offer a lash lift treatment and brow lamination.

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“Launching Prisma Ventures is yet another way Ulta Beauty innovatively leads and delivers forward-thinking retail experiences. We believe this fund presents opportunities for creative disruptors to further propel the industry forward,” said Prama Bhatt, chief digital officer, Ulta Beauty. “We set out to build lasting relationships with startups, welcoming them into our ecosystem, co-creating and experimenting in ways that tap each other’s expertise and ultimately leverage our resources to imagine – and reimagine – what’s next for retail and beauty.”

Established to accelerate innovation by nurturing long-term, strategic partnerships, the fund pairs Ulta Beauty’s size and scale with the agility and singular focus of tech startups. Beyond capital investment, Prisma Ventures provides access to the retailer’s deep expertise and resources. To optimize and meaningfully deliver disruptive technologies, fund participants will have access to Ulta Beauty’s innovation team, unparalleled consumer insights, and in-market testing opportunities.

Since its announcement at Ulta Beauty’s 2021 investor day, Prisma Ventures has partnered with and invested in a variety of start-ups including Haut.ai, Adeptmind, Revea, LUUM, and ReStyle. To date, these investments have enabled greater personalization and diagnosis within Ulta Beauty’s digital skin and hair experiences. The company does not intend for all investments to directly impact its offerings but where synergies exist, the partners will co-create to bring innovation to the market.

“Ulta Beauty’s investment was a gamechanger, providing us both with an incredible opportunity to test, learn, deploy, and scale our low-code AI innovation platform. Ulta Beauty leveraged our platform to create engaging, differentiated experiences for beauty lovers nationwide, plus it added to Iterate’s credibility,” said Jon Nordmark, co-founder, and CEO, Iterate.ai. “The collaborative spirit has been a constant throughout our six-year relationship which grew from a small agreement in 2016 into an eventual investment. Together, we’re pushing the industry forward with incredible AI-, AR-, and IoT-related innovation.”

How it Works

Prisma Ventures partners with early-stage startups that are primarily Series Seed and Series A technology companies within the following innovation pillars:

• Personalized & Data Driven Technology
• AR, VR & the Metaverse
• Technology-Powered Custom Beauty Products & In-Store Services
• Social Commerce

These pillars mirror Ulta Beauty’s digital innovation priorities and growth mindset, accounting for the majority of Prisma Ventures investments. The remaining investments are reserved for opportunistic technologies beyond the company’s core digital strategy to disrupt other facets of retail, beauty, or commerce more broadly.

The Ulta Beauty Prisma Ventures team will evaluate applicants based on five key metrics:

• Alignment with a Focus Area: Companies that align with Ulta Beauty’s four primary innovation pillars

• Leadership & Cultural Compatibility: The startups’ management experience, ability to execute, and cultural fit to enable successful collaboration
• Diligence & Risk Assessment: Successful completion of diligence across functions such as legal, technical, and business
• Business Plan & Scalability: Strength of value proposition, vision, plans to reach financial goals and scale
• IP & Differentiation: Novel capabilities, patents, and technologies

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“UB Media harnesses the power of our unmatched, first-party data from our 37 million loyal members to transform the way our brand partners can connect with beauty lovers,” said Brent Rosso, vice president, UB Media. “No one knows the beauty industry and its audience like Ulta Beauty. Our new offering reinforces our ability to engage guests where, when, and how they want to connect, with hyper-focused advertising efforts in a dynamic ecosystem and further elevates our position as brand partner of choice.”

Ulta Beauty recognizes that retail media networks are increasingly critical within the modern marketing mix and for retailers, a valuable opportunity to strengthen brand partnerships. As the country’s leading beauty retail destination, Ulta Beauty actively and proudly ideates and executes opportunities for growth for and with its brand partners. UB Media builds upon the company’s existing Digital Marketing Partner Program to provide even greater, more impactful opportunities to leverage its unparalleled Ultamate Rewards program to create more iterative opportunities within the ever-evolving omnichannel environment.

To bring UB Media to life, Ulta Beauty enriched its portfolio of ad products and channels – and will continue to do so in real time. At launch, the network offers advertising access via offsite display, videos, social and influencer as well as onsite sponsored products. Onsite display inventory on Ulta Beauty-owned properties is one of several new, core offerings activated this year. This full suite of ad inventory, experiences, and value-added services will be supplemented with additional formats in the future.

Ulta Beauty has created means to make the creative process easier for brand partners with the intent to reduce turnover time and deliver more agility and quicker speed to market. Additionally, brand partners using UB Media will have access to closed-loop campaign level reporting including audience and creative insights.

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“Our goal for this launch was to have a product and brand education platform that communicates Unilever’s positive beauty vision for people and planet, promoting inclusion and wellness with Dove being the appropriate brand for this partnership,” said Christina DiPietro, Unilever’s Team Lead for Ahold. “With Perch’s smart shelf display, our products can deliver the right product message at the right time, so the Dove brand can educate and connect more deeply with its customers.  We are thrilled to launch this platform in select Giant Food stores and bring this partnership to life with Perch and Giant connecting shoppers with our iconic Dove brand.”

Unilever incorporated Perch into an integrated end cap with a glowing logo and lit shelves, which is eye-catching and drives additional attention to Unilever’s category-leading Dove products.  The digital experience guides shoppers through each shelf of products, with product videos, ratings and reviews of the Dove line.

Perch’s digital engagement platform uses computer vision to detect product behavior at the shelf, anonymously detecting the presence of shoppers, what products they touch, and what content they engage with to bring in videos, ratings and reviews and product information for every product on the shelf, uniting the digital content shoppers crave with the physical products on retail shelves. Perch’s AI-powered approach drives 5-10x the engagement of traditional digital signage and 30-188% sales lifts according to case studies in beauty, CPG, accessories, department stores and grocery.

“We are excited to extend our partnership with Unilever to promote Dove products after such a successful earlier trial driving triple-digit sales lift.  Dove’s brand message is inspiring and we are excited to help shoppers better connect with their category-leading products,” said Perch CEO Trevor Sumner. “It’s exciting to see visionaries like Unilever use our technology to create better shopper experiences and more meaningful connections with its customers.”

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To celebrate the latest expansion to their marketplace and kick off the spring season, Shipt is partnering with Jonathan Van Ness, Emmy-nominated television personality, The New York Times best-selling author, podcaster and hairstylist,  to launch the ‘Spring So Clean Collection.’ The limited-edition shoppable collection will feature a curated list of clean beauty products from Van Ness, including spring must-have items for a complete beauty routine. From skin-softening cleansers, to dewy highlighters, to serums and hair care, the curated list will be available exclusively to Shipt shoppers now through March 31, 2022. 

“With the spring season right around the corner, what better way to welcome the warmer weather than refreshing your beauty routine by adding products such as a sunscreen with a higher SPF and a hydrating hair cream?” said Jonathan Van Ness. “And now that I can get my Sephora clean favorites delivered right to my door in as soon as an hour – no matter where I am in the country – through the personalized Shipt shopping experience, having a fabulous spring glow is easier than ever.”

As the first national beauty retailer on the Shipt marketplace, Sephora is joining over 140 retailers and adding nearly 500 locations to the platform in cities across the United States. To further showcase its commitment to creating high-quality, personalized shopping experiences, customers can earn Beauty Insider rewards from their purchases on the Shipt marketplace at checkout. The partnership is another way that Shipt continues to innovate in the same-day shopping and delivery service space by creating more diverse offerings for customers.

“We are thrilled to be entering the prestige beauty market with Sephora,” said Rina Hurst, Shipt’s Chief Business Officer. “The addition of Sephora on our expanding marketplace meets the needs of our customers by providing a convenient, personalized delivery experience of their favorite premium branded beauty products, many of which you can’t find anywhere else. Sephora demonstrates a commitment to providing a high-quality experience for their customers, a signature differentiator for Shipt, and we are thrilled to be a valued partner alongside them.”

“For Sephora, this new venture with Shipt marks a thrilling time as we share our commitment to delivering an exceptional client experience in a world where consumer needs are ever-changing,” said Carolyn Bojanowski, Senior Vice President, General Manager of eCommerce, Sephora. “As we continue to cater our offerings to meet our clients’ unique needs, it was important to us to find a partner who not only had the potential to help expand our reach to new-to-Sephora clients, but also support our current clients and new ways of experiencing beauty retail today.”

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The acquisition of Violet Grey brings industry expertise as well as a curated selection of products to be offered on the FARFETCH Marketplace, and expands the beauty curator’s reach to extend to FARFETCH’s global customer base. Violet Grey will also leverage Farfetch Platform Solutions’ expertise in technology, global logistics and operations in continuing to drive its standalone business, comprised of VioletGrey.com and its Los Angeles retail store. Upon completion, Violet Grey founder, Cassandra Grey, will become a global advisor for Beauty on the FARFETCH Marketplace and Co-founder of NGG Beauty where she will work to incubate and accelerate new brands. Grey will also be Chair of Violet Grey, providing overall strategic and creative direction and continuing to build the community that Violet Grey is known for. Niten Kapadia, previously VP Operations, FARFETCH takes the role of Managing Director for Violet Grey. Completion is subject to customary closing conditions, including the consent of Violet Grey’s existing shareholder base.

FARFETCH’s beauty proposition, which is due to launch later this year, will offer FARFETCH’s extensive Millennial and Generation Z luxury audience a unique experience for discovering and shopping for beauty. It will allow customers to access insights and expertise from multiple beauty experts and communities, including the Violet Grey community. For brand partners, FARFETCH’s expansion into Beauty provides an opportunity to reach FARFETCH’s millions of engaged luxury customers through co-branding and marketing opportunities to target the global Luxury Beauty market, estimated to be almost $USD 69 billion and the second largest category within the global Personal Luxury market, after Leather Goods, and ahead of Apparel¹.

Stephanie Phair, Chief Customer Officer, FARFETCH said,“The acquisition of Violet Grey is an important step ahead of the launch of Beauty on FARFETCH later this year and will form part of our overall beauty strategy ‘palette’. It will enable us to offer our informed and engaged customers a curated selection of the industry’s most sought-after products on the FARFETCH Marketplace, joining a world of beauty brands, from the iconic leading global brands, to smaller brands with a cult following.

Our aim for Beauty on FARFETCH is to provide the world’s most expansive, curated edit of the best products to serve customers across ages, races, cultures and genders in an ‘Only on FARFETCH’ way. We’ll be able to show our customers an immersive crossover between fashion and beauty, leveraging our innovation capabilities to offer exciting features for our customers. FARFETCH will bring together niche and global brands to transform the beauty retail experience, creating an environment that offers beauty without boundaries.

As a Marketplace, we are uniquely positioned to be able to offer multiple points of view and voices in this important category, so customers can find the products and expertise that speak to them. The addition of Violet Grey and Cassandra Grey joining the team will form an important element of this overall strategy. Cassandra has built true authority in the beauty industry and has an incredible, intuitive understanding of where beauty is going and what customers want.”

Cassandra Grey, Founder of Violet Grey said,“VIOLET GREY was founded with a simple, straightforward mission – to enable customers to feel confident in their purchase decisions. Our product is trust and we have earned that trust simply by partnering with those who are the best at what they do. This is our not-so-secret sauce, we partner with the best beauty experts to curate the best beauty brands, to ultimately serve a community of customers who subscribe to the notion that only the best will do.

We’ve had our eye on FARFETCH since its inception and I have long admired José’s love of fashion and his inspired mission to connect curators, creatives and customers in a way that revolutionizes the consumer experience and meets us wherever we are. Myself, Sarah Brown and our band of beauty editors could not be prouder or more eager to bring our love of beauty and discerning eye to the FARFETCH ecosystem. Most of all we are honored to now get to learn from José, Stephanie Phair, Holli Rogers, and all the other amazing Farfetchers. Now if you will excuse me, I am going to go call my mom and tell her I’ve made it in the world.”

About Farfetch

Farfetch Limited is the leading global platform for the luxury fashion industry. Founded in 2007 by José Neves for the love of fashion, and launched in 2008, Farfetch began as an e-commerce marketplace for luxury boutiques around the world. Today, the Farfetch Marketplace connects customers in over 190 countries and territories with items from more than 50 countries and more than 1,400 of the world’s best brands, boutiques and department stores, delivering a truly unique shopping experience and access to the most extensive selection of luxury on a single platform. Farfetch’s additional businesses include Browns and Stadium Goods, which offer luxury products to consumers, and New Guards Group, a platform for the development of global fashion brands. Farfetch offers its broad range of consumer-facing channels and enterprise level solutions to the luxury industry under its Luxury New Retail initiative. The Luxury New Retail initiative also encompasses Farfetch Platform Solutions, which services enterprise clients with e-commerce and technology capabilities, and innovations such as Store of the Future, its connected retail solution.

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Since Molton Brown turned to OneView for cloud and omnicommerce point of sale (POS) capabilities in 2018 to improve customer experiences, cloud capabilities have rapidly evolved, and customer preferences have dramatically shifted. As a result, Molton Brown has upgraded to OneView’s fully serverless and headless SaaS unified commerce cloud to enable digital-to-store engagement with a single transaction engine powering checkout anywhere.

“With stores fully live on OneView’s SaaS Unified Commerce Platform, our functionality and system performance across digital POS, inventory, promotions, and omnichannel customer engagement quickly benefited,” said Molton Brown Vice President of Global Sales Channels & Strategic Development Anjun Murari. “Given the sharp rise in digitally savvy customers, OneView gives us the robust support we need for critical in-store experiences and the full range of touchpoints that allow frictionless digital-to-store interactions.”

Aligned with goals to improve store operations that support exceptional customer experiences, Molton Brown utilizes OneView’s full-function Omnichannel Point of Sale Accelerator combined with Inventory Management and Promotions to enable a streamlined and channel-agnostic customer journey. With real-time inventory availability, future plans include further omnichannel expansion in the areas of click-and-collect, loyalty and personalization.

“We are proud to have Molton Brown as a flagship customer providing critical insights that were instrumental in the execution of our SaaS-based omnichannel point of sale of the future,” said OneView Commerce Chief Executive Officer Linda Palanza. “Their successful move to the unified commerce cloud running all U.K. and U.S. stores validates our vision that agility and iteration are the foundation of next-generation retail SaaS solutions.”

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Kelly Mahoney, Vice President of Member Marketing at Ulta Beauty, will share more details about the leading beauty retailer’s approach and partnership with SAS to drive loyalty and unique experiences in a virtual session called, Amplifying Data and Analytics to Scale: Ulta Beauty’s Personalization Vision. Register to view this session and interact virtually with SAS retail experts during NRF 2022 | SAS.   

With more than 95% sales penetration and 34 million active members in its Ultamate Rewards Program, the retailer is rich in first-party data, a powerful competitive advantage. The company sought a powerful platform to manage such volumes of critical customer-level data. Ulta Beauty chose SAS’ capabilities to create and activate unique segments into the SAS Customer Intelligence 360 engagement platform. With SAS, Ulta Beauty has turbocharged its ability to use data to better understand how customers think and what motivates them, with the goal to personalize customer journeys seamlessly across channels.

“Helping our loyal guests find beauty favorites and experiences tailored to their wants, needs and values in a timely fashion creates an even more satisfying shopping environment,” said Mahoney. “The combination of cutting-edge analytics, advanced CRM capabilities and deep retail industry expertise that SAS brings to our partnership elevates our efforts to truly personalize each customer journey.”

Benefits realized: Automating customer engagement actions builds loyalty program
Ulta Beauty relies on SAS Customer Intelligence 360 to manage a variety of marketing and customer engagement programs – from credit to loyalty, customer insights and surveys. To date, the company has seen significant results in three core areas: automation, participation and retention. By automating aspects of creation and execution, multilevel customer journeys that used to take days now finalize in minutes or hours.

“The ability to manage multiple delivery channels with a single interface that has built-in automation provides our team with strong outputs and significant time savings,” said Melissa Berscheid, Senior Director for Member Marketing Technology at Ulta Beauty. “The partnership is valuable on many levels, and the more automated we continue to become, we can offer our guests even greater possibilities.”

Membership in Ultamate Rewards is currently upwards of 95% – a remarkable loyalty program statistic. This participation encourages retention as customers seek to reach levels and statuses within the leading program.

“Understanding the customer and deploying meaningful communications are essential in today’s environment,” said Richard Widdowson, Vice President of Global Retail and Consumer Goods Solutions at SAS. “Together, Ulta Beauty and SAS have evolved customer engagement through artificial intelligence (AI) and automation to turn fast-moving data into precise actions.”

The future involves personalized customer guidance with SAS’ help
Looking forward, Ulta Beauty intends to continue using the SAS Customer Intelligence 360 to elevate individual customer journeys – making sure the right offers are delivered at the right time and in the right channels – to avoid irrelevant offers and communications oversaturation.

Additionally, reinforcement learning will be added to customer journey orchestration to help guide Ulta Beauty loyalty members in effort to deepen brand affinity and engagement. The company anticipates this personalized guidance – as opposed to pushing commonly performed by retailers – will result in improved engagement, a better overall experience, and increased margin and revenues.

“We expect our relationship with SAS to continue delivering significant results,” Berscheid concludes. “Being able to activate data in SAS Customer Intelligence 360 and apply AI and machine learning techniques, such as customer journey optimization, allows us to lead the future of customer engagement. It’s truly an exciting time.”

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With daunting shipping delays and strict carrier cut-offs as the holiday season is in full swing, this game-changing move couldn’t come at a better time. The new service from Sally Beauty provides consumers with a more convenient and accessible shopping experience. Whether shoppers are looking for last-minute gifts, or the perfect nail and hair color to express themselves confidently, they can do it with ease and speed with free, 2-hour delivery throughout the month of December on orders placed before 4:00 PM.

“We expect the holiday season will be busier than ever as things continue to open up. In-person celebrations and gifting are expected to increase versus the previous year. This is an extremely busy time for consumers, so we thought this was a great way to make the celebratory season less stressful,” said John Goss, Senior Vice President and President of Sally Beauty. “We are listening to our consumers and responding with speed to ensure their shopping needs are met when it matters most.”

“Consumers are increasingly seeking convenience and ease when it comes to getting the products they desire delivered, from everyday essentials to beauty supplies,” said Shanna Prevé, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Business Development at DoorDash. “We are excited to partner with Sally Beauty to offer same-day delivery of their wide selection of hair color, hair care, nail, and beauty supplies to consumers’ doorsteps, just in time for the holidays.”

To place a delivery order where available, shoppers can simply visit SallyBeauty.com and select same-day delivery at checkout. Once the order is placed, a Dasher will collect their order from the nearest Sally Beauty store for delivery later that day when the order is placed by 4:00 PM. Free delivery is available throughout the month of December 2021 and there is no minimum spend required to receive the same-day delivery option.

This new move is the latest addition to Sally Beauty’s ongoing transformation as a consumer demand-driven, omni-channel retailer. In addition to 2-hour same-day delivery, the retailer also offers Buy Online Pickup In-Store to make shopping easy and accessible, no matter the consumer’s need.

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