Target Is Building Its Own Beauty Destination. Does the Customer Want the Experience That Comes With It?
Target's five-year partnership with Ulta Beauty has ended, but Target is not stepping back from beauty. The more interesting question may not be what Target puts on the shelves. It may be what customers expect from the people standing beside them.
1. Target is not simply replacing Ulta's square footage
Target describes Beauty Studio as a specialty beauty experience built around discovery, inspiration and personalized guidance. The concept includes product testing, sampling, rotating product features and dedicated Beauty Advisors offering recommendations based on guests' needs and routines — specialty-level presentation with the accessibility, convenience and value its customers already associate with Target.
2. A higher-touch customer promise requires a different talent capability
Putting dedicated Beauty Advisors into the experience means execution is no longer only about product availability, merchandising and transaction. Advisors need enough category knowledge to help customers navigate unfamiliar brands, discover products, understand trends and feel confident buying. Scaling that across more than 600 stores is a significant recruiting, training and workforce planning undertaking.
"The question is not whether Target can recruit at scale. It is what combination of beauty expertise, service capability and training the new customer promise requires."
3. Target may not need to recreate the Ulta experience at all
A customer walking into Ulta may arrive specifically to shop beauty. A Target customer may be buying groceries, household products or children's clothing when beauty becomes part of the trip. Target says its customers want both their familiar staples and the chance to explore what is new. That creates room for an experience between mass retail and specialty beauty: more discovery and expertise than a conventional aisle, with less friction than a dedicated specialty trip.
The counterweight
More service is not automatically better service. Target's customer may not expect, or even want, the level of consultation associated with a specialty beauty retailer. Success may depend on determining where human expertise genuinely improves the experience and where customers simply want convenience, value and the freedom to browse.
There is also reason for confidence. Beauty is already one of Target's strongest businesses, and management has identified Beauty Studio as part of a broader strategy to return the company to sustainable growth. The end of the partnership does not require one retailer to win and the other to lose — Ulta remains a formidable specialty competitor with strong recent results. Target may simply occupy a different place in the consumer's routine.
The takeaway
The most important question may not be whether Target can recreate Ulta. It may be whether Target can identify which parts of a specialty beauty experience its own customer actually values, then build the assortment, service model, training and talent to deliver those elements consistently at Target scale.
Define the customer promise first. Then define the talent required to deliver it.
Target already has the products, the stores and the customer traffic. Now the customer gets to decide how much beauty expertise belongs in the Target experience.
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Start the Conversation →1. Target. Target Beauty Studio launch announcement and concept details. 2026.
2. Target. Second quarter 2026 results, including beauty category and companywide net sales growth.