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STORES

Retail Brew

As Ulta Beauty continues to grow, it’s given its store design strategy a makeover.

The beauty retailer, which operates more than 1,500 stores visited by 47 million loyalty customers, continues to benefit from CEO Kecia Steelman’s Ulta Beauty Unleashed turnaround plan unveiled last year. In Q1, its net sales rose 11.1% YoY, with comparable sales growing 5.3%.

Its evolving store strategy, including international expansion, experiential design, and a focus on brand-building, have contributed to this growth. And it’s not slowing down: This month, the retailer debuted a new immersive partnership with Supergirl in stores, and announced that it will open a new “experiential” store in Time Square in late 2027,” that will “serve not just the New York area, but have a global presence around it,” Paul Loux, VP of store design and experience at Ulta Beauty, told Retail Brew.

In a firechat chat at our recent IRL event, Loux broke down the retailer’s recent news and evolving experiential store strategy.

Keep reading here.—EC

Sponsored By Vibes

Once it’s sent, it’s sent

No regrets. Just texts.

With 99% open rates and 9x the clickthrough rate of email, Vibes shares that mobile messaging works. But it’s also a channel where a mistake can’t easily be undone. (You know how you only notice a typo once you send something?)

On a serious note, every message comes with a carrier fee whether it lands correctly or not, and the wrong send at the wrong time can mean legal exposure.

Vibes spent the last year collecting real mobile messaging mistakes from brands: texts sent at 2am, accidentally duplicated campaigns, too much crammed into a single MMS image, and more.

Check out their new guide, 10 Mobile Messaging Mistakes Brands Make—and How to Avoid Them, if you’re curious about what industry peers are sending—and to avoid ending up on the blooper reel.

TECH

Your place or AI?

Illustration: Anna Kim, Photo: Adobe Stock

It’s all fun and games until the majority of your workforce suddenly becomes AI builders—and needs new and improved guardrails to prevent security havoc.

That’s the predicament faced by numerous companies thanks to the rise of vibe coding, and retail giant Walmart is no exception.

All in on AI. Walmart has been gearing up its workforce for the AI era. During a June 3 press briefing at its annual Associates Week, Walmart Global Chief Technology Officer and Chief Development Officer Suresh Kumar said associates are now leveraging AI tools like Code Puppy, Walmart’s internal vibe-coding platform.

“Right now, we have as many non-technical associates who are now able to do things that require technology as we have engineers,” Kumar said. The retailer also announced the general availability of its OpenAI certification program to US associates to bolster AI literacy across its workforce.

Keep reading here on IT Brew.—BM

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR & TRENDS

Father figures

Getty Images

Consumers are changing the way they approach Father’s Day, starting with the most important part of any holiday: the gifts.

According to PwC’s latest consumer poll, 72% of consumers planned to spend an average of $93 on physical gifts such as clothing and shoes, while 7 in 10 expected to spend about $60 on dining experiences.

That focus on experiences may be driven in part by dads themselves; 70% of those surveyed thought fathers would prefer experiences and quality time over traditional gifts, while 51% of shoppers planned to purchase an experience to mark the occasion.

But does a subscription count as an experience? It does to the 45% of respondents planning to buy at least one subscription gift for Father’s Day. The most popular categories were food and beverage (22%), video streaming (16%), and gaming (16%).

Keep reading here.—JS

Sponsored By Quizlet

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Level up your career with these resources from our sponsors!

A competitive advantage isn’t just getting shoppers in the door—it could be priming them *before* arrival

From side hustle to scale, Founder Brew covers the moments that define founders

SWAPPING SKUS

Today’s top retail reads.

Daily dose of charm: Bath & Body Works is chasing the next generation of shoppers with a bigger digital footprint and bolder marketing playbook. (the Wall Street Journal)

Time is money: Rolex bumped up the prices of its gold watches for the second time this year. (Reuters)

Trust issues: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is reportedly among the tech leaders who have raised security concerns about Anthropic’s most advanced AI models. (Fortune)

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