In this 5 Insightful Minutes episode, recorded live from NRF 2026 at the Vusion podcast studio, Josh Friedman, SVP of Digital and E-Commerce at Ulta Beauty, reveals how the company's invite-only marketplace strategy is delivering results that exceed expectations, and why they're already graduating digital sellers into brick-and-mortar stores.

From the "digital mezzanine" concept that extends beyond traditional beauty categories to in-store returns for all marketplace items, Josh breaks down how Ulta maintains brand authenticity while exploring wellness, grooming, and beauty tech. He shares insights on launching before holiday peak freeze, why 99% of marketplace brands are actively selling, return rates well below expectations, and the strategic test-and-learn approach that's moving successful marketplace sellers into physical stores.

If you've wondered how to launch a marketplace that protects brand integrity while driving growth, this conversation delivers the blueprint.

🔑 Topics covered:

-The "digital mezzanine" strategy: expanding beyond the physical store floor

-Why Ulta chose invite-only vs. open marketplace model

-150 brands strong in adjacent categories (wellness, grooming, beauty tech)

-Protecting authenticity: no diversion, no distributors, only invited brands

-Launching before holiday peak freeze: planning and execution

-In-store returns for all marketplace items across every location

-99% of marketplace brands actively selling and moving inventory

-Return rates well below expectations

-Test-and-learn approach: graduating marketplace sellers to brick-and-mortar

-Balancing speed vs. standards in marketplace expansion

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#ultabeauty #marketplace #retailstrategy #ecommerce #omnitalk #beautyretail #retailinnovation #digitalmezzanine #marketplacestrategy #omnichannel #retailpodcast

Joining us now for five insightful minutes live from the Vuzion podcast studio at NRF is Josh Friedman.

Josh is the SVP of digital and E commerce at Ulta Beauty, and this is the second time he's interviewing with us, and he is here to discuss Ulta's recent marketplace initiative.

Josh, welcome back to omnitalk.

And let's start with this.

Thank you.

Tell us why Ulta thought it was important for the business to prioritize a marketplace initiative.

Yeah.

Well, last time we talked, we were talking about this concept.

Conceptually.

I remember we're here, and a lot of the things that we were strategically looking at are still true.

We wanted a platform where we could bring more brands and more importantly, more categories to life for our customers.

Our guests ask us all the time if they can buy other things that are adjacent to the beauty category, especially wellness, but grooming, beauty, tech, all these other types of categories that, quite honestly, we just don't have room on the quote, unquote, main floor of our store.

Yeah.

So we wanted to build what we call the digital mezzanine for all of these.

Digital mezzanine for all these other categories.

And that's what we've done.

We're now 150 brands strong into our journey and really seeing great results.

Well, your strategy for selecting marketplace sellers for that mezzanine from the outside appears to be highly strategic, Josh, and that has some nuance.

Can you summarize the strategy and explain why you went the route that you did?

Yeah, we really did.

I men very curated.

We're only looking for adjacent categories.

We do also look for some up and coming brands, global brands, in our core categories, but it's really about the adjacent ones.

And then we are completely invite only, so we do not open up to sellers, distributors, only the ones that we reach out to, and we invite in.

And that's been working really well for us.

Huge.

And Beauty, we thought that was really important for us to make sure that our guests felt confident that everything we were selling@ Ulta.com was authentic and exactly what they were hoping for.

We don't really want to play in diversion or any other types of categories like that.

So we take a lot of pride and probably could be moving a little faster if we didn't have some of those standards.

But we think it's important.

Yeah, it's important.

So, Josh, my next question is, you know your marketplace went live right before the holidays.

So my first question is, one, are you insane?

And then two, how'd it go?

What can you Tell us.

Well, we launched it before the peak freeze, Chris.

Okay.

Remember, that's kind of.

That matters.

Yes.

Right.

In retail.

No, we are not insane.

We were ready for it, and we even got a few things in that we weren't even necessarily planning.

And the team gets all the credit for this.

We now take returns for all of our marketplace items in every store to make sure that that's easy and convenient for our customers.

And that's working really well.

Everything's going well.

We're seeing results that are both quantitative beyond our expectations and really the qualitative results, too.

99% of our brands seeing excuse actively selling and moving.

Our returns rates are well below our expectations so far.

So we're really excited.

Sounds additive.

It sounds like just the beginning.

Josh, of.

Of what will be a very fruitful initiative at ulta.

What are you most excited about in the year ahead as you continue to see this grow?

Yeah, we're going to continue to grow in the categories.

We prioritize.

We've got a few new categories coming up.

And the other thing we're really excited about, which was always part of the agenda, was test and learn.

And you'll start seeing some of our marketpl sellers graduate into our brick and mortar channel this year.

So we're really excited about that, too.

All right, well, thank you, Josh.

Thanks for having me.

Thanks, Josh.