In this interview recorded live from the VusionGroup Podcast Studio at NRF 2025, Josh Friedman, Head of Digital Strategy and Transformation at Ulta Beauty, discusses the company’s approach to revolutionizing customer experiences. From leveraging AI for personalized content to transforming e-commerce and loyalty strategies, Josh provides valuable insights into how Ulta is staying ahead in the beauty retail industry.

Key Moments:

• 0:50 – Josh Friedman introduces his role at Ulta and background in e-commerce.
• 1:30 – How Ulta prioritizes technology investments after annual planning.
• 2:20 – The importance of personalization and the role of Ulta’s loyalty program.
• 4:45 – AI’s impact on real-time content creation and personalization.
• 6:30 – The challenges and key elements of successful retail transformation.
• 8:00 – Josh’s serendipitous approach to discovering innovation at NRF.

#nrf2025 #ultabeauty #retailindustry

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

Anne Mazinga: 00:00:00

Hello, everyone.

Anne Mazinga: 00:00:01

This is Omnitok Retail.

Anne Mazinga: 00:00:02

I'm Anne Mazinga.

Chris Walton: 00:00:03

And I'm Chris Walton.

Anne Mazinga: 00:00:04

the Fusion group booth number: 4938

Anne Mazinga: 00:00:08

Chris, did you know this is the third largest booth at NRF?

Chris Walton: 00:00:11

I did not know that, Anne.

Chris Walton: 00:00:13

Is it, is that calculated?

Chris Walton: 00:00:15

That's a calculable thing, I guess.

Anne Mazinga: 00:00:18

I haven't fact checked, but I probably.

Chris Walton: 00:00:20

At least word on the street says that it's the third largest booth.

Anne Mazinga: 00:00:22

Word on the street says that we are in the third largest booth.

Josh Friedman: 00:00:25

So.

Anne Mazinga: 00:00:25

So we are of third greatest importance at nrs.

Chris Walton: 00:00:28

Wow.

Chris Walton: 00:00:29

I feel really big time right now.

Anne Mazinga: 00:00:31

We know why we're big time because.

Chris Walton: 00:00:32

We have a gentleman standing in between us.

Anne Mazinga: 00:00:34

We do.

Anne Mazinga: 00:00:34

We have Josh Friedman standing in between us of Ulta.

Anne Mazinga: 00:00:38

Josh, welcome to Omni Talk.

Anne Mazinga: 00:00:41

We're really excited to have you today.

Anne Mazinga: 00:00:43

Your role, head of digital strategy and transformation at Ulta Beauty.

Anne Mazinga: 00:00:48

Is that right?

Josh Friedman: 00:00:49

That is the title they gave me.

Chris Walton: 00:00:51

All right, title they gave you.

Chris Walton: 00:00:52

Well, tell us, tell us about your background and, and what that title actually entails.

Chris Walton: 00:00:57

What all are you responsible for in your job?

Josh Friedman: 00:00:59

Yeah, it's really two things for us.

Josh Friedman: 00:01:01

At Ulta, I do digital product management.

Josh Friedman: 00:01:04

I run all of our product teams and I also lead our agile transformation.

Josh Friedman: 00:01:08

So what we build and how we build it.

Chris Walton: 00:01:11

Okay, I didn't know that.

Anne Mazinga: 00:01:13

All right, so I want to talk to you a little bit, Josh, about how you prioritize then, what technologies you're coming to look at here at the, at NRF's big show.

Anne Mazinga: 00:01:25

How do you kind of think about that in your role?

Josh Friedman: 00:01:28

Yeah, the show comes at a really good time for us, really, because we just come out of annual planning.

Anne Mazinga: 00:01:33

Okay.

Josh Friedman: 00:01:33

So we've set our priorities as a company for the year.

Josh Friedman: 00:01:37

We know what our major thrusts are going to be, where our major investments.

Josh Friedman: 00:01:40

So when we show up here, we kind of know who we're looking for and what types of things we're looking for, trying to do next year.

Josh Friedman: 00:01:48

And that's really how we set our strategies.

Josh Friedman: 00:01:50

Roadmap.

Josh Friedman: 00:01:50

We do it as a company, we do it as a business first.

Josh Friedman: 00:01:53

And then from a product and technology perspective, we obviously line up behind that to see what we can support, how fast we can accelerate our efforts to line up behind the company's priorities.

Anne Mazinga: 00:02:04

And are there a few things that kind of bubble to the top of that priorities list for you?

Josh Friedman: 00:02:08

Yes, and they're probably the expected things.

Josh Friedman: 00:02:12

Personalization's a bit big one for us.

Josh Friedman: 00:02:14

And listen, at Ulta, we Have an amazing loyalty program because we have an amazing customer base, but we have 44 million loyalty members.

Josh Friedman: 00:02:24

95% of our sales come from our loyalty program.

Anne Mazinga: 00:02:27

Yeah.

Josh Friedman: 00:02:27

So our opportunity, but really our obligation to give good, relevant experiences to those customers is at our forefront.

Josh Friedman: 00:02:35

And so we're really excited about a lot of the technologies, a lot.

Josh Friedman: 00:02:39

Lot of the partners we're seeing that are going to help us take advantage of the trust our customers put in us.

Chris Walton: 00:02:45

Yeah.

Chris Walton: 00:02:45

So, Josh, you mentioned personalization.

Chris Walton: 00:02:47

And, you know, your background, which, you know, we, you know, in the beginning we were saying, like, what's your background?

Chris Walton: 00:02:51

And talking to you before we got started, your background is steep in E commerce.

Chris Walton: 00:02:55

You started with Dell, then you had stints at J.C.

Chris Walton: 00:02:57

penney's and others.

Chris Walton: 00:02:58

How do you.

Chris Walton: 00:02:59

So two questions for you.

Chris Walton: 00:03:00

How do you think about that term personalization?

Chris Walton: 00:03:01

It's a very loaded term in a lot of ways.

Chris Walton: 00:03:03

How do you think about it?

Chris Walton: 00:03:05

And then how do you evaluate what technologies are going to work for you or not work for you as you try to accomplish, you know, something in the personalization realm this year?

Josh Friedman: 00:03:14

Yeah.

Josh Friedman: 00:03:15

Well, for us, it's three things.

Josh Friedman: 00:03:16

One is we want to know as much as we can about our customers.

Josh Friedman: 00:03:19

And thankfully, our customers are willing to share a lot.

Josh Friedman: 00:03:21

We're in a space of beauty and wellness.

Josh Friedman: 00:03:25

Our customers.

Anne Mazinga: 00:03:25

You know more about me than Chris probably does.

Josh Friedman: 00:03:28

That could be.

Josh Friedman: 00:03:29

But it's not you personally, but it's really because you're willing to share that with us.

Anne Mazinga: 00:03:33

Right.

Josh Friedman: 00:03:33

Because it means so much to your person.

Josh Friedman: 00:03:35

Personal.

Chris Walton: 00:03:35

Because you're an open book, Ann.

Anne Mazinga: 00:03:37

It's when it comes to my beauty and skincare routine.

Chris Walton: 00:03:40

My beauty regimen.

Anne Mazinga: 00:03:41

Yes.

Josh Friedman: 00:03:42

So we're always looking for partners in technology to help us gather that, organize it, keep it handy.

Josh Friedman: 00:03:49

Second thing is.

Chris Walton: 00:03:50

So data collection, is that what that means?

Josh Friedman: 00:03:52

Yeah.

Josh Friedman: 00:03:52

Zero party.

Josh Friedman: 00:03:53

First party.

Josh Friedman: 00:03:54

All the parties.

Chris Walton: 00:03:54

All the parties.

Chris Walton: 00:03:55

It's a party.

Josh Friedman: 00:03:56

It's always a party at Ulta.

Josh Friedman: 00:03:57

And the second thing is we want to make sure that we take that data and understand what.

Josh Friedman: 00:04:02

What that means we should be focusing on with you.

Josh Friedman: 00:04:05

So whether it's your regimen, whether it's a promotion, whether it's a new brand that we're going to offer you, those will always mean different things to different people.

Josh Friedman: 00:04:14

So organizing that and prioritizing what we should do, and then comes decisioning.

Josh Friedman: 00:04:19

Right.

Josh Friedman: 00:04:19

Which is always the hard part.

Josh Friedman: 00:04:21

We only have a fleeting moment with each customer, as all of the retailers do, and we want to make sure we make the most of it for us.

Josh Friedman: 00:04:27

And for you.

Josh Friedman: 00:04:28

And then the last thing is obviously to put content in front of it.

Josh Friedman: 00:04:33

So what's really crazy and coming on strong is the ability to come up with new content and offers in almost real time that look exactly like what you want them to look like and what you want them to look like without having to spend a ton of time in the creative value chain producing those.

Josh Friedman: 00:04:51

And so we're really on the lookout for some of those technologies here.

Chris Walton: 00:04:55

Got it.

Chris Walton: 00:04:55

So, so basically, if I say, if I wrap up what you said, so it's.

Chris Walton: 00:04:58

It's data, it's insights, and then it's activation.

Chris Walton: 00:05:00

So dia.

Chris Walton: 00:05:01

Really, those three things that you're trying.

Josh Friedman: 00:05:03

To accomplish, decisions, and the content, those are really two.

Josh Friedman: 00:05:07

Two.

Chris Walton: 00:05:08

Two separate pieces of that third pillar.

Josh Friedman: 00:05:10

Yeah.

Josh Friedman: 00:05:11

Four things.

Josh Friedman: 00:05:11

Yeah.

Anne Mazinga: 00:05:11

How.

Anne Mazinga: 00:05:12

How much does AI play into kind of the foundation of what you're exploring as you're trying to build or find partners to help build.

Anne Mazinga: 00:05:19

Build the content part of that and really personalizing it to me, even with, like, you know, that I, you know, like a pink shade of lipstick versus a red shade or something like.

Josh Friedman: 00:05:30

Well, and even to know which ones are pink and which ones are red and which ones are fusion.

Josh Friedman: 00:05:34

Right?

Josh Friedman: 00:05:34

Yeah.

Josh Friedman: 00:05:35

Well, I would be a fool to say that it's not a big part of it.

Josh Friedman: 00:05:39

It's a huge part of it.

Anne Mazinga: 00:05:40

Yeah.

Josh Friedman: 00:05:41

I'll have an easier time getting off the floor here if I say it's not a big part of it.

Josh Friedman: 00:05:45

But besides that, it's gotta be huge to understand our products, understand our customers, do that decisioning.

Josh Friedman: 00:05:53

It's happening in near real time and with humans that we have on staff that have a lot of great experience to help us train models, and the models coming on like gangbusters, It's a huge opportunity.

Anne Mazinga: 00:06:06

Well, I wanna dive into another question, Josh.

Anne Mazinga: 00:06:10

When we're talking about your role as really working to transform where Alta is headed in the future, what have you found in your experience?

Anne Mazinga: 00:06:21

And it could be pulling from previous experience at Alta, but what have you found has to be true about the people, the process, the technologies in the day to day in order for a transformation to be successful, or for you to be able to move these ideas from concept to scale or to store.

Josh Friedman: 00:06:39

Great question.

Josh Friedman: 00:06:40

Because we're here watching all this technology, and it's kind of the least hard part of it.

Chris Walton: 00:06:46

Oh, what?

Anne Mazinga: 00:06:46

Yeah.

Chris Walton: 00:06:46

Okay.

Josh Friedman: 00:06:47

Say more.

Josh Friedman: 00:06:48

Yeah.

Josh Friedman: 00:06:48

So for us as humans to keep up with what we can do and think a little differently, we're all growing our careers and trying to get better and better at our jobs.

Josh Friedman: 00:06:57

And the truth is our jobs are like, need to be much different than they were.

Josh Friedman: 00:07:01

So that's a tough.

Josh Friedman: 00:07:02

Yeah, a tough thing to swallow and to get used to.

Josh Friedman: 00:07:05

So getting people thinking about the customer instead of the channel or the customer instead of the product or the customer instead of the brand is a big difference.

Anne Mazinga: 00:07:13

Is it still a challenge?

Anne Mazinga: 00:07:15

I mean.

Josh Friedman: 00:07:15

Well, for all of us.

Josh Friedman: 00:07:16

I mean, I put myself at the center of that, but for all of us to think in that.

Josh Friedman: 00:07:20

In that manner, like, because we can.

Josh Friedman: 00:07:22

Is a big.

Josh Friedman: 00:07:22

Is a big deal.

Josh Friedman: 00:07:23

And then the other thing is velocity, right?

Josh Friedman: 00:07:25

We as companies, as brands, as, you know, fiduciaries of our shareholders, all those things, we want to make sure we're making really good, careful decisions, but we have to move quickly.

Josh Friedman: 00:07:37

We have to execute quickly, but we also have to make decisions really quickly.

Josh Friedman: 00:07:41

And that's part of the transformation journey that we're on.

Chris Walton: 00:07:45

So let's get you out of here on this, Josh.

Chris Walton: 00:07:46

So, you know you mentioned the show, right?

Chris Walton: 00:07:49

We're here at nrf.

Chris Walton: 00:07:50

Big deal.

Chris Walton: 00:07:50

Big show.

Chris Walton: 00:07:51

Everyone congregates here in all of retail for the most part, especially in the spaces in which you occupy.

Chris Walton: 00:07:56

We always ask our executives this question, like, how do you approach this show?

Chris Walton: 00:08:00

Like, what are your do's and don'ts to be successful at nrf?

Josh Friedman: 00:08:04

My favorite thing to do at the show is literally to walk probably to the back half.

Josh Friedman: 00:08:10

This is gonna upset this third largest booth and all the big booths up here at the front.

Josh Friedman: 00:08:15

I like to walk to the back half, and I literally just like to walk up to some random booth and just start talking to them.

Josh Friedman: 00:08:20

I love to hear about their products and their technology, but I like to just talk to the people and find out, how'd you get here?

Josh Friedman: 00:08:25

How'd you pick over here?

Josh Friedman: 00:08:27

Like, is it worth it for you?

Josh Friedman: 00:08:29

So I love to just wander in the back half of the.

Josh Friedman: 00:08:31

Of the floor if I can.

Anne Mazinga: 00:08:33

I love that strategy.

Josh Friedman: 00:08:35

Some small folks, we were just up at the Innovator showcase and on a tour, and our best visit was somebody that we just kind of peeled off and said hello to and look forward to meeting them in the future.

Josh Friedman: 00:08:47

So.

Chris Walton: 00:08:47

So for you, there's an element of serendipitous discovery then?

Josh Friedman: 00:08:50

There really is, yeah.

Chris Walton: 00:08:51

Versus being really intentful.

Chris Walton: 00:08:52

And it goes every which way.

Chris Walton: 00:08:55

Every executive we talk to has a different approach.

Chris Walton: 00:08:56

Some people are really intentful.

Chris Walton: 00:08:58

Some people want to leave time for serendipitous discovery.

Chris Walton: 00:09:01

And for those watching, there are three huge floors of technology solutions providers here at the TI center, which is massive, and there's three full floors devoted to technology solutions.

Chris Walton: 00:09:12

So you can spend a lot of time on just walking around and seeing what floats your boat and gets your eye.

Chris Walton: 00:09:17

Right?

Josh Friedman: 00:09:17

Yeah, you could.

Josh Friedman: 00:09:18

But I will tell you right now, in a few months, I'm not here to announce it, but we'll be putting in a platform from a partner I found here last year that we started talking to at the show.

Josh Friedman: 00:09:28

At the show, and they're going in later this year.

Chris Walton: 00:09:31

And that's.

Chris Walton: 00:09:31

And that's why this is important.

Anne Mazinga: 00:09:33

Yes.

Chris Walton: 00:09:33

Yeah.

Anne Mazinga: 00:09:34

And why it's important for all of you who are at home watching, who are here watching to make sure that you are doing exactly what Josh just mentioned.

Anne Mazinga: 00:09:43

Check out the innovation area.

Anne Mazinga: 00:09:45

Check out the.

Anne Mazinga: 00:09:46

The start at the back floor.

Chris Walton: 00:09:47

Work your way around, you know.

Anne Mazinga: 00:09:49

Well, we want to thank everybody.

Anne Mazinga: 00:09:51

This concludes our day one of NRF coverage.

Anne Mazinga: 00:09:55

he Fusion group booth, number: 4938

Chris Walton: 00:10:01

Tomorrow morning and Tuesday, bright and early.

Anne Mazinga: 00:10:03

So make sure to check back with Omntok here.

Anne Mazinga: 00:10:06

And until then, be careful out there.