How Ulta Beauty Is Building Loyalty

Like many other retailers, Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ: ULTA) closed its physical stores in mid-March. Predictably, the company had a challenging fiscal first quarter (ended May 2). Ulta's same-store sales (comps), which include the closed locations, dropped 35.3%, and the company had a $101.5 million operating loss compared to operating income of $237.5 million in the year-ago period.

This sounds dismal, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The company started opening stores and offering pick-up service at certain locations. At the end of May, more than 25% of its 1,264 stores were open to the public, and two-thirds of its locations provided pick-up service.

Ulta Beauty was doing well before the pandemic, producing positive annual comps since at least fiscal 2003, which is as far back as the public data goes since the company went public in 2007. Last year, its comps were up 5%.

Source Fool.com