Innovating Customer Experience with Low-Code: Ulta Beauty’s Success Story
In today’s fast-paced world, staying ahead of the curve is essential for businesses to thrive. Ulta Beauty, the largest beauty retailer in the US, understands this all too well. With a dedicated innovation team led by Michelle Pacynski, the VP of digital innovation, Ulta has been at the forefront of leveraging new and emerging technologies to enhance the customer experience.
One of the key strategies Ulta has adopted is the use of low-code and gen AI platforms to quickly develop and deploy customer-facing apps and experiences. By utilizing an enterprise low-code AI platform called Interplay, Ulta has been able to experiment, innovate, and test new ideas at a rapid pace. This approach has enabled them to build and test new innovations about 10 times faster than traditional development methods, giving them a competitive edge in the industry.
Flexibility, scalability, and searchability are also crucial factors for Ulta. With low-code solutions like Interplay, Ulta has the flexibility to quickly plug in and out different services, making experimentation less risky. This has allowed them to easily move from experimentation to production, speeding up the process of transforming ideas into fully deployed applications. Additionally, low-code has helped Ulta improve product search capabilities and personalize recommendations for millions of customers every day.
Securing buy-in from the business for these innovative approaches hasn’t been easy, but showcasing tangible results has been key. By using Interplay to enable curbside pickup across all their stores in just a couple of weeks during the pandemic, Ulta demonstrated the value of their low-code strategy. Pacynski emphasizes the importance of setting clear development timeframes to ensure that experiments yield tangible results and learnings.
In a competitive industry where customer experience is paramount, Ulta Beauty’s innovative use of low-code and gen AI technologies has set them apart from the competition. By embracing experimentation, flexibility, and scalability, Ulta continues to push boundaries and deliver exceptional experiences to their customers. As technology continues to evolve, Ulta’s commitment to innovation ensures that they will remain at the forefront of the beauty retail industry.
