Dive Brief:
- Over the next month, Ulta Beauty is enabling agentic commerce in Google’s AI Mode in search and the Gemini app, the beauty retailer announced Wednesday.
- While searching in Gemini or AI Mode in search, Ulta Beauty shoppers can receive product recommendations, compare items and make purchases through the Google interface.
- The retailer is also launching Ulta AI, a shopping assistant underpinned by Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience software. The tool, which is on the retailer’s website and will soon roll out to its app, will help shoppers find the right products and browse product recommendations.
Dive Insight:
After previewing its AI aspirations earlier this year, Ulta Beauty’s AI strategy is beginning to take shape.
During a National Retail Federation conference in January, Ulta Beauty CEO Kecia Steelman noted that AI could help the retailer harness its trove of customer data to provide more personalized, predictive product recommendations.
Ulta said it has been an early collaborator with Google to understand how the emerging commerce model could function for beauty, a product category that relies on consumer trust and discovery. The AI assistant will ultimately complement the retailer’s in-store staff, the company said.
“Ulta Beauty has always been about inspiring guests’ discovery through trusted expertise and curated choice,” Lauren Brindley, chief merchandising and digital officer at Ulta Beauty, said in a press release. “Now, we’re extending that same strength into AI-powered shopping experiences, making beauty discovery more seamless, personalized and shoppable wherever it happens.”
Along with Ulta Beauty, Google has brought another major retailer to Gemini: Walmart. In January, Walmart said it would allow Gemini users to discover Walmart and Sam’s Club merchandise when searching for products, but shoppers will need to buy them via Walmart’s checkout environment.
As Google provides the digital infrastructure for Ulta AI, other retailers have also integrated their product assortments into Google and OpenAI’s infrastructure and launched their own AI tools. While Target, Walmart and Etsy have entered into partnerships with AI purveyors earlier this year, Amazon and Walmart have each developed their own AI shopping assistants.
While retailers integrate AI into more of their operations, some consumers are relying more on these tools to sift through a sea of products. While more than half of shoppers are using AI shopping platforms to reduce the risk of making bad purchases, 62% of Gen Zers and millennials said they prefer to shop using AI-powered tools for that reason, according to a survey from The Harris Poll and Quad released this month.
