As the coronavirus pandemic forced physical retail stores to shut their doors, Ulta Beauty found a way to grow its business by 40% in calendar 2021. On this sponsored episode of the Cloud Wars Live podcast, IT Director Omar Koncobo talks with Bob Evans about how Ulta pulled off that unlikely feat. Omar shares how the Redis real-time data platform allowed Ulta to implement a brand-new curbside pickup system in just four weeks and to pursue its primary goal of delivering customers the products they want, when and where they want them.
The Big Themes:
- How Ulta grew 40% amid Covid-19 disruptions: Omar talks about the company’s innovation department and the remarkable 4-week turnaround it achieved for introducing curbside pickup at all physical locations.
- Merging the physical and digital: Ulta aims to dazzle customers with a seamless experience, no matter where they’re shopping. Omar describes what that would look like from the customer’s perspective and what Ulta’s doing in terms of increasing personalization.
- The power of data and Redis: In addition to making Ulta’s backend systems faster and more efficient, Redis has helped simplify the entire process of upgrading Ulta’s technology platform.
The Big Quote: “What we don’t want to do is just put something out there because Omar wanted it, but millions of customers don’t even care about it. So, data is key. Data helps us make the right decisions; data helps us to make the right investment. With data we can be sure that we’re actually delivering what our customers are looking for.”
