Ouai Planning to Launch in all 1,200 Ulta Stores

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Celebrity hairstylist and Ouai founder Jen Atkin is taking the biggest step yet in expanding her beauty empire.

On 1 January, Atkin’s hair and bodycare brand will launch in all 1,200 Ulta Beauty stores, broadening its retail reach across the US. The brand launched online on Ulta.com on 1 January. Ulta, the largest beauty retailer in the country, is the brand’s most significant wholesale partnership to date. Currently, Ouai is sold in more than 400 Sephora doors after launching there in 2016, as well as in select Nordstrom, Urban Outfitters and Space NK stores.

At Ulta, the brand will start by selling its 12 top-performing products, including the Scalp & Body Scrub and Super Dry Shampoo. For the first six weeks, Ouai will fully take over Ulta’s front-of-store nesting tables, making it the first brand to do so. Over time, more of the brand’s products will be available at the retailer, and in January, Ouai’s fragrance collection will launch on Ulta.com, to enter stores in February. After debuting with a line of haircare products sold online in 2016, Ouai has expanded to include items like body wash, lotion and supplements.

“Ulta believes as we do that we’re a unique brand in that we’ve broadened and expanded to be more[ cross-category ],” says Ouai chief executive Colin Walsh, who joined the company from DevaCurl in 2018. Atkin attributes the move to customer demand, saying that Ouai gets hundreds of direct messages on social media inquiring about Ulta since the retailer has reach in the US that Sephora doesn’t.

The move also highlights the continued importance of a bricks-and-mortar retail strategy for brands born online. In November, direct-to-consumer brand Glossier announced it would start selling select products in Nordstrom to test retail partnerships; other brands, like ColourPop and Morphe, already sell at Ulta.

“Being in all of their doors in markets and neighbourhoods that we weren’t easy to find in before expands the number of people we can interact with every day,” says Walsh. “It’s also important in our category to allow people to pick up the bottle and smell it.” Walsh sees the strategy as a way to fuel growth for a brand that, he reports, is already growing fast. Sales are expected to double in 2020, and Ouai’s team has grown to 32 employees.