Ulta + Google Gemini

Ulta Beauty said on April 22 that it is putting Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence into search, chat and checkout, starting with a new “Ulta AI” shopping assistant. (ulta.com) The retailer said shoppers will be able to browse Ulta’s assortment inside Google’s AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app over the next month, with eligible purchases completed inside Google’s conversational interfaces. (ulta.com) On Ulta’s own channels, the company said Ulta AI is live on Ulta.com and will roll out to the Ulta Beauty app soon through Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience, Google Cloud’s retail-focused assistant platform. (ulta.com) (cloud.google.com) Ulta is moving into a Google shopping push that began in January, when Google introduced what it called “agentic commerce” tools and an open standard for retailers to connect product catalogs to artificial intelligence agents. (blog.google) That changes where beauty shopping can start. Instead of filtering a catalog page, a shopper can ask for a routine for dry skin, compare products in chat and move straight to checkout from the answer. (ulta.com) (forbes.com) Beauty is a hard category for that kind of system because recommendations depend on shade, skin type, ingredient preferences, price and product compatibility, which means retailers need cleaner product data and more explicit regimen rules than a standard search bar requires. (forbes.com) (cloud.google.com) Ulta has been building toward this for years with Google Cloud tools, including a Virtual Beauty Advisor that Google said increased sales and reduced returns, plus GLAMLab, its augmented-reality try-on feature. (cloud.google.com 1) (cloud.google.com 2) The company has the scale to test whether conversational shopping changes behavior: Ulta says it has more than 1,500 locations and is the largest specialty beauty retailer in the United States. (ulta.com 1) (ulta.com 2) For Google, the deal gives AI Mode and the Gemini app a beauty partner with a large catalog and established loyalty habits. For Ulta, it puts product discovery one step earlier, inside the question a shopper asks before she reaches a retailer’s site. (ulta.com) (forbes.com)