Ulta 2008 Annual Report Download - page 18

Customer loyalty programs — The Club at Ulta
The strategy of our customer loyalty program, which we initiated in 1996, is to engage, motivate and reward
existing Ulta customers while increasing our customer count and sales. We have approximately six million
customer loyalty program members, the majority of whom have shopped at one of our stores within the past
12 months. Customers sign up to become members in-store and receive free gifts four times a year, with the
value of such gifts based on customers’ spending levels. We also send reward certificates to members in our
catalogs.
Staffing and operations
Retail
Our current Ulta store format is typically staffed with a general manager, a salon manager, four assistant
managers, and approximately twenty full and part-time associates; including approximately six to eight
prestige consultants and eight to fifteen licensed salon professionals. The management team in each store
reports to the general manager. The general manager oversees all store activities and salon management, which
include inventory management, merchandising, cash management, scheduling, hiring and guest services.
Members of store management receive bonuses depending on their position and on sales, shrink, payroll, or a
combination of these three factors. Each general manager reports to a district manager, who in turn reports to
the Vice President of Operations East or the Vice President of Operations West. The Vice Presidents of East
and West report to the Senior Vice President of Operations who in turn reports to our Chief Executive Officer.
Each store team receives additional support from time to time from recruiting specialists for the retail and
salon operations, a field loss prevention team, market trainers, and management trainers.
Ulta stores are open seven days a week, eleven hours a day, Monday through Saturday, and seven hours on
Sunday. Our stores have extended hours during the holiday season.
Salon
A typical salon is staffed with eight to fifteen licensed salon professionals, including one salon manager, eight
to twelve stylists, and one to two estheticians. Our higher producing salons may also have a guest coordinator
and assistant manager. Our training teams, vendor education classes and leadership conferences create a
comprehensive educational program for our approximately 2,700 salon professionals.
Training and development
Our success is dependent in part on our ability to attract, train, retain and motivate qualified employees at all
levels of the organization. We have developed a corporate culture that enables individual store managers to
make store-level operating decisions and consistently rewards their success. We are committed to improving
the skills and careers of our workforce and providing advancement opportunities for our associates. Our
associates and management teams are essential to our store expansion strategy. We primarily use existing
managers or promote from within to support our new stores, although many outlying stores have all-new
teams.
All of our associates participate in an interactive new-hire orientation through which each associate becomes
acquainted with Ulta’s vision and mission. Training for new store managers, prestige consultants and sales
associates familiarizes them with opening and closing routines, guest service expectations, our loss prevention
policy and procedures, and our culture. We also have ongoing development programs that include operational
training for hourly associates, prestige consultants, management and stylists. We provide continuing education
to both salon professionals and retail associates throughout their careers at Ulta to enable them to deliver the
“Four E’s” to our customers. In contrast to the sales teams at traditional department stores, our sales teams are
not commissioned or brand-dedicated. Our prestige consultants are trained to work across all prestige lines and
within our prestige “boutiques”, where customers can receive a makeover or skin analysis.
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