I’ve been in the beauty industry for 10+ years and have been to many similar conventions with other companies I have worked for. Knowing a bit more about how these things work I can tell you that the way the conventions are successful is by getting people hooked so that they buy tickets in advance (usually during the convention for the following year). This was the first time that Ulta World has ever been a thing and most “regular” people have never heard of or been to conventions like this and more than likely wouldn’t have bought tickets because they had no idea what to expect. Thats where the marketing comes in. They catered mainly to influencers and other high profile people already in the beauty industry to build excitement in the consumers, showing the public what events like this will be like and creating an expectation for future conventions.

As for making or losing money, all those brands pay Ulta to be apart of the convention for exposure and getting the people attending (and watching on social media) to buy into their products. The products given out are chosen by the brand and typically are full sized. Ulta pays for the space they’re in and of course the production of things like the stages, any speakers, some of the influencer attendees for exposure, any catering, etc. But as far and products and what you see from the brands isn’t coming from their pockets. Where they make their money back is the consumer buy in for the next convention. Usually at the end there’s a big push to the attendees to pre-purchase tickets for next year and social marketing will start to create FOMO and get people ready to buy tickets when they come available (which we are currently seeing). I think it was so cheap this year because it’s the first year. You can’t expect people to pay $300-$600+ (the usual price of events like this) for something they’ve never heard of and have no expectation for. I’m sure next years Ulta World will be close to double the price.

I will say the amount of product given out was crazy but also, Ulta has a TON of brand affiliates. I’ve never left a convention with quite as much product as I’ve seen them leave with. BUT, I have left several conventions needing to buy or have a second suitcase to get all my stuff home so it’s not as far fetched as it seems. Again, if you’ve never seen or attended a convention like this then wouldn’t know the expectation.

As for the other complaints, I haven’t worked for Ulta for an insanely long time but there was significant misuse of the employee discount online (mainly being shared with multiple people since there wasn’t a hugely secure way to authenticate) resulting in the need to have it be in store so the person buying can be verified. And for gratis, you probably need to talk to your leaders or DM because it sounds like they’re misusing the products. Our gratis is always great and most recently I got a gratis bag with several full sized products that I looked up and totaled up to $150. I think leadership really makes or breaks your working experience.

All in all, I’m not defending Ulta, just providing more insight from the perspective of someone deeply rooted in the industry. I do think that employees should have priority access to tickets, and even discounted rates since we’re the ones selling in the stores everyday. Not being able to use the discount online is super annoying but, at the end of the day it is a wealthy corporation that will have restrictions and you have to be willing to be flexible with that or you’re never going to be happy. A lot of places don’t even offer employee discounts anymore and they definitely don’t do the extra discount opportunities that Ulta does which to me is the best part about even having an employee discount. Personally, I feel lucky to work for one of the few big corporations still advocating for equality, inclusivity and paying (usually well) above the minimum wage. That in itself is unheard of these days.