In a series of conversations with top women beauty leaders, CEW sat down to chat with Monica Arnaudo, Chief Merchandising Officer for Ulta Beauty, who talked about a key passion: creating the ultimate customer experience. Read on to learn about Monica’s quest for understanding what makes Ulta’s millions of customers tick, in order to empower their shopping experience.

“Early in my career I learned a very simple and powerful quote, “When you take care of the customer, the sales follow.” This mantra is core to everything I do, and I’m incredibly passionate about creating the ultimate experience for our guests, our associates, and our brand partners.

One great example of keeping guests at the forefront was how we developed Conscious Beauty at Ulta Beauty. Our customer insights team uncovered how guests deeply wanted to better understand clean beauty and sought brands and products that aligned with their personal values. In parallel, many of our brand partners were making strides in the space and we wanted to recognize and showcase their efforts.

With experience top of mind, our intention was to engage and include our brand partners to create a holistic platform that guides, educates and simplifies clean and sustainable beauty for our guests. Conscious Beauty at Ulta Beauty™ empowers guests with transparency and choice across five key pillars: clean, cruelty-free, vegan, sustainable packaging and positive impact.

This platform has been extremely well-received by our guests and brand partners. We are caring for guest and partner needs and to date, the results have followed.”

Monica is a 2021 CEW Achiever Award Honoree. To learn more about Monica’s career journey, rise to success and key learnings along the way, make sure to attend this year’s CEW Women’s Leadership Awards virtual event September 9 from 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.