Both retailers built world-class loyalty programs. But looked at from outside the store, through verified purchase data on 6.4 million US beauty-store customers, they are two very different audiences. Here is what the BeautyGraph sees.
In Skydeo's verified transaction graph, Ulta's customer base is roughly twice the size of Sephora's.
1.03 million people shop both stores. But the overlap is wildly lopsided.
49% of Sephora customers also shop Ulta
Only 24% of Ulta customers also shop Sephora
Both customer bases over-index most strongly on the same thing: seasonal shopping moments. Easter, Black Friday, New Year's, Thanksgiving, and Cyber Monday shoppers top the affinity charts for both retailers, alongside readers, home cooks, and casual gamers. Beauty buying is event-driven, and value matters: both bases over-index in sub-$75k household income bands.
The difference is intensity. Sephora's base is half the size but indexes roughly twice as hard on the same traits: a smaller, denser, higher-signal audience. Ulta's base behaves like mass America.
Figures from Skydeo's transactional segment graph (verified beauty-store purchase signals, US consumers) and the Skydeo Insights affinity engine, which scores pairwise overlap across thousands of behavioral segments. Counts are addressable audience estimates, not retailer-reported customer totals. Want the underlying segments or a custom cut? Email beautygraph@skydeo.com.
Ulta Beauty shoppers, Sephora shoppers, and cross-shoppers are live, syndicated segments. Push them to your DSP seat now, or ask us to run this bake-off on your brand.
Activate on SAM Ulta Beauty Shoppers Sephora Shoppers Or email beautygraph@skydeo.com to run this analysis on your brand.