It's funny that you think the cost to import beauty products has anything to do with the price they're sold for. That shit is marked up like 90%. $75 jar of some bullshit creme probably costs them $4.50 to manufacture and import.
Yes but Ulta as the retailer itself has its own markup just for being in that store. I don't the average consumer continuing to spend more on the same thing that can be gotten at Target. Their claim to fame is the rewards program but to maintain high margins they would have to cut the benefits.
lower-margin retailers (like Target) are far more exposed to increases in cost due to things like tariffs. If you sell a $100 item for $130 (30% markup) and the cost to import moves up to $125, you have to either now sell the item at a miniscule markup or raise the cost by a significant amount over what your sell price has been. However, if you've been selling the $100 item at $160 the entire time and relying on providing value-added services to justify the cost to the consumer, you could raise your price by like $5 or $10, still make a decent markup, and eat some of the cost increase for a while hoping that the tariffs are cancelled soon.
Even if you increased your sell prices by a flat $ amount based on your increase in cost for that item, it's not as big of a percentage increase that the consumer sees. $130 -> $155 is a bigger percent change increase than $160 -> $185.
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u/arnkel2 23d ago
IMO tariffs will heavily affect ulta and name brand beauty products feel like less of a need for the consumer in the face of a recession.