Adidas, Lululemon and Ulta Beauty Rewrite Customer Loyalty

Retailers are facing a consumer who changes faster than business models can adapt. Trends emerge overnight, discovery happens through algorithms and creators, and loyalty is no longer built through points alone. At a recent retail leadership panel moderated by Sheehan, retail and consumer products leader at Deloitte, executives from Adidas, Lululemon and Ulta Beauty explored how leading brands are responding to this new reality.

The conversation centred on one critical idea: understanding the customer has become retail's most valuable competitive advantage.

The Consumer Is Changing Faster Than Retail Can Adapt

Rachel Acheson, SVP and Chief Strategy Officer at Lululemon, explained that the company's innovation process begins with participation, not observation. Instead of studying trends from a distance, Lululemon embeds itself directly into the wellness communities it serves. Employees receive monthly "Sweaty Pursuits" benefits that encourage them to take fitness classes, engage with local communities, and actively participate in the lifestyles the brand represents.

That immersion extends deep into the company's product and marketing strategy. Cross-functional teams spend time with instructors, ambassadors and guests in real-world environments, observing what people wear, how they train and what motivates them. Acheson said the approach has transformed how the company innovates because teams are living the experience rather than simply analysing it.

"We don't really market. We do community," Acheson said during the panel.

She also highlighted the importance of finding edge users, the people at the bleeding edge of a trend rather than the average consumer. "The average consumer can really only tell you what's familiar to them," she said, drawing on her background in the music industry. "We're not in the business of meeting people at the familiar. We're in the business of creating new for them."

Why Localisation and Personalisation Are Becoming Essential

For Adidas, the focus is increasingly on localisation. Alexandra von der Grün, VP Retail and Franchise at Adidas, described how the company is redesigning assortments and store experiences to reflect the specific needs of local consumers. Rather than treating stores as generic points of sale, Adidas views them as cultural and community hubs tied closely to sport, identity and local relevance.

"I think it's more and more relevant to have the right assortment where people are looking for it and when they are looking for it," von der Grün said.

That philosophy comes to life during major sporting events like the London Marathon, where Adidas stores become immersive environments connected directly to the energy of the event itself. The brand is also investing heavily in customisation experiences that allow consumers to personalise products in store, creating a stronger emotional attachment to the brand and product. In the Berlin store on Tauentzienstrasse, customers can customise shoes and jerseys, add badges to clothing and create something genuinely unique rather than simply buying off the shelf.

Von der Grün also noted how quickly trends now move globally through platforms like TikTok and Instagram, pointing to the viral moment around Adidas' Chinese New Year collection as an example of demand that travelled from Asia to Europe almost overnight. "The consumer, especially in the big cities and metropolitan regions, is an international consumer," she said. "Through TikTok and Instagram, trends are travelling."

Loyalty Has Become a Relationship Engine

Ulta Beauty brought a different perspective to the conversation, grounded in data and loyalty. Kristin Wolf, SVP Enterprise Strategy and New Growth at Ulta Beauty, shared that the retailer now has almost 47 million active loyalty members, defined as members who have shopped within the last 12 months, with approximately 95 percent of company sales tied to those members.

But Ulta no longer sees loyalty as a traditional rewards programme. Wolf described it as a "relationship engine" that helps the company understand its customers in real time. By combining first-party data with AI-driven personalisation, Ulta is able to tailor product recommendations, digital experiences and content at scale.

The retailer is also adapting quickly to shifts in commerce behaviour. Wolf highlighted Ulta's recent integrations with TikTok Shop and an agentic shopping experience within Google and Gemini, reinforcing how beauty retail is increasingly shaped by social commerce and AI-powered shopping experiences. "Our philosophy is we need to be where the guest is," she said.

Ulta has also recently expanded internationally, entering Mexico, the Middle East and the UK through the acquisition of Space NK, extending its loyalty model beyond its core US market for the first time.

Retailers Are Learning to Operate With Constant Agility

Throughout the discussion, one theme surfaced repeatedly: agility has become essential for survival.

Acheson emphasised the importance of staying grounded in a company's core identity while remaining selective about which trends deserve investment. She explained that Lululemon intentionally chose not to pursue the metaverse after evaluating whether it aligned with the company's long-term strategy. "There's nothing that needs a knee-jerk reaction," she said. "If you take that second to pause, it makes the ability to be agile much, much smoother and much more effective."

Von der Grün agreed, stressing the importance of empowering local teams to make decisions quickly and adapt to rapidly changing consumer behaviour. "Don't try to do something from far away," she said. "Give and empower your local teams to make decisions fast and to react to what's happening in the respective marketplace." She was candid about the reality of planning in today's environment: "Last year, all of us had a plan for every month, and then after two weeks you realised that's not going to work."

Wolf added that even multi-year strategies must remain flexible, describing Ulta's three-year plan as "written in pencil." The key, she argued, is knowing your North Star while approaching execution with a test-and-learn mindset.

The Future of Retail Is About Belonging

The most memorable moments of the session came when the conversation shifted from technology and operations to emotional connection.

Acheson reflected on the idea that retail creates a "social externality," describing how brands can foster belonging and recognition in increasingly fragmented consumer environments. She recalled being recognised by a Lululemon educator during a yoga class and how that simple interaction transformed her relationship with the brand.

"I felt so seen," she said. "So recognised. And suddenly this was my store, and I was never going to let this store down."

That sentiment captured the broader takeaway from the panel. The future of retail is not just about transactions, channels or technology. It is about making consumers feel understood, connected and part of something larger than the purchase itself.

For Adidas, that means building community through sport. For Lululemon, it means immersing people in wellness culture. For Ulta Beauty, it means creating personalised relationships at massive scale.

Different strategies, but the same goal: building brands that consumers genuinely want to belong to.