Shows
The Retail Razor: Retail TransformersRetail Transformation Playbook: Michelle Pacynski on Innovation, Startups, and What’s NextS2E1 Ulta Beauty’s $2B Digital Transformation: Michelle Pacynski Reveals the Retail Innovation Playbook In this season‑opening episode of The Retail Razor: Retail Transformers, Ricardo and Casey sit down with Michelle Pacynski, former VP of Innovation and Consumer Technology at Ulta Beauty, to unpack one of the most compelling retail transformation journeys in modern retail. Michelle shares how Ulta scaled its digital business from $125M to over $2B, built a mobile‑first strategy before the rest of the industry caught up, and created an innovation team that ultimately became the company’s AI Center of Excelle...
2026-01-291h 08
The Rebekah Panepinto ProjectHow Technology is Transforming the Beauty Industry with Michelle PacynskiIn this conversation, Rebekah Panepinto and Michelle Pacynski explore the latest trends and innovations in the beauty industry, including the impact of AI, robotics, and personalization. They discuss the importance of customer loyalty, clean ingredients, and the role of influencers in shaping consumer decisions. Michelle shares insights from her experience at Ulta and as a startup advisor, highlighting emerging companies and the future of e-commerce. The discussion emphasizes the significance of curiosity and partnerships in achieving success in business.TakeawaysAI is maturing and transforming the beauty industry.Physical store presence remains crucial for beauty experiences...
2025-10-0934 min
That Digital ShowAchieving Innovation at Scale featuring Ulta BeautyUlta Beauty is redefining the beauty industry by creating personalized, digital experiences for their shoppers. Their focus on innovation has been a true point of differentiation and an important topic that other retailers and brands could learn from. In this episode we speak with Michelle Pacynski, VP of Digital Innovation at Ulta Beauty, to discuss how her team is focused on bringing innovation to the enterprise, to build a digital store of the future. Our Retail Takeover features a series of conversations with leading brands and retailers where we dig a little deeper into what it’s like to be a...
2023-09-2600 min
CX Decoded By CMSWireDigital Innovation Through the Lens of BeautyLeonardo Da Vinci revolutionized the way people were painted during the Renaissance, and his "Mona Lisa" is the most famous painting in the world and is a cultural icon for beauty, in part due to what is usually described as her alluring and mysterious smile. What has made the "Mona Lisa" so popular for more than 500 years? It can be boiled down to one word: innovation. Da Vinci was an innovator his entire life. He saw possibilities everywhere. The painting is a culmination of his curiosity and studies he undertook during his lifetime. Leonardo was interested in j...
2023-01-1029 min
This Week in InnovationULTA Beauty Launches Prisma Ventures to Invest in Startups
Michelle Pacynski, VP, Digital Innovation at Ulta Beauty and Fund Advisor, Prisma Ventures and Agustina Sartori, Sr Director Innovation at Ulta Beauty and Managing Director Prisma Ventures joins us to discuss the role Prisma Ventures will play in driving innovation for ULTA Beaty.
How it Works
Prisma Ventures partners with early-stage startups that are primarily Series Seed and Series A technology companies within the following innovation pillars:
Personalized & Data Driven Technology
AR, VR & the Metaverse
Technology-Powered Custom Beauty Products & In-Store Services
Social Commerce
These pillars mirror Ulta Beauty’s digital innovation priorities and gro...
2022-10-0433 minThis Week in InnovationA Conversation with Michelle Pacynski, VP, Digital Innovation at Ulta BeautyMichelle Pacynski, VP, Digital Innovation at Ulta Beauty joins Brian and I for a discussion about #Ulta’s #innovation culture.We talk about the two tech #startup #acquisitions Ulta made in the last 3 years and how that helped fuel in innovation culture. GlamST allows guests, using #augmentedreality to try on makeup virtually in #mobile, #web and #instore. QM Scientific is an #AI retail platform that continuously learns individual shopping habits, via #machinelearning, and preferences by #datamining from #pos, #loyalty systems, the web and partner #IoT devices. We get into an interesting discussion about where the innovation team should sit and...
2021-10-1141 min
That Digital ShowAchieving Innovation at Scale featuring Ulta BeautyUlta Beauty is redefining the beauty industry by creating personalized, digital experiences for their shoppers. Their focus on innovation has been a true point of differentiation and an important topic that other retailers and brands could learn from. In this episode we speak with Michelle Pacynski, VP of Digital Innovation at Ulta Beauty, to discuss how her team is focused on bringing innovation to the enterprise, to build a digital store of the future. Our Retail Takeover features a series of conversations with leading brands and retailers where we dig a little deeper into what it's like to be a...
2021-07-0830 min