Amazon News: E-Commerce Giant's New Beauty Store Threatens Sally Beauty, Ulta

Amazon (AMZN) is marking new territory as it opens up a new beauty store that offers products for licensed professsionals, such as stylists, barbers and estheticians. The announcement caused shares of beauty retailers Sally Beauty and Ulta to plunge 12% and 3% respectively.

"Today, Amazon Business launched the Amazon Professional Beauty Store to offer professional stylists, barbers and estheticians a convenient, custom shopping experience with great selection," Amazon said in a blog post. Brands such as Wella Color Charm, RUSK, and OPI Professional will be available for purchase.

Customers could find any beauty supplies they need on the online store, with the Amazon Prime service allowing the products to be delivered within one to two days.

"Stylists can find more of what they need at great prices with convenient delivery options, freeing up their time to focus on what's important: their customers," said Steve Kahn, director of customer-driven experience Amazon Business.

Amazon's beauty store seeks to capitalize on the global cosmetics product market. Reuters reported that the market will reach a value of $805.61 billion by 2023.

A 2017 study by AT Kearney called Beauty and The E-Commerce Beast showed that of 800 online shoppers, Amazon was their most preferred site to buy beauty products. Ulta and Sally Beauty may need to rework their online services to better compete with Amazon.