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NEW YORK—Very steady. That just about sums up the pace of growth among online eyewear merchants, according to a cross section of the sector’s leading
retailers.
As the online eyewear marketplace starts to build credibility with shoppers and eyewear vendors alike, VM has learned that the five of the largest “pure-
play” merchants—those without “brick-and-mortar” locations who focus exclusively on selling products online—reported year-over-year sales gains.
They are now betting on a range of initiatives to take their businesses to the next level: from beefing up marketing efforts with social media and
redesigned Web sites to expanding assortments and investing heavily in the next generation of more sophisticated online frame-fitting functions and new
tools for Rx lens fitting as well.
There has been a crescendo of consumer interest in eyewear online. There were some 27 million Google searches for “eyeglasses” in 2009, twice the number of
the year before. There were triple the number of Google searches for the term “sunglasses”—133 million—last year, compared to 2008.
In its December 2009 study of the Internet’s influence on eyewear purchases, the Vision Council, via a custom survey of consumers, found that 14.1 percent
of consumers said they used the Internet at some point during their eyewear purchasing-decision process (compared to 7 percent who said so in 2007).
The Vision Council’s study also revealed that Internet purchasing accounted for 2 percent of eyeglass purchases in 2009, 3 percent of sunglasses, 2.9
percent of readers and 17 percent of contact lens sales last year, all seemingly small percentages but reflecting double-digit growth rates (See sidebar on
page 29).
Still, while the optical category’s growth may be impeded somewhat from lack of widespread exposure, this may change very soon, executives said.
One major shift may be due to last month’s official launch of Essilor’s partnership with FramesDirect.com to debut MyOnlineOptical.com. (See story page 30)
The new e-commerce initiative from this major industry player offers a new system to enable independent eyecare professionals to provide ways for their
patients to order eyeglasses, sunglasses, Rx sunwear and contact lenses and solutions via ECPs’ own online retail “stores.”
Online ordering in the contact lens arena, via such suppliers as ABB/Con-Cise and ODG, which have been building “back-end” contact lens replacement direct-
to-consumer reordering through ECPs’ own Web sites, has been a growing business.
But as Essilor pointed out in its recent webinar presentations about MyOnlineOptical.com to potential ECP participants, there are now more than 200
commercial online eyeglass-purchasing sites operating in the U.S. market today, offering a range of Internet-purchasing business models to consumers.
“We want to empower the industry and the individual ECP to participate in the online space,” said Dhavid Cooper, OD, co-founder and CEO of FramesDirect.com
about the new venture.
Other online eyewear executives were bullish on the partnership, anticipating that a rising tide lifts all boats. “I think they’re going to legitimize the
entire industry,” said Roy Hessel, founder and CEO of EyeBuyDirect.com. “Because if Essilor says it’s ‘ok’, it’s ok.”
Overall, online eyewear retailers have made inroads with the vendor community, which has been wary of selling directly to online merchants for fear of
alienating ECPs and diluting their brand equity.
But while some designers and manufacturers are still holding out, “The industry is recognizing, over time, that the Internet is a permanent place—and a
growing place—for reaching customers,” said Eyal Gutentag, principal of BestBuyEyeglasses.com. “If they don’t adopt, competitors will take market share.”
As pure-play online eyewear merchants came to form a new retail channel over the past few years, some industry players feared the new entrants could wipe
out the businesses of the ECPs. “The prophecy did not come true,” said James Hilford, president of Eyeglasses.com.
Some e-tail sites are “outsiders” who are adapting technologies to the complex optical product channel; others were “inside” industry veterans from the lab
arena or experienced optical retailers who invested, over time, in Internet e-commerce options for consumers.
Now pure-play online sites are tackling what they see as one of the biggest barriers to growth: fitting frames in a virtual environment so that they truly
match the dimensions of a person’s face and coping with creating accurate prescriptions for ophthalmic lenses to meet a range of vision correction needs and
requirements.
Following is a snapshot of five leading e-merchants in the market, who sum up their current growth strategies.
FramesDirect.com
FramesDirect.com’s partnership with Essilor is by far its biggest initiative this year. But the online retailer is also banking on social media and the
final phase-in of a redesigned Web site to take the business to the next level.
This year, the site has seen a 15 percent to 20 percent growth in most product categories, which Cooper attributes to “a renewed focus on the consumer,” as
well as the early benefits of a site redesign that is more segmented to better identify the user, and guide them to their particular eyewear needs.
The retailer also participates in affiliate programs from carefully screened Web sites. “Affiliates can place a link on their site to direct consumers
looking for eyewear to our site,” Cooper said. Affiliates may charge for a link or receive a fee if a sale results from the referral.
FramesDirect.com positions itself as a full-service, optical online store that carries over 100,000 SKUs, and trades heavily on its optical expertise.
“We in fact are doctors, and we try to promote that professionalism on our Web site,” Cooper said.
By contrast, “we are not price promoters,” he said. The retailer guards the integrity of its name with a range of medium-to-high end branded—as opposed to “
generic”—merchandise, he said. “We work very closely with the major brands.”
And FrameDirect.com’s brand partnership with Essilor on the MyOnlineOptical.com program has the potential to reshape the online eyewear retail market. With
the program, FramesDirect.com will enable independent ECPs to have their own online retail store, using the e-tailer’s technology, for a nominal upfront
cost, Cooper said.
Essilor developed the technology with the e-tailer, and helped to fund the project in a bid to help the ECP community take part in the growing online
marketplace. The rollout follows a successful Beta test with about 70 ECPs.
“To set up an infrastructure like we have is a very expensive proposition” that is cost prohibitive for many ECPs, Cooper said.
While about 70 percent of ODs have their own Web site, most don’t have the ability to sell online, he said. MyOnlineOptical.com will allow ECPs to maintain
control of their brand, including their logo and virtual storefront, and merchandise, from product selection to pricing. It will level the playing field for
them to “compete with any online competitor—including FramesDirect.com,” he said.
Indeed, the FramesDirect.com business will run on a completely independent basis. In addition to the Essilor partnership, FramesDirect.com is looking for
social media to nudge online eyewear purchases into the mainstream and build brand awareness for its own business. The retailer has put a capital commitment
behind the marketing tool and hired a social media team to unearth its benefits. “That’s a big push this year,” Cooper said.
ZenniOptical.com
ZenniOptical.com has virtually no marketing budget to speak of nor does it participate in any affiliate programs. “Our growth has been phenomenal without
it,” said Levente Laczay, company founder and CEO.
The ZenniOptical.com gospel has been spread by word of mouth.
And its success formula is simple: By cutting out the middle man, the retailer has been able to offer cutting-edge lens materials at unrivaled price points,
Laczay said. ZenniOptical.com has grown more than 200 percent a year over the past five years, and “it’s accelerating,” he said.
Growth has come even without a virtual try-on frame feature on its site. But when the retailer does finally launch one later this year, it will outshine
those of its competitors, according to Laczay.
Overall, “We have a mission to sell very high-quality glasses [worldwide] at cheap prices,” Laczay said. To do that, the retailer owns lens manufacturing
and eyeglass-assembly factories in China, which are certified by Colts Laboratories. “There is no manufacturer, wholesaler or importer, that way we have
much better control of our costs,” he said.
And those costs are passed along to shoppers, who can at times buy eyewear at ZenniOptical.com for 50 percent to 100 percent less than its retail brethren,
he said. The retailer is also able to offer more sophisticated prescription lenses than other sites, according to Laczay. “We have the latest lens-grinding
equipment,” he said, citing its free-form back-surface progressive lens technology as a prime example.
Now ZenniOptical.com is developing a new frame-fitting function where consumers can upload a photo of themselves, and place the virtual frame on the image
without “having to fool around with rotating, positioning and sizing the image” as is required by other sites. “It’s going to be totally automatic,” Laczay
said.
EyeBuyDirect.com
EyeBuyDirect.com is a price-driven model, and therein lies its niche in the online eyewear retail market space, said Roy Hessel, founder and CEO of the
site, which made its debut in 2005. The e-tailer is betting
on initiatives such as a new face-recognition technology that will more precisely match frame design to shoppers’ features, as well as broadening its
product mix, to roll out its next phase
of growth.
“We are eyeglasses for the masses,” Hessel said. “That’s where we see our growth opportunity, particularly in a down economy. Our forte is not designer
frames,” he said. “We’re focusing on the 300 million Americans between Fifth Avenue and Rodeo Drive.”
The retailer counts its ability to design and produce custom-made eyewear in-house—nearly 100 percent of its merchandise is private-label goods—as its
distinct edge. As a result, “for the cost of one pair of glasses from High Street, they [shoppers] can get five glasses from EyeBuyDirect.com.”
The online eyewear retail industry continues to grapple with fitting frames in a virtual environment, Hessel said. That’s why improving upon its EyeTry
feature is the retailer’s biggest growth opportunity this year, he said.
The system now measures a person’s pupilary distance “but doesn’t give you a sense of the real proportion of a frame to the face,” Hessel said.
EyeBuyDirect.com is now in the final stages of testing a new technology that will also measure the height of the ears in relation to the eyes, and the
distance between the two—factors that impact the suitability of a frame on a particular face. This more sophisticated frame-fitting tool “will substantially
reduce another barrier to buying glasses online,” he said.
The retailer will also expand its frame assortment, which is now 1,000 SKUs. EyeBuyDirect.com takes its product mix and design cues from shoppers, who post
feedback on the Wall of Frames section of its Web site. “Based on that, we design our assortment and inventory,” Hessel said. “Since we know what people
want, we don’t have to offer everything.”
While most of the retailer’s business is generated by word-of-mouth, the site raised its media profile last year with a segment on Fox Business, which
helped boost sales “substantially” from a year ago, Hessel said.
Eyeglasses.com
Eyeglasses.com is not about the hard sell nor is it price driven. Its shoppers look to the site to provide branded merchandise and high-quality service. The
retailer is now working to take that selling proposition to the next level by boldly expanding its product mix and enhancing its frame-fitting feature.
“Our niche is a value play for service, selection and information,” said James Hilford, president. “There’s too much of an aggressive push out here. Part of
our value proposition is that we’re not trying to bombard you with things.”
Instead, the e-tailer boasts an inventory of 100,000 SKUs, lens-quality guarantees, and the fact that it’s an A-Plus Better Business Bureau-rated store.
Eyeglasses.com probes shoppers to cull key details on their lifestyle and eyecare issues, Hilford said.
“Our biggest marketing goal is to truly educate consumers on the benefits of shopping for eyewear on the Internet,” he said.
The retailer will relaunch its upgraded, patented ETryon function in the third quarter. Without revealing too much information about the improvements,
Hilford did say the upgrade will include quicker page-loading times, and that it will “take the fashion aspect of it to a new level.” That means shoppers
will have the option to fit their frames wearing different looks, such as a “corporate lifestyle look,” or a variety of hairstyles, and “can have friends
shop with them,” he said.
What currently distinguishes Eyeglasses.com’s frame-fitting feature from other Web sties is its ability to match the scale of the customer’s head to the
eyewear, he said. The retailer will also ratchet up its assortment from about 5,000 frames to 35,000 frames of well-known brands. “We work directly with
[branded] suppliers,” Hilford said. “We don’t need four house brands that are in the same general realm.”
Eyeglasses.com is exploring the idea of strengthening alliances with affiliate partners. The retailer currently uses Nextjump.com to link its site to
corporate membership programs, whereby a company would offer its employees a group discount on Eyeglassses.com.
Business is up in the double-digits from a year ago, Hilford said. “During an economic downturn, people are looking for ways to maximize the shopping
experience,” he said. “That probably drove more people to the Internet to make purchases.”
And while some manufactures are still hesitant to sell to online-only eyewear merchants, that’s now changing, as “people are looking for new opportunities
to expand, and do it with control of their brand.” Indeed, although branded suppliers worried that online retailers would compromise their brand integrity,
“we’re easier to police than your local store,” Hilford said. “You can always see what we’re showing and how we’re showing it.”
BestBuyEyeglasses.com
With a home page that rivals a fashion magazine, it comes as little surprise that BestBuyEyeglasses.com caters to a design-conscious consumer. “We’re very
committed to providing a very high-end experience,” said Eyal Gutentag, principal of the retailer. “We’re no different from going to an optical store on the
Upper West Side or in West LA.”
What’s more, the retailer carries over 200,000 products, compared to the 500 to 1,000 products of a “typical optical store in Manhattan,” he said.
BestBuyEyeglasses.com positions itself as optics experts online. “We have optical experts and optometrists as viable as a Lenscrafters brick-and-mortar
store,” he said. BestBuyEyeglasses.com also drives business via affiliate networks, such as Commission Junction and LinkConnector. “Publisher Web sites that
are approved by us may sign up to refer qualified visitors to BestBuyEyeglasses.com,” he said. “In return, they receive a percentage of the transactions
that result from those visitors—depending on their volume.”
BestBuyEyeglasses.com is now focusing on expanding its roster of brands for growth. The retailer is also making a bigger push into prescription lenses,
where it sees a big opportunity. Its customers “want to make smarter [Rx] choices and want help from us to do that,” Gutentag said.
“However, you’re always limited when you’re not in front of the customer.”
To help compensate for that shortfall, BestBuyEyeglasses.com is developing technology that will provide shoppers with informed lens recommendations based on
their personal needs’—be it for driving, working at a computer or playing sports—online, in real time. Today, the process is done over the phone and by
email. The technology is expected to roll out in the Fall.
Also, based on customer requests, the retailer is adding specialty optical products, such as binoculars and telescopes for hunters, birdwatchers and nature
lovers.
Beyond expanding its product mix and upgrading technology, BestBuyEyeglasses.com is looking to beef up is marketing efforts with email blasts, and will test
other media in the next few quarters. “The end result might be advertising on a vogue.com, a NYTimes.com, a CNN.com or a Yahoo! special ad,” he said. ■ ■
