Years ago, getting new glasses meant booking an appointment with your optometrist days in advance and most likely paying close to a month’s worth of rent on prescription lenses and frames. These days, the game has been changed by the multitude of retail stores and “low-cost alternative” vendors who have entered the Eyewear Market playing field.
Two of the most impactful trail blazers in the market are mega-corps Wal-Mart and Costco. Both retailers are renowned for their every day low price concepts, which allow them to bring low cost eyewear to the masses. Costco for instance, offers its products at lower prices by eliminating virtually all the frills and costs associated with conventional wholesalers and retailers, including salespeople, fancy buildings, delivery, and billing by adopting the latest and advanced IT solutions.
While the traditional key to success in business has always been “don’t cut corners”, the high shares of both of these companies in the eyewear market show that this is not always the case. And adding to this argument for minimalist retail strategy, is the growing popularity of online eyewear vendors. Never mind skimping on in-store features, why not skip the store entirely?
Luxottica, Bausch & Lomb, and Essilor all provide online services for purchasing eyeglasses, contact lenses, and vision care products. With the money saved on bypassing the typical in-store experience, these vendors are able to offer stiffly competitive pricing on top brands to customers and invest more time and money in online marketing tools—two factors which are playing a big role in turning these three companies into leading players in the eyewear market.
When it comes down to it, the benchmarks for eyewear customers are basic: variety, quality, cost, and brand image. As the success above vendors have illustrated, it’s easy to achieve these four buying criterion with very few—if any bells and whistles.
It’s clear—times are changing. Affordable alternatives are quickly overtaking the once-standard “stuffy optometrist’s office” and “overpriced boutique shopping experiences”, and it’s going to be very exciting to see how this all translates in the Eyewear Market for the coming years.
For more info, view our 2012-2016 Report on the Eyewear Market in the US.
