"So, there's this glasses company that will send you four ... no, five frames so you can try them on at home," a friend told me recently.
If we were on a trivia show I would have slammed down my buzzer and announced, "Warby Parker!" But this wasn't a game and I actually didn't feel all that cool when I replied, "Yes, I got my glasses from that company more than a year ago." Instead, it felt like I bumped up against the wall of my tech bubble. Ah, life.
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A 2011 study reveals that, while 28% of people consult the Internet to make decisions about eyewear, in 2014 4% of prescription glasses will be purchased outside a traditional setting (up from 1.7% in 2007). The study also found that of 154 pairs of glasses ordered online, nearly half did not meet the requirements, either optically or physically, of the buyer.
Not everyone wants hipster-inspired frames or can dish out $100 for an extra pair of opticals just because the company donates a pair to someone in need. But Warby Parker did prove, for an elite market of early adopters, that buying glasses online is desirable.
And other startups are introducing a much larger crowd to the practice.
Consider that glasses are a hybrid fashion accessory-medical device. They nearly always require a two-step process: choosing frames, then getting prescription lenses. Over time, the flexibility of an online portal in comparison to running physical errands just might win.
Around 80% of eyewear comes from a company called Luxxotica. It owns Oakley, Oliver Peoples and Ray Ban, among others, manufactures eyewear sold by brands including DKNY, Prada and Versace and also operates Sunglasses Hut and Lenscrafters.
Why distribute frames under a variety of brand names? The fact that consumers build connections with brand names is nothing new, but as we'll see, it's a model worth copying.
Image: Flickr, Cameron Krone
Beloved brand Warby Parker launched with a hat trick: First, stylish frames with optical lenses at reasonable prices; second, an inventive online storefront that allows you to try on frames digitally and physically; and third, a charity-driven model that makes customers feel good about their purchases. Without this winning combination, the company might be just another decent ecommerce startup.
The originator of the buy-one-give-one model is TOMS, which started selling and donating shoes in 2006. Two years ago the company began selling sunglasses, but does not offer optical frames (although, in line with the one-for-one model, has donated nearly 200,000 surgeries).
Founder of TOMS Blake Mycoskie is bullish in the optical market. "I think there is a play for more and more people buying optical frames online, but I still think the try-it-on factor, especially for sunglasses, [which are] a little bit of an impulse buy, matters," he says. "There is that spontaneity of sunglasses, less so with optical lenses."
Image: TOMS
Warby Parker's home try-on service, then, is crucial to its success. Indeed, newer startups are copying this concept without the charity factor. Regardless, they're focusing on unique market segments.
Fashion brands have long targeted women, but Sarah Bryar, CEO of Rivet & Sway didn't see a female-centric brand in the glasses space.
"My passion is when a woman who only wears glasses at night or when reading, finds a pair that she wants to wear every day ," Bryar says.
Rivet introduced a personal stylist on the site, after noticing that women come out of their comfort zones when they feel someone is thinking about what looks good on them, Bryar says.
In Rivet's latest collection, frame names correspond with female aspirational roles — reminiscent of nail polish colors. Plus, each frame includes a related word engraved on the temple.
For the frames named "Pillow Talk," meant to represent woman as lover, the temple reads "xoxo."
Image: Rivet & Sway
Rivet is certainly online-first, but will not remain strictly so. The company holds events in its showroom and plans to experiment with integration in a space "where women are thinking about their look," Bryar says, like a hair salon.
Similar to Warby Parker, Rivet offers home try-on but sends out three pairs instead of five. You can send the frames back via your own mailbox instead of stopping by FedEx (suggesting a split between city dwellers and suburbanites in the two company's respective markets).
Image: Rivet & Sway
The norm in eyewear shopping, Bryar says, is to try on the colored frame but resort to the black frame, but Rivet & Sway is finding women will buy colorful eyewear. A little encouragement via Rivet's aspirational content doesn't hurt, nor does the availability of a personal stylist.
But where Rivet holds the corner on women's frames, it certainly isn't the only company heralding color.
If you're the grandson of an eyewear entrepreneur, born into a family business, heading to China to work in a glasses factory is totally normal, right? For Kevin Hundert this experience was, first, a chance to understand how each piece of the family business worked, but also the source of a new idea: What if buyers were involved in building their own glasses?
He launched Made, where users select the shape of frames, colors for the front, left temple and right temple, plus possible engraving on either side. He describes his user base as the "California at Coachella crowd," noting buyers ages 18-30 will get creative with two different temple colors, plus the orange mirror lens.
Image: Made
It's like a mullet, he says: business in the front, party in the back (well, sides). "Fifty percent have been crystal front," he says, "then they will get the crazy temple color."
Made doesn't do home try-on yet, but does plan to try out pop-up shops in addition to selling online.
Made's price point undercuts Warby Parker, but the glasses are higher quality, Hundert says. "The quality in these factories is off the charts," referring to the factories he visited in China. And good quality doesn't always mean expensive. "I think people would be shocked in how cheap it is [to make good eyewear]."
Assuming he's right, and pricey eyewear has more to do with brand name than quality, Brooklyn-based startup Eponym might be able to cash in.
Like Luxxotica, Eponym is a hub that designs and develops frames for many brands.
Image: Eponym
Andrew Lipovsky, founder of Eponym, says many consumers who are big fans of premium brands might not be able to afford that brand's clothing on a regular basis, but they will justify the purchase of a pair of glasses that they'll wear daily.
Eponym takes on the production of eyewear lines for existing brands, with a twist on the typical licensing model. Instead of paying the brand up front based on manufacturing costs, Eponym does a revenue share. Unlike other digital startups, each client brand has a baked-in customer base, so Eponym can scale quickly while providing a unique experience for each brand, rather than focusing on one target market.
Essentially, Eponym is creating a mini-Warby Parker for each brand, complete with home try-on programs (this time, six pairs). The startup's team of designers and developers create custom websites for each brand, as you can see at Steven Alan.
Eponym
Steven Alan optical frames are priced at $195, which Lipovsky says is benchmarked against the price of a shirt or a pair of jeans, a trend that will continue with additional brands that Eponym works with.
But Eponym, like Rivet, does not plan to remain online only — the company builds kiosks in its client's stores to sell glasses IRL. Interestingly, both Rivet and Eponym went without Warby Parker's charity angle (Made works with eyesight-focused charities), suggesting charitable programs might not be as important to business as once assumed.
Meanwhile, Warby Parker's fastest selling frame is the Chamberlain, marketed in the Man of Steel Collection. These kinds of collaborations, along with more traditional advertising and early word-of-mouth, will introduce the brand to unreached audiences. In April, the brand opened its first brick-and-mortar store in New York City's SoHo. Since the brand always valued cutting out the middleman — to ensure lower prices — it likely will continue running its own retail operations, whether in permanent stores or pop-up shops.
Image: Warby Parker
Is there space for more startups selling glasses online? These entrepreneurs say, "Yes." In fact, eyewear for children and rimless glasses are relatively underserved verticals, according to Lipovsky.
As the options open, more people will discover this once-per-year chore can be completed online from the comfort of their homes. Meanwhile, I'm going to take Bryar's tip and try colored frames next time around.
Image: Flickr, Scarleth White