VERIFEYEWEAR:
DRIVING ONLINE BUSINESS FOR ECPS
by Denis Langlois
Like it or not, more and more people
are turning to the Internet to purchase
their prescription eyewear.
One estimate says up to 12% of people
with single-vision lenses now buy their
glasses online. And these numbers are
rising, which has resulted in a worrisome loss of revenue for independent
Canadian eyewear professionals.
“ECPs in this country are losing out
on a ton of business,” says Paul Faibish,
president of Plastic Plus, Canada's
largest independent lens manufacturer.
To combat the problem, the Torontobased company has developed a new
online eyewear retail site, which is set
to launch this September.
VerifEyewear is intended to not only
give participating ECPs a share of
online sales revenue but also drive more
traffic to their offices, earn additional
revenue and compete with international
online retailers, Faibish said.
Online sales, as an additional revenue
stream, will soon be the “new reality”
for ECPs, he said.
“In a perfect world, I wish that online
never started. It's hurting everybody's
business. Whatever the true percentage
is of single-vision wearers buying
online today, it's greater today than it
was last year and next year it's going
to be higher and the year after that it's
going to be higher as well. And unless
all of us tap into these other streams,
our businesses are going to keep on
going down,” Faibish said.
38 Optical Prism | September 2015
VerifEyewear, a venture supported by
the Opticians Association of Canada,
will be different from other existing
eyewear websites. ECPs will be involved
throughout each transaction.
Prescriptions will be verified by an
optician before the glasses are created.
Once a consumer has selected their
frames, they will be asked to enter
their postal code which will bring up
a list of participating, licenced ECP
offices within a 100-kilometre radius.
Finished pairs will then be sent to the
office selected by the consumer; they
will not be delivered directly to the
person's home.