Value Proposition

Through a recent rebranding that champions individuality and self-expression, Eyebuydirect reaffirms its core mission: affordable eyewear for everyone.

The vertically integrated company reinforces that mantra by showcasing frame styles on faces from diverse races, ages, and lifestyles. Fashion and fit guides, digital tools, video tutorials, and transparent pricing, plus flexible payment and shipping options, are designed to ease the eyewear buying process for everyone, even e-commerce neophytes.

Owned by EssilorLuxottica, Eyebuydirect.com has a $6 entry price point for frames and offers more than 3,000 styles. All lenses come with anti-scratch coating.

The website saw 8.4 million visits in September 2022, according to website traffic tracker Semrush. Eyebuydirect also operates an Amazon shop selling a limited selection of nonprescription eyewear.

WHAT’S ON OFFER

Styles for men, women, and children range from classic to contemporary and bold, including designer brands such as Oakley, Ray-Ban, the newly added Arnette, and Vogue, plus its own premium brand, RFLKT. Sunglasses and readers are offered; contact lenses are not.

Student and military veteran discounts, loyalty and referral programs, and special events incentivize and reward frequent purchases. For each order placed, Eyebuydirect’s Buy 1 Give 1 program donates one pair of glasses to someone in the country of the customer’s choosing.

Shipping (within seven to 14 days) is free on orders over $119, and two-day delivery is available. Customers have two weeks to return a product for a refund or replacement. 

DIGITAL TOOLS

Most Eyebuydirect.com traffic (81.4% in September) comes via mobile devices, so the website is optimized for the smaller screen size with a clean, uncluttered design and color palette.

Priority is placed on features like checkout and “Virtual Try-On” that uses augmented reality to give 360-degree views of how frames look on shoppers’ faces via live video and still photo. Shoppers use a simple dashboard to toggle between various frame colors and lens tints—gradations from 20% to 80%—and enter their own pupillary distance to create a more personalized rendering. (An at-home “try-before-you-buy” option is not offered.) Other online resources:

➤ Product Discovery: A new artificial-intelligence-powered search engine incorporates more data points to present a wider array of personalized product recommendations. A 12-question quiz guides shoppers to relevant frame styles, colors, shapes, and materials.

➤ Eye Doctor Finder: Displays local ECPs filtered by distance and office hours, including customer reviews and online booking functionality.

➤ How-To: Tutorials cover how to measure PD, find frame measurements, select styles, lenses, and coatings—plus tips on eyewear and eye care.

PAYMENTS POTPOURRI

➤ Flexibility: Eyebuydirect’s newest option is buy-now-pay-later (BNPL), which splits payments into four interest-free installments due two weeks apart. Half of U.S. consumers have used BNPL, and Juniper Research projects users will increase 150% worldwide by 2027.

➤ Variety: The website also accepts debit/credit, Amazon Pay, and Eyebuydirect credits/gift cards, plus PayPal and Venmo, the most popular peer-to-peer (P2P) money transfer apps. Today, 61.6% of smartphone owners use P2P payments, and usage is projected to reach 70.5% of smartphone owners by 2026, according to Insider Intelligence data. Currently, Eyebuydirect.com doesn’t take insurance.

➤ Transparency: Real-time tallying of subtotals is displayed prominently to show how choosing an AR coating, high-index lens, or expedited shipping, for example, will impact total cost. Providing this visibility during the shopping journey, rather than at the end, eliminates the sticker shock experienced on some websites.

 

KNOW THY (ONLINE) COMPETITION.

In this new-for-2022 column, EB reveals the insider details of key online eyewear retailers—the ins and outs of their sites, sales strategies, and spectacles.