Rx eyewear websites boast low prices and head-spinning selection, but there’s a fistful of weaknesses digital cannot overcome.

In-store spending rose 8% in 2022, a healthy lift from 2021’s 5% increase, reports McKinsey, which flags growth opportunities for retailers that enhance the in-person experience. It’s clearly here, in a bricks-and-mortar setting, that ECPs hold sway over online competitors, advantages they may not fully recognize.

Here, EB unearths seven tactics to compete in this era of The Wild, Wild Web.

NO. 1
SEARCH ME.

Search is the digital gateway to your business and yet many (32%) fail to claim their free Google Business Profile. Your profile’s Knowledge Panel uses information sourced online, like business hours, which frustrates consumers if incorrect.

Click “Own This Business” to claim your profile and check:

➤ Your business address, website, hours, phone, reviews

➤ Interior/street-view photos: experts suggest a mix of images with and without faces

➤ Map/directions: move your pushpin if it plots your location incorrectly.

Book appointments and respond to consumer reviews through the panel, which can be personalized by identifying as minority-, LGBTQ+, straight-ally- or veteran-owned.

Have a specialty such as dry eye? Add that detail and populate the Q&A section with your own content, such as Q: “What is dry eye?” A: “Dry eye is a condition...”

Unclaimed profiles may get de-listed, or worse, hurt your business if claimed and edited by others.

NO. 2
SCORE WITH THE STORE.

Websites lack the emotional and experiential engagement of the physical world, an advantage ECPs can exploit with personal attention. “Service and genuine customer connections are hard for startup disruptors to replicate,” says branding and DTC expert Chris Baker, founder of digital agency Totem.

Forced to shop online during the pandemic, some consumers are web-weary and ready to be wooed back to stores.

Just ask Gen Z consumers who grew up on the internet and prefer bricks-and-mortar shopping as a way to de-stress and disconnect from the always-on digital world. The vast majority (73%) of these 20-somethings favor physical stores for discovering products; 65% like in-store for product trials; and 81% like to purchase in-store, reports Kearney in its 2019 Future Consumer Report.

ECPs can ask: Am I catering to this demographic with frame styles they like?

Digital-savvy older shoppers like Dru Sefton of San Francisco recognize the superiority ECPs have over online competitors.

“No way I would trust something as tricky as glasses to any online retailer. Especially the lenses,” she tells EB. “I’m very nearsighted, plus astigmatism, plus progressives, plus a prism. I have to meet my lens person in person.”

NO. 3
INVEST IN DIGITAL IMAGERY.

Nothing says out of touch more than years-old photos. Even if a shop isn’t selling eyewear online, it’s where consumers go first: More than 44% of eyewear buyers start their journey online, according to The Vision Council’s Internet Influence Report.

Swap out stagnant website images with the latest styles to tell the world: “We’re up to date. We have what you want. C’mon in!”

NO. 4
PLANT YOUR FLAG.

Websites can’t claim expertise in low vision, pediatric care, or vision therapy—a disadvantage with wellness a rising priority: 62% of Americans say their health is more important now than before the pandemic, an Ipsos survey reports.

ECPs who showcase a specialty raise stature and revenues, too. Practices that expand dry eye services, for example, can drive annual revenues 5% to 20%, estimates Jerry Robben, O.D., chief optometrist, Bowden Eye & Associates, based in Jacksonville, FL. The founding member of Dry Eye University tells EB growth can be much higher, depending on commitment level and practice type.

Chicago’s Cesar Lau, O.D., is developing a dry eye practice with capital investments in treatment and diagnostic equipment.

“As a little practice, I cannot compete with online,” Dr. Lau tells EB. “We decided to focus on service, to pull ourselves away from the competition. The goal now is to start marketing orthokeratology.”

The camera-shy Dr. Lau has no social media presence today but he’ll take the plunge to promote his dry eye practice. Luckily, his son’s fitness podcast already evangelizes Dad’s wisdom, perhaps giving Dr. Lau a running start.

NO. 5
REVIEW REVIEWS—AND RESPOND.

Online reviews beg for engagement. Experts urge businesses to interact on Facebook, Yelp, Google, TrustPilot, and other platforms.

Acknowledge positive reviews with gratitude and respond to negative posts with specifics on how you intend to address the matter. Don’t be surprised if a discontent becomes an advocate.

“Asking your most valued customers to leave reviews demonstrates that the business offers a quality experience,” says Totem’s Baker. “It’s important to highlight the reviews that demonstrate how the independent retailer is able to solve for more detailed, difficult problems and how they provide assurance in making the correct customer diagnosis. In the health care space especially, the correct and safe solution is more valuable than saving 5% to 10%.”

NO. 6
LAUD THE LAB.

Digital retailers struggle with delivery promises, as disgruntled online shoppers colorfully describe. With an in-house edging and finishing lab, ECPs offer convenience to a subset of patients online can’t rival.

An in-house lab is “extremely important,” Eric Rettig, O.D., owner of Mountain View Eye, based in Altoona, PA, tells EB. “It’s a way we set ourselves apart from online retailers and corporate chains. When we provide same-day service, people are so grateful. Because we don’t have to send frames to labs or wait on back orders of frames, our shipping times for finished lenses and multifocals are much shorter than other opticals.”

For ECPs who balk at the cost of adding a lab, Dr. Rettig says, “Do your research and don’t be afraid to look to independent labs. We moved to an independent lab not affiliated with any big-name lens manufacturer and it’s been one of the best decisions we ever made. They fully encourage on-site edging and lab work. Many of the independent labs even sell and service edgers for your office.”

NO. 7
BE A HERO.

A perk digital can’t do: extended evening/weekend hours and a 24/7 emergency line. “The five docs in our office rotate every week, so we only have to be on call once every five weeks,” Dr. Rettig says.

Trusted relationships with local urgent care and walk-in clinics generate referrals who return to Mountain View Eye for exams and become loyal patients.

“I’ve also created an ‘optical emergency’ spot first thing in the morning,” he adds. “This is reserved for patients who lost/broke their glasses or ran out of contacts. It gets them in as soon as possible and makes our office look like the heroes when we get them in within a day or two and have their glasses or contacts ready same day.”