How Independent ECPs
Can Compete in Online Eyewear Sales
Essilor’s MyOnlineOptical Enlists 700 Practices
Editor’s Note: Online optical poses one of themost pressing challenges to ODs. This is our first look at options that help independent ODs compete with online retailers. Future installments in this series will look at VSP’s Eyeconic.com and other new online opportunities for independents.
By ROB Editors
Independent optometrists can have an immediate presence in the fast-growing arena of online sales of complete eyewear–and brand those sales as their own, with the use of an online eyewear program from Essilor. The program, MyOnlineOptical, which was launched a year ago and to date has enrolled over 900 doctors in 700 practices, also offers ODs the ability to choose merchandise and set price points.
Brand-Conscious Extension of ECP’s Dispensary
MyOnlineOptical was launched following extensive research into changing patterns of consumer spending. Two and a half years ago, Essilor queried 4,500 ECPs on their interest in creating their own online dispensary. “They told us, ‘We don’t know how to create an e-commerce web site for transactions, and it’s too time-consuming,” says John Walborn, director of the MyOnlineOptical team.He adds that ECPs said they needed an e-commerce site that would extend their physical dispensary yet enable them to maintain the integrity of their practice brand.
The ECP Selects and Prices Merchandise
The ECP can simply elect tosell all available Essilor products on their online dispensary, or they can hand pick which brands and frames they would like to carry. Essilor marks all the products available through MyOnlineOptical with suggested price points, but ECPs have the ability to override those suggested prices, and price as they like. “We tried to keep MyOnlineOptical similar to how their inventory management software works,” says Walborn. “It gives them an idea of a national average price for a certain collection. That allows them to decide the marketing plan for those products.”
Ease-of-Use Model
There is a one-time charge of $250 to sign up for MyOnlineOptical. That charge covers a 1-800 phone number for each practice so the ECP is able to immediately know where the consumer is calling from without asking a lot of questions. Walborn estimates that it takes five minutes for ECPs to sign up. The registration process includes an authentication process in which onlyophthalmologists, optometrists and opticians are eligible and must document that they have a bricks-and-mortar location.The authentication process is intended to ensure that ECPs in business together aren’t competing with each other, Walborn notes. “We want to verify there are no conflicts of interest,” he says. “We don’t want to put people into new business ventures; we just want to put theminto extensions of practices.”
MyOnlineOptical Case Study: Lansing Ophthalmology 
Lansing Ophthalmology,
Locations
10
Staff
16 MDs, 9 ODs,
160 support staff
Patient Visits
85,000 annually
East Lansing, Mich.
Lansing Ophthalmology, a 10-location mega-practice with 9 optometrists in practice with 16 ophthalmologists, launched its MyOnlineOptical store in April 2010. “We decided to do it because with so many of our patients talking about buying on the internet, we felt the need to test the waters,” says Michael Kramer, director of optical services. To make it as simple as possible, Lansing Ophthalmology, which has dispensaries at all 10 of its locations,elected to offer all the products and brands available through MyOnlineOptical, including frames from Marchon, Oakley and Juicy Couture.
Online sales represent less than 1 percent of Lansing Ophthalmology’s retail sales. “It is only a very small fraction of our business at this time,” says Kramer. “The price points of our online sales are definitely lower than that of our brick and mortar stores, as the price is set lower to reflect the reduced labor costs and overhead of our stores.”
Introduce Online Optical Carefully
After patients have their eye exams, with prescription in hand, they are led to the in-office dispensary. If the patient is unable to find a frame they like or theyask about a frame the physical dispensary doesn’t have in stock, or the patient decides they don’t want to bother taking the time to look at the physical dispensary at all, then the optician gives the patient an envelope with their prescription and an information page about Lansing Ophthalmology’s MyOnlineOptical site. If the patient finds a frame in the physical dispensaryand places an order, the topic of the online opticalprobably won’t be mentioned by staff.
Lansing Ophthalmology greatly increased its offering to patients with the launch of its online optical.
Dispensary
Frames
2,000
Brands
15
Five times more product online
Online
Frames
>10,000
Brands
>100
For Patients Already Headed Out the Door
Once it is clear the patient does not intend to use their prescription the day of their exam to order frames at your dispensary, it makes sense to direct them to your e-commerce site. Kramer says most of the patients who have purchased from Lansing Ophthalmology’s MyOnlineOptical are 40 and younger and evenly divided between men and women. “People are looking on the internet,” he says, “and if you don’t have something to offer them, they’re going to go somewhere else.”
