For almost 30 percent of recent eyewear buyers who used a daily deal site, the promotion used lowered the cost of their eyewear purchase by more than 50 percent, according to The Vision Council’s VisionWatch Daily Deal Eyewear Report. For almost 25 percent of recent eyewear buyers who used a daily deal site, the promotion used lowered the cost of their eyewear purchase by less than 50 percent. Another one-quarter of recent eyewear buyers who used a daily deal site reported that the promotion used lowered the cost of the eye exam or other eyecare professional fees. Finally, one-seventh of recent eyewear buyers who used a daily deal site claimed that the promotion used allowed them to purchase multiple pairs of eyewear rather than a single pair.
OK, sit down, take a long breath and count slowly to 10. Are your emotions back under control? Yes… good, now let’s consider a few facts. It’s most important to know that very few people are using the internet to buy eyeglasses. Most of the purchases are plano sunglasses. But even that is still a relatively small number. Will that number grow? Of course it will. This year a couple of gorillas in the marketplace are entering the internet eyeglasses arena and that will definitely have an effect. The key is to always keep things in perspective–we still have time to be pro-active rather than re-active.
So, what are the pro-active steps we should take? How about these two …
1) Create a 20-second “value” script that every patient coming through the office hears. The script should answer the question: Why should I buy here rather than anywhere else? Emphasize “value added.”
2) Consider adding an internet offering to your practice that includes frames and sunglasses that you do not currently offer in your practice.
Wishing that contact lenses are not sold over the internet doesn’t change the fact that they are sold over the internet. On the other hand, creating strategies to be used in the practice to combat contact lenses being sold over the internet has had a positive effect on practices. Learn from this model. Don’t just complain about eyeglasses being sold over the internet, do something about it today so that your practice is pro-actively addressing this issue.
