
Dr. Martin’s optical dispensary. He says that a few key strategies have made a significant difference to his practice’s ability to capture eyewear sales.
Enhancing eyewear capture rate in optometry practices
By Alex Martin, OD
Jan. 29, 2025
In navigating today’s competitive eyewear market, I have focused on refining the brand strategy in our optical dispensary to significantly enhance our capture rate and optical profitability.
Here are the details on the methodology we employ in our practice, illustrating how a well-structured brand strategy can serve as a cornerstone for both patient satisfaction and business growth.
Balancing Push vs. Pull Brands
In our practice, we balance “Push” brands—those which might not be instantly recognizable to consumers—with “Pull” brands, which are household names. Our strategic allocation consists of 35 percent Push and 65 percent Pull brands. This setup helps us cater to a wide array of consumer preferences, making it easier to guide patients towards both unfamiliar quality brands and well-known favorites they trust.
Segmenting Retail Prices
Our retail pricing strategy is categorized into several tiers to remain competitive and profitable, especially in managed vision care transactions. These tiers are structured as follows: Below $150, $151-220, $221-280, $281-$350 and above $350.
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While we avoid pricing frames below $150 to maintain a premium standard, our pricing categories are designed to include value, core, premium and luxury brands.
Reflecting our commitment to premium and luxury eyecare, our retail price mix favors these higher-end segments at a 70 percent to 30 percent ratio compared to value and core brands. This ensures we offer products for every patient demographic we serve while focusing on higher-value offerings.
Strategic Brand Segmentation
Our approach to brand segmentation ensures we offer something within each industry category: value, core, fashion, lifestyle, sport, tech, specialized, luxury and sun.
Utilizing data analytics, we determine which segments can support more brands and aim to provide choices across all categories to capture interest from every angle of our patient base.
Results: Through these strategies, we maintain a 70 percent capture rate in our optical dispensary. This not only translates into high patient satisfaction, but also underpins the continuous double-digit growth we achieve annually in our practice.
By sharing the frameworks and strategies that have proven successful in my practice, I hope to inspire fellow optometrists to examine and perhaps refine their approaches, aligning their eyewear and eyecare delivery models to better meet the demands of today’s consumers.
Alex Martin, OD, is co-owner and managing partner of Martin Eye Associates, a Vision Source practice in Sanford, N.C. Dr. Martin is also President of Martin Consultants. To contact him: amartin@visionsource.com
