Update from Warby Parker founders on in-person store expansion.
May 22, 2024
In a recent interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box, Warby Parker Co-Founders Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa shared the significant role its brick-and-mortar stores are playing in the company’s growth.
“Old fashioned is the new fashion, so to speak,” Blumenthal said. He noted that Warby Parker found that the vast majority of people want to go into a store, try glasses on and buy them in-person.
The rapid expansion of the company’s brick-and-mortar stores backs up Blumenthal’s words. He said the company is on a path to open 900 new stores.
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Gilboa said two-thirds of Warby Parker’s sales come from the approximately 250 stores the company currently has in operation in the U.S. and Canada. “The majority of our growth is coming from stores,” he said, pointing out that at the same time a third of the business is still derived from online sales.
Online or in-person is not a question for most customers, who Gilboa said often like to use both modalities to shop and make a purchase. Customers often go online first to see what is available in the stores, and then are able to come into the stores preset to make a purchase, knowing more about the merchandise.
“We think one of the most powerful aspects of our model is the omni-channel ability for all of our customers to choose whether they get a new prescription, whether they shop for glasses, whether they buy contacts,” he said. “They can choose any part of that journey to take place online and any part of that journey to take place in stores.”
>>Click HERE to watch the CNBC interview with Blumenthal and Gilboa>>
