Essilor purchase FramesDirect.com, and launch MyOpticalonline.com
It is reported that the optical giant Essilor has just bought majority of the stake of the earliest and biggest online retailers of eyeglasses, FramesDirect.com, in partnership with FramesDirect, Essilor launches web retail tool for US practices, the web is MyOpticalOnline.com
It says: A new internet service which allows independent practices in the US to sell optical products online to patients has been launched by Essilor America.
Following tests of MyOnlineOptical.com with a limited number of practices in partnership with US online retailer Frames Direct.com, Essilor is expanding the availability of its offer, according to US website Vision Monday. By adding an e-commerce engine to their own websites, Essilor said MyOnlineOptical.com would allow practices to extend their reach beyond office walls and office hours.
Essilor said practitioners would retain complete control of what is sold through their websites, determining both pricing and selection as well as preserving the look and feel of their practice website. Practitioners could chose whether to match, complement or increase their ‘brick and mortar’ product offering with up to 100,000 spectacle options, which Essilor suggested could keep patients from ‘walking out the door to a competitor’.
Randolph Brooks, president of the American Optometric Association, declared the association’s support for the venture, saying it would provide optometrists with an opportunity to ‘compete with online entities by offering additional visual correction solutions and therefore increase patient retention’.
Essilor UK managing director Marc Tersigni said the company had no immediate plans to test such a service in the UK, but added: ‘We want to help our customers who feel ill equipped to be part of the online market and may be losing business to the internet. How a service like MyOnlineOptical.com could help independent practices over here is something to be assessed and discussed with the optical associations later in the year.’
From the posts on the OptiBoard, most of the independent eye doctors oppose to such an online service. Some think the Essilor aims to grab the customer information through the so-called online service, which as Essilor put it, to help the doctors and opticians to move their businesses online.