Luxottica plans to sell contact lenses online
Luxottica is a global leader in designing, manufacturing and distribution of eyewear. Its eyewear products cover styles of fashion, luxury and sports. The company has been a market leader and its retail brands are well-known in the optical industry. Until September 30 of 2009, Luxottica Group had operated 2,939 optical stores across North America, including LensCrafters and Pearle Vision. But there is a further plan in Luxottica. This optical giant is seeking to get income by going into a new direction. During the past years, Luxottica has never succeeded in selling eyewear products through the Internet. Now, top officials in Luxottica think it is the time to bridge this gap.
On December 15th, Luxottica announced a strategic, multi-year ecommerce alliance with drugstore.com, which is a leading online retailer of health, beauty, vision and pharmacy products. The simple goal of such an alliance is to expand online access to Luxottica’s contact lenses in the North American market, improving the company’s North American business. Luxottica wanted to utilize drugstore.com’s ecommerce platform and strength in online technology, marketing, customer care and fulfillment. This may be the simplest way for Luxottica to start online business. In detail, the leading online contact lens retailer Vision Direct under drugstore.com will conduct details of the cooperation. Vision Direct will help Luxottica Group develop branded contact lens ecommerce sites and provide customer care and fulfillment services.
This alliance has received satisfactory comments from both sides. The Executive Vice President of Luxottica named Valerio Giacobbi said that the agreement with drugstore.com would significantly help Luxottica achieve the goal to attract more customers, improving their acknowledge of contact lenses as an important vision care option. According to the CEO and Chairman of the Board of drugstore.com, the cooperation with Luxottica represented an unparalleled opportunity for drugstore.com to extend its partnership strategy. In the future, the two companies may conduct further cooperation in other related areas such as Luxottica’s wholesale business.