WRITER Rayleen Tamblyn

Package deals and bundled offerings have become the norm for most optical retailers, especially large chains. Patients have come to expect multiple optical products to be offered for one price they perceive this to be value for money.

While initially introduced to move low-budget eyewear, times have changed and over the past 15 years, we've seen a plethora of deals introduced to meet different patient demographics, as Rayleen Tamblyn explains.

Making quality optical products requires several ingredients: we need the prescription, quality measurements, frames, and lenses.

And we need optical retailers, frame companies, and lens manufacturers to work together to provide the full product.

To deliver finished products to our patients at retail prices that leave a margin for each of these parties, efficiency, and productivity are key.

It’s a symbiotic relationship; each of us relies on the other to survive and, hopefully, to thrive.

Such is the volume of orders that Specsavers has established its own labs to grind and fit its proprietary frames with lenses to supply partner stores. EssilorLuxottica does the same, although it supplies its owned practices (OPSM, Sunglass Hut, and Laubmann and Pank etc), as well as independent practices.

For many independents, partnerships formed between frame and lens suppliers, driven by online ordering platforms, have provided the competitive solution. These ‘one stop shop’ arrangements offer distinct price and efficiency advantages that are passed on to independent practices, enabling them to maintain a competitive position. CR Labs and Safilo, for instance, run a programme called Full Circle. Rodenstock and De Rigo offer a similar service fitting Safilo’s range of Italian frames with Rodenstock’s German lens technology. Opticare also offers practices a complete service with its proprietary frames and lenses.

In July 2015 Shamir, now owned by EssilorLuxottica, acquired Eyres eyewear, enabling the two brands to jointly offer purpose-designed safety frame and lens packages. Frames from Marchon’s brand portfolio can be fitted with VSP Optics lenses through the VSP Optics Australia Lab.

Fundamentally the approach is the same:

• Practices maintain a display product on the shelf, from which they can place an order. This minimises stock held in the practice while maximising opportunities to repeatedly sell the same frame.

• Order placement via an online platform, which streamlines administration, reduces the chances of error, and frees staff up for customer care/sales.

• Lens labs receive digital orders, have a frame company’s traces to hand, and their technicians are familiar with the product, which speeds up turnaround time.

• Supplier invoicing is also streamlined: rather than receiving an invoice from the lens lab and one from the supplier, one complete job triggers one invoice, making reconciliation easier.

• When frame and lens companies work together, they have confidence to offer warranties. By using the Win-fit complete ordering system established by Rodenstock and Safilo for instance, independent optical retailers can offer patients a complete frame and lens package with a complete warranty.

• By combining resources, frame and lens companies are also better equipped to support trade partners with marketing and promotions. The Full Circle programme, for example, provides resources to help practices promote their complete eyewear packages.

• And finally, just to seal the deal, suppliers often offer preferential price structures, to further boost the profit margin of loyal trade partners.

Ultimately, this means practices can promise high quality product with a faster turnaround and at a competitive price with a sustainable margin… and all with the greatest confidence as they know their supplier.

These innovative partners are providing independent optical businesses with a smarter, more efficient way to offer patients top quality designer frames and cutting-edge lens technology eyewear solutions, all while enjoying increased operational efficiency, streamlined logistics, and cost savings.

Take a look at the options presented in the coming pages.

Rayleen Tamblyn is an optical trainer with the Australasian College of Optical Dispensing (ACOD) and an experienced, qualified optical dispenser. Ms Tamblyn has worked with ACOD since 2021 and also works as a retail manager at Specsavers.