Would you price match on frame purchases online?

[optician2601]

A customer of mine just purchased a pair of eyeglasses at our optical store. He went home and googled the frame and found for much cheaper price. Would you price match for the customer? How can I explain to him the difference in price on frames at optical stores and online?

[coupe]

no

[SeaU2020]

No warranty is the big difference.
and all THAT BELOW

[eryn]

Nope!
Why not?
Is the online retailer going to custom measure the frame for the patient?
Is the online retailer going to custom fit and adjust any time its needed?
Is the online retailer going to warranty?
Your patient needs to see why you are a better VALUE (not price)
IMHO get away from frame lines that are available online in large quantities at prices tons lower than you can sell them for.
Go independant and break the cycle of feeding companies that are your direct competition.

[TEdFitz]

He found a picture of the frame and a pricetag on the interweb. At your place, he found the actual frame, touched it, tried it on, and made an educated decision to purchase. Their supply isn't like yours; hundreds, if not thousands of miles away, not on backorder at the time of purchase, and comes with a contracted dispensing optician as a dedicated eyecare provider.

[Chad Sobodash]

Nope!
Why not?
Is the online retailer going to custom measure the frame for the patient?
Is the online retailer going to custom fit and adjust any time its needed?
Is the online retailer going to warranty?
Your patient needs to see why you are a better VALUE (not price)
IMHO get away from frame lines that are available online in large quantities at prices tons lower than you can sell them for.
Go independant and break the cycle of feeding companies that are your direct competition.

I'd also be completely upfront and honest with the patient and explain to them that on top of all this, I have an overhead to pay for. I have lights to keep on and rent to pay. Online retailers have no overhead and no liability. I'm just a small fish in a big pond, and for me to keep making great glasses for people and feed my family, I have to charge more than an online retailer who couldn't care if you were alive or dead.

Unless your patient is someone who believes that Amazon should take over the world, is upset there aren't many places to buy groceries online, or just hates small businesses, they'll probably appreciate your candor.

[m0002a]

I don't think you have to match the online price, but you might need to be a bit more competitive and give them some discount. I am not so sure about the idea that online selection or inventory is worse than a brick and mortar store, but obviously you are going to fit/adjust the frame, so you need and deserve to sell at a higher price than online prices. If you are selling a high price progressive lens with the frame, it is even more reasonable to give them some kind of discount on the frame. Giving them some kind of discount on the frame will also give the patient a feeling that they got a good deal and make them a return customer, and likely provide good word of mouth advertising.

[chaoticneutral]

Online retailers have no overhead.

Hey woah.....slow your role there chad, online retailers have a domain cost and warehouse space and 9 year olds they have to pay 1.21 an hour to pack frames into boxes.


but seriously, he's right ... so LOL NO

[optimensch]

just curious...
What brand?
What is the % price difference on the frame?

[Paul Smith LDO]

Keep in mind that not everything displayed on line is obtainable, there are some dubious characters out there who have made a ton of money duping the unsuspecting public. Not only is it a buyer beware, it is also a B and B beware. On line sites can and will show product that can not be acquired, but will show it as something that the individual can purchase thru the site. The amount of fakes that people have brought to me have forced my hand to the point where I do not accept any frame purchased on line.

[optician2601]

Dolce Gabbana, price different on frame was $74.

[optimensch]

That is a pretty big difference but sometimes with labels like that it is even worse.
We need to do more due diligence than ever before buying brands/models - ie when the rep is in our store showing me new models I go online with them and check the current pricing. Often its right there in your face, brand new styles which have not even shipped to ECPs are online at cost +.
Move away from carrying this poison and find better merchandise to sell.

You know your clientele and your situation better than anyone. If in your gut you feel you should do something (partial credit, store credit or something short of refunding the whole difference) to accommodate this client, then do so. Then liquidate Dolce from your stock.

Just my humble.

[optimensch]

I don't think telling the client that your rent is high and your living expenses require you to sell a Dolce frame for $74 more than online really accomplishes anything.
You can be a little more than online, given the service and warranty etc... but keeping that client happy has a value too for your business.
Learn from the experience and move along.

[Jubilee]

We had this happen in the past. We let the patient know we try to be competitive, however it is tough when the online companies don't provide the services and follow up that we do. We did negotiate to meet in the middle. Recently we provided a replacement frame for the patient. We took it as an opportunity to showcase why purchasing from us was better. While the manufacturer was willing to do the repair, they would require her to pay for the shipping and proof of purchase. Purchasing from us allowed her to bypass all that and comprehend one of the many reasons why we charge a bit more.

[Chad Sobodash]

I don't think telling the client that your rent is high and your living expenses require you to sell a Dolce frame for $74 more than online really accomplishes anything.
You can be a little more than online, given the service and warranty etc... but keeping that client happy has a value too for your business.
Learn from the experience and move along.

FYI, not only would I never carry D&G, but any markup from online I might have for a current style isn't even in that ballpark. Unless somehow they're buying frames that "fell off the back of a truck" from Craigslist or something, I'll never be that far off the mark.

As a matter of principle, I wouldn't like to carry anything that's sold online. Necessity dictates that occasionally I must, but the bulk of my store consists of what you simply cannot buy online (unless used or NOS).

[m0002a]

As a matter of principle, I wouldn't like to carry anything that's sold online. Necessity dictates that occasionally I must, but the bulk of my store consists of what you simply cannot buy online (unless used or NOS).

Really? What brands are you talking about?

[Johns]

As a matter of principle, I wouldn't like to carry anything that's sold online. Necessity dictates that occasionally I must, but the bulk of my store consists of what you simply cannot buy online (unless used or NOS).

I tell people that ALL the time...but they think that I have a grudge against the brand names. Why go out of your way, pay top dollar, carry their minimum number of frames, just so you can get beat up??? I'm with you Chad...this problem almost never comes up, and I've got more than one office. Our prices are about $100 below the designers, we give a 2 yr warranty on them.

For my customers, online is a place to get a date, not glasses.

[Chris Ryser]

This profession had for the last few hundred years, always made a good living and above average incomes.

That was due to the fact that the optician did not only sell and deliver glasses in the old days, but also made and finished them. He bought and stocked a good selection of frames and had a good stock of uncut single vision lenses and even bifocals in spherical powers. People from out of town would come for eye tests and traveled back home with their finished glasses.

In the back of the store he had the lab with instruments, cutters and edgers to place the lenses properly into the frames. Lenses (Glass) would break occasionally and frames (celluloid) would go up in flames when heated over the Bunsen burner in his workshop.

There was a complete service industry that justified the rather high prices the opticians asked for their products.

These days the old optical workshop has been changed for a central lab sometimes a thousand miles away. These labs are equipped with the latest machinery and use modern overnight delivery services to compete. They do the work for the modern optician for a charge.

Today's optician on many occasions is not an educated, and properly licensed professional, because of no need in about half the States in America. They can be simply in office trained sales people.

Also today's optician still sells their eyeglasses at similar markups as they did when they invested in labor, and risk in their own lab in the back of the store. Today the optician passes on a product he/she gets all finished in an outside location, but charges by the age old multipliers of the final cost.

Online Optical s charge with a much lower markup factor while using the same type optical labs than the B&M store use. Their only way to make profits is by selling huge quantities.

The difference is that they can not provide the service a knowledgeable optician can.

In order to properly compete, the retail opticians will eventually get smarter
and charge for their services they can provide, and lower their age old markup system.

[Golfnorth]

"For my customers, online is a place to get a date, not glasses."

Johns.....can I use that line?

Regards,
Golfnorth

[Hayde]

This profession had for the last few hundred years, always made a good living and above average incomes.

That was due to the fact that the optician did not only sell and deliver glasses in the old days, but also made and finished them. He bought and stocked a good selection of frames and had a good stock of uncut single vision lenses and even bifocals in spherical powers. People from out of town would come for eye tests and traveled back home with their finished glasses.

In the back of the store he had the lab with instruments, cutters and edgers to place the lenses properly into the frames. Lenses (Glass) would break occasionally and frames (celluloid) would go up in flames when heated over the Bunsen burner in his workshop.

There was a complete service industry that justified the rather high prices the opticians asked for their products.

These days the old optical workshop has been changed for a central lab sometimes a thousand miles away. These labs are equipped with the latest machinery and use modern overnight delivery services to compete. They do the work for the modern optician for a charge.

Today's optician on many occasions is not an educated, and properly licensed professional, because of no need in about half the States in America. They can be simply in office trained sales people.

Also today's optician still sells their eyeglasses at similar markups as they did when they invested in labor, and risk in their own lab in the back of the store. Today the optician passes on a product he/she gets all finished in an outside location, but charges by the age old multipliers of the final cost.

Online Optical s charge with a much lower markup factor while using the same type optical labs than the B&M store use. Their only way to make profits is by selling huge quantities.

The difference is that they can not provide the service a knowledgeable optician can.

In order to properly compete, the retail opticians will eventually get smarter
and charge for their services they can provide, and lower their age old markup system.

Chris, doesn't an outsourced lab's markup take the share of the optical's expenses that the inside-lab machinery and HR used to take? It seems to me you're arguing that the lab risk and 'more competent' skills of making their lenses isn't still apart of the optical's expenses, to which I would respectfully disagree.

I can only come out ahead with my own lab operation if I have a competent staff in the lab and the retail floor minimizing my risks and wastes. Otherwise, the lab is charging me not just for the materials, but the labor skill, equipment wear, and the security behind it. Plus shipping.

Perhaps your conclusion is true enough that eventually pricing will have to be de-bundled. But I don't think you're giving natural competition in the industry enough credit when suggesting it coasts on obsolete markups. In my observations, those practices that try to chase the big box price points set themselves up for a world of hurt and spiral toward doom. There's more than enough of these 'scouts' trying to reinvent the wheel just to crash and burn to inform me that the old, worn cookie cutter still works much better. There's still plenty of consumer demand for keeping it simple--and so far industry statistics don't show it shrinking.

[Chris Ryser]

There's still plenty of consumer demand for keeping it simple--and so far industry statistics don't show it shrinking.

Hayde.................Good argument. Would you admit that the consumer demand not going for on line services would be the older generation, which is the bulk of the opticians clients, due to their age group ?

The big number of the ones entering the old age group have been comfortable with the use of computers and will show a different way of thinking and attitude.

When today an optical corporation as Essilor, that operates a minimum of 14 websites of on line optical' s selling directly to the consumer, they must have been brain storming the issue in side out, before taking the final decision to take the step and do it and offend their customers that put them on the map in the first place. Today they are also direct competition and growing fast in that lane. Obviously they are banking on a not so distant future.

On what is the conventional optical retailer banking ?

[tx11]

Nope!
Why not?
Is the online retailer going to custom measure the frame for the patient?
Is the online retailer going to custom fit and adjust any time its needed?
Is the online retailer going to warranty?
Your patient needs to see why you are a better VALUE (not price)
IMHO get away from frame lines that are available online in large quantities at prices tons lower than you can sell them for.
Go independant and break the cycle of feeding companies that are your direct competition.

What name brands are not available on line?

[Hayde]

Hayde.................Good argument. Would you admit that the consumer demand not going for on line services would be the older generation, which is the bulk of the opticians clients, due to their age group ?

The big number of the ones entering the old age group have been comfortable with the use of computers and will show a different way of thinking and attitude.

When today an optical corporation as Essilor, that operates a minimum of 14 websites of on line optical' s selling directly to the consumer, they must have been brain storming the issue in side out, before taking the final decision to take the step and do it and offend their customers that put them on the map in the first place. Today they are also direct competition and growing fast in that lane. Obviously they are banking on a not so distant future.

On what is the conventional optical retailer banking ?

I think in a way your choice of words answers the question: 'generation.'

The boomers & Xers will be with us a long while yet--I think they're a much harder reach for the onliners to penetrate nearly enough for the B&Ms to find threatening.

So worst case scenario, a draconian market shift that leaves blood on the streets is quite literally a generation or two away. Basically, I think "distant enough" future. By that time, the fog of war will be far less thick. And I imagine it's at least possible that by the time the Millenials are old enough, they'll find a job market, a pad of their own, and belatedly join the grown up world where they've internalized the fact musicians they like need to eat, the share economy isn't an excuse to run shell games, and opticians in the eyewear cycle is a good idea. People do learn. The virtue of the millenials is that they can learn fast when they want to.

The truth may be somewhere in the middle of our two extremes. I'm sure online communications will alter the business in ways we haven't imagined yet. We will have to quickly hop on rocks to navigate it from time to time--but good opticians think on their feet anyway. Until an algorythm can reproduce competent judgment on matters of eyewear cheaper and faster than humans can do it, then no matter what changes or who writes the paychecks, I'll find work in the industry. I hope it's not in a phone bank...hopefully I'm a good enough adjuster to get out of the cubicle from time to time. ;P

[Barry Santini]

"...it coasts on obsolete markups..."

This *is* true. Better, our industry coasts on unsubstantiated markups.

B

[Hayde]

"...it coasts on obsolete markups..."

This *is* true. Better, our industry coasts on unsubstantiated markups.

B

Please substantiate your definition of substantiated markups? ; )