How to compete with on-line optical businesses ............................

[idispense]

,,

[optimensch]

How to compete with on-line? It's the same as competing with local b/m competitors: early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise.

[idispense]

How to compete with on-line? It's the same as competing with local b/m competitors: early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise.

Not quite, it's a different league. B & M are hindered by their optical training and rules. On-liners start from a fresh slate of business education not optical training.

Optical training says it can't be done, and meanwhile the business training people are doing it.

[idispense]

[QUOTE=Golfnorth;491017]

Manulife Financial

Really ?

[Chris Ryser]

Not quite, it's a different league. B & M are hindered by their optical training and rules. On-liners start from a fresh slate of business education not optical training.

Optical training says it can't be done, and meanwhile the business training people are doing it.

Thanks idispense, for your participation on this thread I have started exactly one week ago . You have shown some good logic and fine postings to get it going on a valid basis.

Contrary to to the usual threads very little has happened to disrupt the theme and its attendance figures and views numbers have shown that there is some real concern on this theme.

[optimensch]

Not quite, it's a different league. B & M are hindered by their optical training and rules. On-liners start from a fresh slate of business education not optical training.

Optical training says it can't be done, and meanwhile the business training people are doing it.

The biggest, richest B/M opticals are not run by people hindered by optical training either. Mr. Delvecchio is not a licensed optician, to the best of my knowledge and is not kept up at night worrying about OC heights. He practically owns the entire industry !!

Most onlines are there to fish in big waters, world wide almost. This is a huge bit of leverage to attempt to handle. It isn't local thinking. These are genuinely different businesses (online v b/m) despite the commodity being similar.

Whether you wish to operate an online or b/m optical, be prepared for a lot of hard work and long hours. The pile of $ required to do an online properly and to have a chance of success is a lot bigger than the pile needed to build a decent b/m.

Remember that there is very little available space on page 1 of a google search hence the "real estate" on the web is up for bidding, worldwide. The cost of acquiring paying customers on the web is tremendous (free glasses anyone?), as is the cost of just getting eyeballs and clicks on to your site.

"Success" in online right now is selling the website to a bigger fish, not from profitability of operations. The hard part for any online right now is staying funded and keeping the flow of investors dollar bills running. No easy task.

So getting back to the point of the original post by Chris - how to compete with online - to me, implies that you wish to also be successful online - perhaps a click and mortar approach (like Warby opening up retail shops). To do any significant online optical sales is the harder part, harder than selling in a new b/m store.....even if you are GIVING THE GLASSES AWAY for FREE online.

[Den]

...

I think there is some sense in your post. Thank you for your thoughts.

[idispense]

The biggest, richest B/M opticals are not run by people hindered by optical training either. Mr. Delvecchio is not a licensed optician, to the best of my knowledge and is not kept up at night worrying about OC heights. He practically owns the entire industry !!

Most onlines are there to fish in big waters, world wide almost. This is a huge bit of leverage to attempt to handle. It isn't local thinking. These are genuinely different businesses (online v b/m) despite the commodity being similar.

Whether you wish to operate an online or b/m optical, be prepared for a lot of hard work and long hours. The pile of $ required to do an online properly and to have a chance of success is a lot bigger than the pile needed to build a decent b/m.

Remember that there is very little available space on page 1 of a google search hence the "real estate" on the web is up for bidding, worldwide. The cost of acquiring paying customers on the web is tremendous (free glasses anyone?), as is the cost of just getting eyeballs and clicks on to your site.

"Success" in online right now is selling the website to a bigger fish, not from profitability of operations. The hard part for any online right now is staying funded and keeping the flow of investors dollar bills running. No easy task.

So getting back to the point of the original post by Chris - how to compete with online - to me, implies that you wish to also be successful online - perhaps a click and mortar approach (like Warby opening up retail shops). To do any significant online optical sales is the harder part, harder than selling in a new b/m store.....even if you are GIVING THE GLASSES AWAY for FREE online.

Excellent points and examples of non ECP backgrounds succeeding. Thank you.

[idispense]

Can anyone suggest reasons why we would want to get our business listed and our icon or avatar displayed on a GPS navigation device ? What marketing opportunities might open by doing so ?

Can anyone suggest which financing option would be best and why you might seek out one over another ?

Can anyone research the top ten on-liners to discover and summarize the founders backgrounds as ECPs or non-optical backgrounds ?

[Chris Ryser]

................................So getting back to the point of the original post by Chris - how to compete with online - to me, implies that you wish to also be successful online - perhaps a click and mortar approach (like Warby opening up retail shops). To do any significant online optical sales is the harder part, harder than selling in a new b/m store.....even if you are GIVING THE GLASSES AWAY for FREE online.

After a week full of some fruitful and serious comments reading them and thinking about it I could throw some changes to the first post into the ring.

B&M stores are no national nor international chains with unlimited funds nor investors. However the superb website traffic figures of the on-line opticals, and the interest they create with cheaper and even free glasses they create among a certain category of the population, that looks for a similar product at a lesser retail price, because of want or also need, could play right into the hands of the conservative local B&M type business.

It is rumored that Google is changing its established ways of promoting the largest and strongest worldwide websites in first place to adding a more local directed system, which would be a much more complex system to manage. This could however be an easier task for local business websites to be seen in their own local area.

So my " imaginary store " of the first post in this thread would still sell their frames and lenses at close to the on-line opticals and make the bulk income from the services offered and given for a charge that could compensate for the loss of profits of the less costly sales. It will be staffed only by experienced and seasoned opticians.

Furthermore it would also benefit from services given to on-line purchased by buyers that need checking and adjusting.

Location will be non important as people will be looking and searching for a qualified top class service that can make their glasses fit properly.

................................So getting back to the point of the original post by Chris - how to compete with online - to me, implies that you wish to also be successful online

My "imaginary store" would NOT sell on line, it would be the counter solution to purchasing on-line, at similar selling prices but would be heavily promoting the service part, the on-line optical can not provide.

People today understand how other professionals work. You can get parts on-line in many fields but you can not install them, because you need a professional to do it, and he charges for the services he provides.

In short I could compete with any on-line opticals in selling prices and provide services they can not.

[idispense]

After a week full of some fruitful and serious comments reading them and thinking about it I could throw some changes to the first post into the ring.

B&M stores are no national nor international chains with unlimited funds nor investors. However the superb website traffic figures of the on-line opticals, and the interest they create with cheaper and even free glasses they create among a certain category of the population, that looks for a similar product at a lesser retail price, because of want or also need, could play right into the hands of the conservative local B&M type business.

It is rumored that Google is changing its established ways of promoting the largest and strongest worldwide websites in first place to adding a more local directed system, which would be a much more complex system to manage. This could however be an easier task for local business websites to be seen in their own local area.

So my " imaginary store " of the first post in this thread would still sell their frames and lenses at close to the on-line opticals and make the bulk income from the services offered and given for a charge that could compensate for the loss of profits of the less costly sales. It will be staffed only by experienced and seasoned opticians.

Furthermore it would also benefit from services given to on-line purchased by buyers that need checking and adjusting.

Location will be non important as people will be looking and searching for a qualified top class service that can make their glasses fit properly.





My "imaginary store" would NOT sell on line, it would be the counter solution to purchasing on-line, at similar selling prices but would be heavily promoting the service part, the on-line optical can not provide.

People today understand how other professionals work. You can get parts on-line in many fields but you can not install them, because you need a professional to do it, and he charges for the services he provides.

In short I could compete with any on-line opticals in selling prices and provide services they can not.

Chris:

Could you further define "would NOT sell on line" ?

Does this mean you would not offer to deliver goods to online customers who have not been personally measured or does this mean the imaginary store would not use on-line medium advertising to attract customers ?

Idispense

[idispense]

There is a method by which any and all B & M legitimate ECP's can legitimately compete with all aspects of on-line sales including acquiring the financing, and have the buying power and skill sets.

[idispense]

Three ways you can compete with online:

1) Provide outstanding service that demonstrates to your customer that your optical knowledge makes a difference.
2) Offer a better consumer experience through pricing transparency, easy to understand bundled packages and a wide selection of frames and lens products.
3) Travel around the country strategically cutting fiber optic lines thereby bringing the internet down and putting the onlines out of business.

I ran these ideas by one of the guys I work with and he said ideas 1 and 2 would be effective for the long term but number 3 would only be a short term fix.

Joe:

Number 3 is a shot gun approach but can you think of a legal way to effectively accomplish number 3 in a target specific manner, rather than in whole ?

Number 2 is a mouthful to advertise , can you condense and simplify that to 3 words to get the message advertisable ?

Number 1 is a mouthful too, reduce this to a simple already known visual image of conveyance.

Good points Joe, now condense and visualize into Oglivie fashion.

Idispense

[Joe Zewe]

I was actually joking when I wrote number three.

Perhaps the best way to develop an online optical on a limited budget is to develop an innovative model that offers something unique and receives media and internet publicity that drives traffic to your site and increases SEO. Once you prove you have something, you can raise money to continue the effort.

[idispense]

I was actually joking when I wrote number three
.

Give it more thought, explore that thought but legally.

[Chris Ryser]

Chris:

Could you further define "would NOT sell on line" ?

Does this mean you would not offer to deliver goods to online customers who have not been personally measured or does this mean the imaginary store would not use on-line medium advertising to attract customers ?

Idispense

That is correct ................my "imaginary store" would NOT sell glasses on the internet, but would promote the local hands on service on the web. Website advertising directed towards the local market. Id successful other stores could be opened in different areas.

The glasses sold in the store would be priced to compete with prices offered on the web, but delivered without any service unless customer decides to take the options of his choice.

Service for glasses purchased on the web would be treated the same way. (See post No 1 of this thread).

This store would be a different concept as the present conventional B&M stores by offering top quality service by highly qualified opticians and the product sold to compete with the on-line opticals.

[tx11]

Soooo what's an estimate on how much cash you have to throw at becoming #1 on search engines? How about Chris's idea of just becoming #1 on SE to get customers into a B&M?

[Chris Ryser]

If you want to be constantly on top of the gang it probably will cost a bundle in"also service charges" .

If you can manage some sleepless nights every 2-3 month on a regular basis, you can do it without spending a nickel and make it to number 7 to 12 and be close enough to the top.