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Thread: Can professionals have an on-line store?

  1. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by MakeOptics View Post
    Mike,

    I love your new updated site, it has come a long way and I would be proud of it. Clean, well laid out, a consistent feel throughout it's no wonder people stay.
    Thanks! Once in awhile, I use the WayBack Machine to look at what it used to be when we first started on the internet. https://archive.org/web/

    I use an open source shopping cart called NopCommerce http://www.nopcommerce.com/default.aspx

  2. #27
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    Redhot Jumper Can professionals have an on-line store?

    Quote Originally Posted by Dr Bill Stacy

    My apologies Dr Bill Stacy for my part in derailing your thread which was a valid and interesting one, as well as all other readers.

    I will keep out of it from now on, while just watching it.

    .

  3. #28
    Master OptiBoarder MakeOptics's Avatar
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    Mike,

    I noticed your website is also mobile aware, as is mine.

    "As of May 2013, 63% of adult cell owners use their phones to go online.

    34% of cell internet users go online mostly using their phones" - Pew Research Center

    All forms of "color blind" clients can view Auralens.net and opticians.cc, optochemicals allows them to get to the second page with the menu missing.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails omscolor.jpg  
    http://www.opticians.cc

    Creator of the industries 1st HTML5 Browser based tracer software.
    Creator of the industries 1st Mac tracer software.
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  4. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris Ryser View Post
    My apologies Dr Bill Stacy for my part in derailing your thread which was a valid and interesting one, as well as all other readers.

    I will keep out of it from now on, while just watching it.

    .
    No problems. I got my question answered and you guys can carry on that esoteric SEO stuff here or anywhere. I'll worry about that later. Much later...

  5. #30
    Master OptiBoarder MakeOptics's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris Ryser View Post
    My apologies Dr Bill Stacy for my part in derailing your thread which was a valid and interesting one, as well as all other readers.

    I will keep out of it from now on, while just watching it.

    .
    I know that's not easy to say, I am sorry for taking so much offense to it and adding fuel to the fire. As a side note I swear by your poly edge polish, the stuff works wonders. +1000 for being a gentleman.
    http://www.opticians.cc

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  6. #31
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    I am pretty sure big E has a program to help practitioners set this up.

  7. #32
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    Redhot Jumper Thank you.

    Quote Originally Posted by MakeOptics View Post

    I am sorry for taking so much offense to it and adding fuel to the fire.
    Makeoptics ...............Thank you.

    We just saved this this thread from being closed.

  8. #33
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    Quote Originally Posted by Speed View Post

    I am pretty sure big E has a program to help practitioners set this up.
    ..............and here it is

    Essilor grows online opticals

    Essilor got involved in online eye wear purchasing last fall.

    During a panel discussion at Vision Expo West on the topic, Howard B. Purcell, OD, FAAO, vice president of customer development for Essilor of America, announced the launch of MyOnlineOptical.com.

    The new Essilor service helps eye care practitioners (ECPs) set up their own e-commerce site or allows them to link their existing practice website to MyOnlineOptical.

    “You can create an online model as a viable professional extension of your practice,” Dr. Purcell said at the conference. “Patients may come into your practice to look for frames and not find something they like. Give them a card with your website address and tell them you have a wider selection there. There’s no reason for them to go anywhere else.”

    Dr. Purcell listed the advantages of using MyOnlineOptical: around-the-clock service, more than 100,000 frames, no-cost inventory expansion, individualized price setting, Essilor as the service provider and operating expense savings.

    In December, Essilor announced in a press release that more than 600 online optical stores have been built through MyOnlineOptical for independent ECPs.



    see the whole thing: =====================>
    http://www.healio.com/optometry/cont...yeglass-market

  9. #34
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    It's nice to know that only 2 or 3% are actually buying Rx eyewear on line. That one guy in Plano Tx has done about a dozen pair in his first year? I do more than that in one day at the office, and my patients aren't wandering around looking for someone to adjust their new glasses.

    I am getting a few drifting in from time to time and am still wrestling with how much to charge for an initial adjustment with followup if necessary. I know the management doesn't like us talking prices here, but I'm thinking more than a double sawbuck. I think those who will do these for free as a goodwill gesture are just encouraging online buying. The people who love shopping on line do not even like brick and mortar businesses.

  10. #35
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dr. Bill Stacy View Post
    It's nice to know that only 2 or 3% are actually buying Rx eyewear on line. That one guy in Plano Tx has done about a dozen pair in his first year? I do more than that in one day at the office, and my patients aren't wandering around looking for someone to adjust their new glasses.

    I am getting a few drifting in from time to time and am still wrestling with how much to charge for an initial adjustment with followup if necessary. I know the management doesn't like us talking prices here, but I'm thinking more than a double sawbuck. I think those who will do these for free as a goodwill gesture are just encouraging online buying. The people who love shopping on line do not even like brick and mortar businesses.
    If this was happening to me regularly I would also charge $25, as of yet it is not, but I absolutely would.

  11. #36
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    Keep track of those "free" adjustments and repairs (nosepads, screws, etc) and how many of them actually return to spend real money.

    If it's below 20% then you might want to reconsider. Keep track of every single one who is "new" to your practice.

  12. #37
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    And remember, anyone who hasn't been in for over 3 years is considered "New", at least by MediCare and most other insurers.

  13. #38
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tallboy View Post
    If this was happening to me regularly I would also charge $25, as of yet it is not, but I absolutely would.
    I charge more than that

  14. #39
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    And in Frostbite Falls. Who would have guessed? We're not supposed to talk prices here, but you could give us a hint? Half a Frankie?

  15. #40
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    I think ECPs can and should and will have online opticals. Just because it's online doesn't mean it has to be cheap junk or obscenely discounted prices. It does if you want to compete with the lowest price onliners, but that same advice holds true for competing with the lowest price brick and mortars.

    I would like to have an online site where my customers can conveniently browse all my products and prices before they visit, maybe save an order for me to pull up and discuss if they visit the office, and a way to easily put together a quote I have discussed in office to email the customer so they can contemplate it at home and just click a "buy now" button whenever they are ready, without having to call my office back. I personally feel the convenience of online shopping is a huge draw for those who like to research their options ahead of time and mull over their purchases. If I had such a site my online prices would be the same as in office, the site would just be an outlet for marketing and more convenient sales.

    I have personally been contacted by consumers who found me via posts here or on my blog, and wanted to buy from me online. There is obviously some desire for access to quality, presumably from people who do not have such access locally (a couple of these people lived nowhere near cities and had only chain opticals to choose from but wanted something better). I have no infrastructure or mechanism in place to accommodate that, and was saddened to say I couldn't help some of them, but I would love to be able to direct them to a portal where they can get every bit of service I can find a way to put online.

    Essilor's myonlineoptical is very nicely put together and can be profitable (if you can ever make a sale, selling cheap glasses online will just drown you out in the noise of hundreds of other sites). I would use it however I don't like that they make all the glasses themselves. Though it's turnkey and requires almost zero ECP effort, we have no control of the quality on finished product, and in many cases I would be more profitable making the glasses myself and my customer would be assured a better pair of eyewear. If some lab mobilized a website system to me that let my customers build and order eyewear online, from the options and prices I choose, then deliver the order to me and let me make the glasses (or make the glasses complete per my specification) and then either ship to them or offer pickup in office, I would pay for that privilege. However I know of no one that offers that as a ready-to-go service. I could of course have that all built from scratch, but no thanks I'm not THAT into it.

    Whether ECPs should have a office optical and a separate online optical that sells different stuff at different prices with different guarantees, why not? Those are totally different business that happen to be selling the same class of widget.

  16. #41
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    Blue Jumper your website which I believe is one of the finest retail optical sites I have seen


    Whether ECPs should have a office optical and a separate online optical that sells different stuff at different prices with different guarantees, why not? Those are totally different business that happen to be selling the same class of widget.

    I have been on your website which I believe is one of the finest retail optical sites I have seen. Also the Alexa ranking is very high. The only negative remark is, that you have not set a more recent date than Monday July 29, 2013. That makes the news 2 yars old instead of now and affects the ratings.

    In your own case I would have another site that would appeal to a price consciences consumer of which most of them are, that could shy away from the made to measure frames, and latest technologies.


  17. #42
    Master OptiBoarder DanLiv's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chris Ryser View Post
    I have been on your website which I believe is one of the finest retail optical sites I have seen. Also the Alexa ranking is very high. The only negative remark is, that you have not set a more recent date than Monday July 29, 2013. That makes the news 2 yars old instead of now and affects the ratings.
    Thanks Chris! Yes I certainly ought to update and post more frequently.

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