Eyewear retailing ...Future is Bright !

Like other categories that have found good deal of favour among customers over the traditional neighbourhood /city specific stores , India is also on the verge of seeing a BIG shift in the way we shop around for eye wear both in the prescription and the fashion segment .

Why the rush ?

Margins !

Markups on frames and lenses can be as high as 250 percent, the potential for profits is enormous.

Demographics make it right for Fashion & Prescription :

The potential for growth is also big due the fact of the Indian demographics mix , which is skewed to youth currently ( good for fashion eye wear ) would have a size able chunk of them hit the middle age say in 10 years ( good for prescription eye wear ) ,which makes them ripe for glasses .

Fashion Accessories :

Like Mobiles ,watches and jewellery , glasses have also become fashionable. Many people would soon have several pairs to go with different outfits.

Penetration :

A size able number of Indians are in the need of correction ,don't have the numbers , but this blogs feel that there would be a huge number of rural folks not aware of the need for correction .In the fashion segment the growing Income levels would be the growth impetus .

What to expect !

Prescription Segment ::

Again the Big and Small retailers issues ( pls refer this blogs earlier post on this issue ) on would arise in this segment too , the good old optometrists is surely going to feel the heat soon , although this blog believes that there would be space of customised service and the one on one connect that is a small retailer forte in all categories of retail . Yes ,the good days of shutter open and expect customers would be over soon for small optometrists , they would have to work for their business !

In the US ,One-hour service ( like our 1 hour photo !) has become commonplace. So have cut-rate prices and ''two-for-one'' promotions this would be soon seen in India , we would have end of season sales in this segment too , we haven't heard of this before , have we !

Although some stores expect customers to bring prescriptions from their eye doctors, many of the chains now have in-house optometrists or arrangements with doctors right next door. In the US nearly all of the corporate-owned stores are supported by huge advertising and direct-mail campaigns.

Retailing in this segment is also saddled with high investment cost on the equipment and staff , which can take its toll with the cost of retail , if traffic doesn't come in !

Fashion Segment :

Considering that Indian premium retailers in all categories are not very sure of the "huge" potential which gets debated in each forum ,fashion eye wear would continue to take the piggyback approach route of retailing thru presence in large format retailers with their own counters , or with kiosks in malls etc , the most established brand in this approach is Rayban in India .

The players in the prescription segment ,where all the action would be !

Essilor : Indians are suddenly waking upto this Big global brand , which is visible in the media ,watch this brands aggressive moves in the market , backed with a strong management team , and deep pockets this could be the No 1 in the space soon ,if not already !

Titan : already legendary for transforming Watches ,jewellery , has recently announced huge investments in this segment , would be aggressive , backed with great marketing which has it been forte always

Reliance : Margins being high( might not be true for long with so many player coming in ) , then reliance can't be far away ! , along with its retail venture , eye wear retailing would be Big ,distinctly the bet for making it big in this segment .

Zeiss : already has started eye wear retail outlets , with the opportunity being as its stated at the start of this post , all players will space to eat .

The blog believes that the opportunity in this segment is all about take off , eyewear retailing would also spur off a lot of fresh fixtures requirements , specialised staff needs, however the opportunity in volumes terms lies in the bottom of the pyramid ( rural ) , it will be interesting to see how do the prescription segment players play this volumes ( rural ) vs margin( urban )game , ciao !