Want to spend less — maybe lots less — for good-quality prescription eyewear? A growing number of websites cater to people willing to make this most individual of purchases online.
New sites like Warby Parker (at www.warbyparker.com ) and the upcoming eyefly.com from clothing and accessories seller www.bluefly.com — as well as more established players like www.framesdirect.com and www.39dollarglasses.com — are defying conventional wisdom that consumers want to touch before they buy certain products. And, for many shoppers, the move online is seamless.
Starting with technology that determines the shape of your face from a digital photo, the sites say they offer the same service and personal attention as a brick-and-mortar shop, but with better selections of frames and at lower overall prices.
Amy Klaris, a retail strategist at Kurt Salmon, says “there’s still a lot of worry” about buying eyewear online. She also says shoppers want to be able to return glasses they don’t like or find uncomfortable.
In fact, Sam Pierce, a board member of the American Optometric Association, which represents 36,000 doctors of optometry, says preliminary research has revealed some eyewear prescriptions are not being filled accurately online. Pierce’s group and the Vision Council plan to release a joint report this summer examining the safety of buying prescription glasses on the Web.
If you’d like to try shopping online, here are some things to keep in mind:
Selection
Framesdirect.com, which bills itself as the largest full-service online eyewear company, offers more than 100,000 frames, including some from top designers, and it sells contact lenses. Also offering a generous selection is 39dollarglasses.com. Both sites offer so much that shopping them can be overwhelming.
Warby Parker cuts the clutter and produces a complete pair of glasses for $95, but its selection may be too small: about 35 styles, all in acetate and most fairly chunky.
Price
If you need a strong correction or like extra-thin or tinted lenses, fees for those extras can add up. High-index lenses can add $30, for instance, and a strong correction another $30, though vendors charge in different ways for add-ons.
Be sure to examine each company’s shipping fees too. The site 39dollarglasses.com offers free shipping on all orders over $99. Warby Parker doesn’t charge for shipping, including for up to five pairs you can try on for free as long as you return them within five days, while Eyefly.com — launching in June — plans to charge a flat shipping fee of $4.95 for standard delivery.
Return policies
Bestbuyeyeglasses.com, for example, doesn’t allow full returns or exchanges but will give you 50 percent off new lenses if you exchange a pair of glasses within 30 days of purchase. Warby Parker, on the other hand, gives you 30 days to decide if you like a pair of glasses and, if you don’t, promises to refund your full payment.
Lens quality
While glasses assembled in the U.S. should have impact-resistant polycarbonate lenses at a minimum, Pierce warns that some labs outside the U.S. may use substandard materials. Do your homework before you buy.
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