Over 60% of adults in the US alone wear prescription glasses. For many of them, one pair is not enough.
Most people like to have a spare pair tucked away for emergencies, in case their glasses get lost or break. Usual wear and tear means that a substantial number of consumers are looking to upgrade their eyewear at any given time. There are also those style-conscious customers who treat glasses as a fashion accessory and buy more frequently as a result.
For eyewear retailers, this means more potential sales, which is great news! But there’s a catch. (Isn’t there always?)
Many customers don’t have their prescription
While most consumers (85%) are happy with their current prescription, only 50% actually have their prescription details when they are ready to buy new eyewear online.
This puts retailers in a bind: If they conduct a new eye test, they typically drive their customer away from their business and into an optical shop that provides exams and glasses in one place. And that’s far from ideal.
The best solution to this particular problem is a digital lensometer, or online lens scanner: a tool that gets the existing prescription details from an existing pair of glasses.
Online lens scanners can help close the gap
The lens scanner we are familiar with (also known as a lensometer, lensmeter, focimeter, or vertometer) is used by optometrists to ensure the accuracy of a lens prescription, to check whether lenses are mounted correctly, or to mark and position uncut lenses properly in a frame. A lensometer can also help optometrists determine the prescription of a lens by measuring several aspects, including prism, sphere, axis, and cylinder.
The technology behind the lensometer is not new; in fact, it dates way back to the work of Antoine Claudet, a French photographer and artist, who in 1848 developed the focimeter, which helped find the correct focus for photographic portraits. Some thirty years later, the Dutch ophthalmologist Herman Snellen, father of the Snellen eye chart, developed the phakometer, which measured the accuracy and power of glass lenses. In 1921, these inventions were developed into the lensometer as we know it today, and the patent was filed in the US by the American Optical Company.
The lens scanner in a digital world
When it comes to buying prescription glasses online, 47% of consumers don’t carry their prescription details on them. Although they might be well in the mood to browse and buy prescription glasses, they must have their prescription to complete their orders. This is classic friction — and as you can imagine, it creates a lot of drop-off and incomplete orders.
Today’s eyewear retailers can use a lensometer to retrieve the lens prescription from the customer’s current glasses, even when that customer doesn’t have or know their current prescription.
Now, online retailers can access an online lens scanner to help them close the crucial prescription gap in online eyewear shopping.
How an online lens scanner works, in 3 simple steps
For customers who don’t have their glasses prescription handy, Luna’s myRx Lens Scanner makes shopping online for prescription glasses so easy and ensures accurate, usable results.
Step 1: Scan eyeglasses.
The customer links a simple, free app to their computer. Then, they scan their glasses’ lenses by using both device cameras.
Step 2: Review the prescription results.
Results appear in the traditional prescription format. Customers can review and add their details to their order — and even save their results for future purchases!
Step 3: Shop for prescription glasses!
With their current prescription details in hand, customers can browse your online catalog with confidence — knowing they can complete as many orders as they’d like.
By providing an online lens scanner to your customers, you can reduce one of the most common friction points — and drive conversion as a result.
