Dive Brief:
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Upstart eyewear retailer Warby Parker just opened its first physical stores last year, with an 150% annual growth since it was started four years ago.
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Warby Parker products are only available on its own website or stores, and the retailer asks for and uses customer feedback about its designs, services, and marketing.
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More than 60% of Warby Parker emails get opened thanks to spritely, well-designed, and well-written content with little emphasis on promotional discounts. Similarly, photo booths and other creative ways to try on glasses in the store and online are part of the Warby Parker approach.
Dive Insight:
Warby Parker, named after a couple of characters in Beat novelist Jack Kerouac’s writing, started just four years ago as an online option for stylish yet affordable prescription glasses. The company made it easy to virtually “try on” glasses on its website, but also has a liberal Home Try On shipping policy. The retailer has taken a similar stylish, fun, yet practical approach to the experience in its retail stores — the first of which opened just last year. Warby Parker has essentially solved a problem — glasses were either mostly affordable or mostly stylish, but rarely both. Keeping a smallish selection of fashionable spectacles at very affordable prices meant that literary hipster types could afford to get the look they wanted — and possibly even change out their glasses a bit more often or own several pairs — without breaking the bank. After all, a pair of Warby Parker glasses starts at $95.
Its retail secret? The company keeps all four eyes on its customers and stays in touch, making communication a two-way street and paying attention to feedback about all aspects of its operation, from design to marketing. As a result, it is enjoying a good reputation and steady growth in building a grateful client base. To top it off, the retailer not only does well, it also does good. In a partnership with Vision Spring, the company helps fill a worldwide need for prescription glasses among people in poverty of all ages.
