LensCrafters Levels Up its Stores with Digital Tech
Pro Tip: Retail success is no longer just about leveraging in-store and online assets for consumers, but creating a seamless experience for consumers across the brand. In-store services also become a key differentiating factor in building brand loyalty and providing that one stop for consumers.
LensCrafters continues to evolve and adapt to its customers’ needs using technology as a key driver to keep the access to eye care and eyewear its top priority.
With the recent opening of LensCrafters' newest flagship in Palo Alto, California, in July, the brand is continuing its journey of making a strong impact as an innovative eyewear retailer.
The new brick-and-mortar space — along with its other flagship stores in New York City and San Francisco — are modern and elegant, boasting an elevated store design, an expanded selection of designer eyewear (think Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana, Persol, Versace and Prada), along with cutting-edge optometric tools, the latest digital technologies and a continued emphasis on customer service.
“From comprehensive eye exams to shopping for the perfect frame, we now have a wide range of in-store tools that customers can access,” Alfonso Cerullo, president of LensCrafters, North America, tells Retail Leader Pro. “We want to be a top destination in the community when it comes to finding the best vision care solutions that resonate with our customers and help them express themselves while seeing their best at the same time.”
Omnichannel Experience
Today, LensCrafters continues to merge its in-store offerings with its online business, so that it provides its patients and customers with a seamless experience.
“By leveraging our brick-and-mortars with the digital advantages of e-commerce, our customers can buy in our 1,000 plus stores with ease, as they would online,” Cerullo explains. “Omnichannel features give customers the opportunity to check online to see if a product is available in-store, buy online and pick up product in-store and vice versa. And if they’re rushed, they can also come back and complete their order later at home or in-store.”
As far as digital advancements in-store, all of LensCrafters’ current stores feature the “Smart Shopper” interactive virtual mirror tool, where customers can digitally explore the wide variety of designer eyewear brands and can virtually try on as many pairs as they’d like. Smart Shopper also allows shoppers to customize their frames, including options to personalize specs from brands such as Ray-Ban and Oakley.
Many of the new LensCrafters locations are also equipped with high-resolution digital screens and LCD walls that display eyewear and marketing campaign imagery, creating an immersive experience around the brand’s vast assortment of luxury optical and sun styles.
A particular focus also is given to the types of prescription lenses available via interactive applications installed on iPads and touchscreens, leveraging technology to simulate lens features and effects to aid shoppers with their purchase decisions.
“From photochromic to polarized and from blue light to sport performance, the technology allows shoppers to discover the wide variety of lenses and lens treatments to determine which lens options are best suitable for their needs and lifestyle,” Cerullo explains.
The Palo Alto store also features a dedicated footprint and display for Ray-Ban Stories, the first-generation of “smart glasses” launched in partnership with Meta. The smart glasses are showcased in a unique setting where customers can experience how Ray-Ban Stories can capture, share and listen.
Personalized Experiences
As LensCrafters continues to open new flagships, those stores will reflect the integration of design and technology, giving customers a more individualized, personalized experience that allows them to shop designer optical and sun frames easily, along with receiving a comprehensive digital eye exam.
Additionally, patients have further access to experience LensCrafter eye exam technology, both in-store and remotely via tele-optometry.
“This offers more access to our optometrists at a time most convenient for the patient through a single platform that integrates multiple systems and equipment to improve patient engagement by creating a seamless experience,” Cerullo says.