Online eyewear site Ditto.com has gotten into the rental game.
The site sells designer prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses, using virtual fitting technology to measure facial dimensions and allow for 3-D tryouts online.
The eyewear start-up just began a subscription service called Endless Eyewear that allows consumers to select a pair of designer glasses and then swap them for another pair whenever they want, even if it is every week. The program is believed to be the first “share” economy retail model in the eyewear industry.
According to Catherine Magee, vice president of marketing, one reason why consumers don’t buy multiple pairs of glasses like some do for other forms of accessories is the higher price points.” The average price points for frames are between $250 to $550 and between $40 to $100 for the lenses, depending on the prescription. Other options such as sunglass tinting, without any prescription, are an additional $30 add-on feature on top of the basic $40 lens cost.
“The rental program costs $19 a month, and $29 a month for prescription eyeglasses. Consumers can pick any of our optical eyewear, including a $500 Karen Walker frame. The lenses get swapped out and the used pairs of eyewear are checked out before being reused,” Magee said. She said the eyewear are pulled out of the lineup after being used a set number of times. Each pair of prescription glasses includes a new set of lenses when they are shipped.
The monthly cost includes free shipping, free returns and insurance for minor wear and tear. Magee declined to discuss how often consumers are expected to be swapping their eyewear, although a soft launch was completed in mid-February, and she said close to 18,000 have signed up for the program.
The company so far has raised $8 million is Series A funding, with August Capital as its lead investor. The premise of the start-up is to make designer frames accessible to a much larger pool of consumers.