All E-Commerce & DTC articles
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ArticleTwo top-ten German optical retailers join forces to take over Edel-Optics
Optiker Bode and ROTTLER, two family-owned and historical optical retail chains respectively based in Hamburg and North Rhine-Westphalia, are joining forces to take over Edel-Optics, an online optical retail pionneer in both Germany and Europe. Founded in 2009, the company had filed for insolvency proceedings in February. Edel-Optics has ...
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News briefsKrys joins the second-hand market
Krys has become the exclusive lens supplier for Seecly, the online marketplace for the sale of second-hand, reconditioned or old frames. Seecly is headquartered in France, operating there and in five other European countries. It appears from the company’s website, however, that its vendors must conduct their business from France. ...
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News briefs
South Korean e-commerce giant takes over Farftech
Coupang, the South Korean-based e-commerce group, has annoucend that it was taking over the business of Farftech, investing $500 million in the struggling luxury online retail platform. The cash injection will enable Farftech to clear its debts and continue its operations. The company, which is currently valued at around $200 ...
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ArticleFittingbox acquires main VTO challenger
Fittingbox, the global leader and a pioneer in eyewear virtual-try-on (VTO) services, has announced that it was acquiring its main challenger, Ditto Technologies, from U.S.-based Luna Solutions. It is the first acquisition by Fittingbox since the creation of the company in 2006. “We will have the largest customer portfolio in ...
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News briefs
E-commerce in Europe forecast to rebound in 2023
European B2C e-commerce sales increased by 6 percent year-on-year to €899 billion in 2022 according to the annual report of Ecommerce Europe, an association representing over 150,000 companies selling goods and/or services online to consumers in Europe. This marks a deceleration from 2021 when online sales were up by 12 ...
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News briefs
Fittingbox adds PD measurement to toolbox
French tech company Fittingbox is launching its new pupillary distance (PD) measurement online tool. The software, whose measurements are based on the company’s card protocol in which a credit card is used as reference for calculations, is mobile-first, does not require the installation of a smartphone application and can be ...
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News briefs
Fittingbox VTOs up 26 percent in 2022
Fittingbox, one of the leading players in eyewear virtual-try-on (VTO) software, processed approximately 120 million VTO operations with over 140,000 frames last year, up by 26 percent year-on-year. On a comparable basis, they were up by 21 percent. For the first six months of this year, Fittingbox told us it ...
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ArticleFielmann launches proprietary online vision check tool, reports good H1 results
Reporting its preliminary results for the first half of 2023 earlier today, Fielmann Group announced that it would enhance its German e-commerce website next month with a new vision check tool based on a proprietary measurement technology. The new system willl allow users of fielmann.de to check online whether their ...
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ArticleMore “boutique” and more lenses on Mister Spex roadmap
2022 was a mixed year for Mister Spex. While the German-based retailer’s sales kept growing relatively fast – by 8 percent overall and by 11 percent in Germany – profit ratios remained in the red. This led the company to launch a cost-reduction plan in September 2022 and an announcement ...
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News briefs
Tech company STS rebrands to Ditar
STS, a Belgian-based tech company supplying applications for e-commerce in the eyewear sector, is rebranding to Ditar, which stands for digital innovation through augmented reality. Ditar launched last month Magic Mirror, an app that allows customers to scan their faces and suggests frames that both fit their look and current ...
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News briefs
Tech startup PTTRNS raises €2m in new funds
PTTRNS.ai, a tech company providing AI-based style recommendation software for the fashion and eyewear industry, has raised €2 million in new equity from ECFG, a Dutch-based private equitiy fund. This follows an earlier €2.5 million rund as reported in 2021. Founded in 2019 and also based in the Netherlands, PTTRNS ...
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News briefs
Essilux launches PD measuring app in the U.S.
EssilorLuxottica has announced on its website the launch of Ophty, an Iphone application enabling eyeglasses’ e-shoppers to measure their pupillary distance (PD) by themselves. The new software is currently only available on Apple’s U.S. app store but will be soon rolled out in other markets, the group said.
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News briefs
Izipizi launches sleep-facilitating glasses
Izipizi is launching Sleeping, a pair of glasses fitted with special lenses that are said to enhance the production of the melatonin hormone and thus reduce the time needed by wearers to fall asleep. The company said that it has developed a specific technology for the plano lenses, called Goodnight, ...
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News briefsSnap and Amazon partner for virtual try-ons, actual purchases
Snap and Amazon Fashion have sealed a partnership to blend Snapchat’s virtual try-on function with Amazon’s e-commerce. Together the companies have established “3D asset standards” to bring Amazon’s eyewear catalog to virtual life. Now that images of these products have been prepared for augmented reality (AR), Snapchat’s 363 million users ...
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News briefs
Zenni speeds through 50 million pairs’ mark, launches new app
U.S. online optical retailer Zenni has announced that it has sold more than 50 million pairs of glasses since its launch in 2003. The company added that it has doubled its sales’ output in less than four year as the previous 25 million pairs’ milestone was reached in March 2019. ...
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ArticleFast-growing Blickers launches private label
Blickers, one of the fast-growing multibrand online eyewear retailers in Europe, is launching its private label range of sunglasses and optical frames to complement its website offerings and further accelerate its growth. Called 99 Essentials, the collection includes 99 SKUs chosen based on the company’s big data analysis of best-selling ...
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News briefs
Zenni launches new express delivery service
U.S. online retailer Zenni is introducing Fast Frame, a new service that enables a delivery to U.S. customers within two working days, or more than half the time of the group’s current express deliveries. Fast Frame includes a selection of hundreds of sunglasses and popular frames that can be ordered ...
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News briefs
Safilo launches in-house digital academy
As part of its digital transformation plan, the Safilo Group is launching an in-house academy in partnership with Digital On Things (DOT), a consulting IT firm specialized in the Salesforce systems. Called “The Digital Force”, the program started on Sept. 5 with the kick-off of the recruitment phase in collaboration ...
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News briefsAmazon Europe enables virtual try-ons
This summer Amazon Fashion Europe has been introducing Virtual Try-On on the Continent through its e-commerce site and the Amazon Shopping App. The first items to benefit are about 1,500 sunglass models from such brands as Tommy Hilfiger, Hawkers, Lacoste, Calvin Klein and Polaroid. Prospective customers will be able to ...
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News briefs
Zenni to use robots for order fulfillment
Zenni is automating the “last meter” of fulfillment at its logistics hub in Novato, California, as Vision Monday has reported. The specialist in online prescription eyewear has sold 45 million pairs of glasses in its 19 years of operation. According to its director of distribution, Simon Goh, the company is ...
