All E-Commerce & DTC articles
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ArticleGlassesUSA.com operator launches multi-brand luxury eyewear webshop
Most large eyewear companies in the luxury segment, save one, partner with the new online shop.
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ArticleUltracheap Blacksheep flagship store to open at Paris’ BHV – except not
Blacksheep, a French-based pure online player selling ultra-low-priced eyewear, is reportedly preparing to open a 200-square-meter shop at the BHV department store in Paris, for what seems to be the brand’s first venture into brick-and-mortal retail. Founded by Pierre Wizman – the French entrepreneur that created Polette, another DTC eyewear ...
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Kits Eyecare reaches 1 million active customers
Kits Eyecare has announced that it has doubled its number of two-year active customers from 500,000 to 1 million between Q4 2020 and Q3 2025. The company said that Gen Z (under 30 years old) and Millenials (30 to 45) respectively accounted for approximately 25 percent and 50 percent of ...
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Mia Burton merges with Lipari
Italian eyewear e-commerce company Mia Burton and the Italian optical retailer Lipari announced they were merging to create an omnichannel group with forecast revenues of €23.7 million in 2025. Lipari was founded by Giuseppe Lipari in 1974 and currently has three physical stores, two in Palermo and one in Milan, ...
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Fittingbox gets Amazon-certified
Fittingbox has announced that it has been certified as a “trusted 3D content provider,” after the company successfully completed a training program developed by Pearson Vue for the global e-commerce giant. Practically, this means that companies selling eyewear on Amazon can use Fittingbox’ 3D-rendering technology to enhance their product presentation, ...
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ArticleAerial Vision invests in 'plug-and-play' eyewear e-commerce startup
GoHub, an Israeli-based tech startup aiming to open the online optical market to more retail players, is joining forces with AVI. The tech-and-logistics partnership is boosting GoHub’s offering and reach.
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News briefs
Fitting Box and Ocuco renew their partnership
Since 2018, Ocuco, the Irish-based supplier of optical software has integrated Fitting Box’ virtual try-own and other eyewear visualization tools in its products for independent optical practices and retail chains. Both companies have just announced that they have agreed to renew their partnership for five years. Ocuco says on its ...
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ArticleZeiss tests e-commerce model with partner ECPs in India
ZEISS India has announced the launch of a new e-commerce initiative in partnership with local partner eye care professionals (ECPs). The company said that the new service, dubbed Lead Generation Service, was aimed at enhancing the optical retail of its local partners by providing them with an additional sales channel ...
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News briefs
Malaysia bans optical devices and contact lenses e-commerce
Malaysia’s Medical Device Authority (MDA) has made a public announcement to inform consumers that the online sale of optical devices and contact lenses is strictly prohibited in the country. These products are categorized as prescribed medical devices and therefore require a prescription and must be provided by a registered optician ...
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ArticleStudy looks at eyewear VTO usage and perception in France and the US
Fitting Box, the industry leader in virtual try-on (VTO) services, has announced that it powered 215 million VTOs last year, up from 143 million in 2023 and 120 million in 2022. Also, the annual number of 3D frames produced by the company – the digital rendering of actual frames – ...
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ArticleKits CEO: 'We are building an eyewear business for the customer of tomorrow'
On its Investor Day last September, Kits Eyecare concluded its presentation with a bold and somewhat cryptic claim: “Setting our sights on 500 in 5.” This made for an obvious first question when we had to opportunity to sit down with Roger Hardy, co-founder and CEO of the Canadian-based pure ...
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Fittingbox adds 3D viewer function to virtual try-on
The French-based IT company Fittingbox is enhancing its virtual try-on (VTO) software with 3D Viewer, a new functionality that enables online eyewear shoppers to look at a frame from every angle, rotating it and zooming in and out on specific parts for a more detailed view. They can also switch ...
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News briefsZenni adds contacts lenses
Zenni Optical, the online eyewear retailer, has added contact lenses to its selection. So far it is selling contacts from CooperVision and Bausch + Lomb but promises more to come. Customers can make their purchases daily, bi-weekly or monthly. First-time customers for contacts will receive a discount of 20 percent ...
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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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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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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 ...
