Have a Look

The New York Times wrote: “If ever there was a market ripe for the intervention of the Internet, … eyeglasses would be it.”  Cool, eh? And why wouldn’t it be?  According to the Vision Council of America, approximately 75% of adults use some sort of vision correction. About 64% of them wear eyeglasses, and about 11% wear contact lenses, either exclusively, or with glasses. The majority of people, about 85% of the American population, wear sunglasses. Some sunglasses are prescription and others are used only to protect the eyes from damage from the sun.

The glasses I wear now cost me $500 over a year ago.  Sounds overpriced? I think so! The reason was shared in a BusinessWeek:

“A quick primer, then, on the $16 billion optical industry: Luxottica (LUX), based in Milan, is one of the heavyweights in question. It owns LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Sunglass Hut, and the optical shops in Target (TGT) and Sears (SHLD); it owns Ray-Ban, Oakley, and Oliver Peoples; it manufactures, under license, eyewear for more than 20 top brands, including Chanel, Burberry, Prada, and Stella McCartney. “They’ve created the illusion of choice,” says Gilboa.”

So a niche to look at is the eyewear niche, especially the discount eyeglasses segment. There are several programs out there and many offer: Datafeeds, coupons and exclusive offers, naked and flex links including videos, widgets, no charge backs (unless credit card fraud), and no expiring links.

So have a look…