In the January/February 2021 issue of Eyecare Business, Eric Varady, founder of San Francisco-based bespoke eyewear maker Topology, unpacks the background of the truly innovative company and its focus on helping eyecare professionals build their bottom line. Below, we share more information from Varady on his valuable insights on the industry and beyond.  

EB: How does Topology work with ECPs to create a truly unique eyewear experience?
ERIC VARADY: Master opticians have encyclopedic knowledge of their own inventory, medically precise fitting intuition, and find that needle in a haystack over and over again.
 
They can take one look at you, apparently read your mind, and pull that one frame off the shelf that is going to speak to you. But such masters of their craft are few and far between.
 
[For an accurate fit], the Apple Face ID-enabling technology is really amazing, but that’s just the start. As we see it, there are four key ways an optician helps a customer in store: assessment of fit, recommendations, lens measurements, and frame adjustments.
 
So, the first thing we do with the 3D facial scan is extract all the relevant measurements of a customer's face. Then, we search a store’s complete inventory of frames in order to filter for that limited set of frames that are a good fit for the customer.
 
Then, we provide an incredibly photorealistic virtual try-on so that the optician and customer can together look through the set of fitted frames on-face, from any angle, in order to narrow in on the aesthetic that the customer desires. 
 
EB: Please explain how Topology’s virtual try-on offering works.
EV: You have to see our virtual try-on to believe it—every intricate detail of the frame is rendered, and the quality is so good that it is hard to remember that the customer onscreen isn’t actually wearing any of the frames being superimposed.
 
You can see the customer wearing the frames from any angle. Furthermore, we also provide rendering of various lens options (Rx, AR, tints, etc.) in order to aid in the lens selection process.
 
This joint collaboration between optician and patient is the moment where the optician is really adding the most value to the customer journey, so the goal of our technology is to help the optician and customer spend most of their time and energy together on this conversation.
 
Once the product is selected to be visualized on-face, the system runs a physical simulation to determine exactly how and where the frame will sit on the customer’s face so we can do two important things:

1. We can now provide extremely accurate 3D position of wear measurements for prescription lens dispensing.
2. We can now visually instruct the optician how to physically adjust frame to fit the individual, even if they are being serviced via a remote virtual appointment. Keep in mind, all of this is being accomplished without ever having physically placed the frame on the customer’s face.

This opens up a number of possibilities, from shipping product to the customer’s home, saving them from having to return to the store a second time, to serving customers completely remotely in virtual appointments or online, to expanding a store’s virtual inventory beyond the limitations of what they physically have in stock, in order to cater to a wider set of customer preferences.  
 
EB: How does this innovative platform serve ECPs’ unique needs today?
EV: Because we’re marrying technology with opticianry, we’re enabling opticians to do this for customers not only in store, but for the first time via telehealth, they can assist customers from the comfort of their home—the same store-quality service delivered virtually via live one-on-one appointments (e.g via Zoom), or even online via self-serve e-commerce.
 
EB: What benefits does this facial scan have on the eyewear fit and fitting experience?
EV: The first thing it does is that it saves time during discovery by eliminating all of the frame options that would never fit to begin with—those completely outside the consideration set. 
 
Now, it’s like walking into a store where everything you see is guaranteed to fit. Think about how delightful that would be for the customer, and how much time the optician gets back. No longer does the customer need to wander aimlessly around the boards, optician in tow, trying each frame on in a trial-and-error manner, when many of the frames they grab you already know won’t fit them to begin with. 
 
The second benefit is that it improves accuracy. 
 
Our 3D position of wear measurements are the best in the market. We’ve successfully dispensed the toughest Rx jobs lenses out there, all without ever being face to face with the customer. 
 
We’re getting first-time fits on -19.0 diopter lenses, +2.75 progressive lenses with 5 base out prism, and even successful progressive outcomes on customers who were previously progressive non-adapts. 
 
It’s all about the accuracy of the measurements, and we supply all of them in an easy manner to send directly to your lab of choice (near/far monocular PD, monocular OC, vertex, panto, wrap).  
 
We even calculate the effective diameter (ED) of the lens so your labs do not need to wait until they receive your frame job before starting the surfacing job. With ED, they can precisely determine the appropriate lens blank size to use without fear of a makeability or edging cutout issues downstream.
 
Use of these measurements can reduce reorders from the lab, speed delivery, and improve vision outcomes. 
 
Our customers report the best clarity of vision they have ever experienced.
 
The third benefit is convenience. If you can ship Rx eyewear to the customers’ home that are already fitted to their face (so they fit out of the box), that’s a win for them, and a win for the optician. 
 
Convenience is the new luxury that commands higher prices, enduring customer loyalty, and word of mouth. And opticians save time because instead of post-sales service (fitting during the customer pickup visit), they can better spend their valuable time focusing on the next sale (in store or online). 
 
EB: How does Topology enhance the standard shopping journey?
EV: For those customers who travel from afar to visit their preferred optician, or who would prefer not to come into the store, all of this enhanced service can now be delivered virtually to their home—meaning you can offer new ways to shop to your customers, wherever they are and whenever they choose to engage.
 
The entire shopping journey can take place in live virtual appointments, over email, or even online from a webstore, as well as start in one channel and end in another (omnichannel), but the quality of the service and optical outcomes remains best in class.
 
And, when the square footage of the store serves as your bottleneck, it helps to move some of the activity out of the store into the home. Serving patients with virtual appointments means you can not only serve more patients in a day, but it also means that opticians who are stuck at home for one reason or another can continue to serve patients.
 
EB: Please explain how Topology aids in the sales process for ECPs.
EV: There are also more sales in a day if you have a higher capture rate. Most ECPs believe that if a customer walks out of the store, they’re going to shop online. But the average ECP’s capture rate is 44%, and online is only about 5% of industry sales, which means the vast majority of the 56% of walkouts are just walking into another store or delaying purchases significantly. 
 
This can change.
 
If you capture a scan when a customer is in your office, you can quickly browse frames on their face, select a few favorites, and have a virtual try-on preview of those selections waiting in the customer’s email inbox before they reach their next destination.
 
You’ve already got the measurements to complete the order and their prescription; it should be far easier for them to complete the sale with you than with anyone else. This is true if they’re shopping today, or for those patients who say they are window shopping ahead of a planned future purchase, three months from now when they are in market. Your sale is only a few clicks away, with guaranteed results.
 
EB: What does Topology offer in terms of lens technology?
EV: Lens sales support should be a lot more personalized and effective than the tools you have at your disposal today. Our technology can not only preview what a pair of frames would look like on your face, but they can show what the lenses look like with and without anti-reflective coating.
 
It can render the thickness of your precise Rx lens in order to avoid buyer’s remorse, and to aid in a conversation about high-index materials. It can render on their face the aesthetic and functional effect of darkening photochromic lenses, as well as the aesthetic tradeoffs (or lack thereof) of better blue light-blocking lens products. 
 
In short, it can enable opticians to help patients make better and more personalized choices, often aiding in the sales of higher-margin lens products.
 
EB: In your opinion, what can ECPs do differently moving forward to increase sales?
EV: The reason the industry has such low rates of multipairing is friction in the purchasing process. 
 
It’s tough to entice a customer to get in their car and come back into the store two more times, so we try to sell a second pair on the same day, which is difficult and time consuming, especially when finding that first pair could take 30 minutes or more.
 
If you can reduce the friction of shopping, you’ll have a more continuous relationship with your customers throughout the year, and it will be far easier to sell them a second pair for an alternate look, or a secondary vision need, three to six months after their initial purchase.
 
This is where virtual appointments and online sales can really transform the economics of a practice—a second or third pair is only a few clicks or a phone call away, but only if the customer is dealing with their ECP. Regardless of the next frame style they choose, the optical measurements are already in hand and the fit can be guaranteed.
 
A key part of our DNA as a company is supporting the craft of opticianry—and enhancing the relationship between opticians and customers. If we can foster more continuous and connected relationships between opticians and customers, and transform those relationships to be active throughout the year (and not once every two years), the profitability of the business will follow.