AI = EZ

Machine learning, deep learning, and predictive modeling are among arrows in the quiver for GlassesUSA.com. Artificial intelligence technology plays big here to simplify product discovery, decision-making, and checkout with personalized recommendations that curate styles for shoppers based on unique needs.

THE SPECS-IFICS

Pricing: Frames with single-vision lenses start at $29 (plus $99 to $179 for bifocals and progressives). Lens upgrades include anti-scratch/AR coating, blue light filtering, and photochromic. Tinted, mirrored, or polarized sunglasses add $29. Discounts and buy-one-get-one deals are frequent.

Product: More than 10,000 frame styles, including 88 designer brands like Ray-Ban, Prada, Gucci, and DKNY, eco-conscious lines made from planet-friendly wood, coffee, hemp, and bio-acetate, along with private-label collections Ottoto, Muse, Amelia E., and GlassesUSA’s own Revel Tune audio glasses, which play music and answer phone calls with a tap to the temple. The offering is rounded out with sports glasses, children’s, GlassesUSA’s newly launched Vista plus daily contact lenses ($32 for a month’s supply), and major brands like Acuvue and Bausch & Lomb.

Policies: Free shipping to Canada and the United States (10-16 days) with faster delivery for a fee. A new logistics center (to be fully operational soon) will “drastically expedite” shipping times, the company tells EB. Full refund on first product return shipped back in 14 days (30 days for contact lenses); store credit only for subsequent returns. Low-price guarantee beats competitor prices by 10% on select items.

STRATEGIC UX

Easy, Please-y: Shoppers call the user experience “easy” and “streamlined” thanks to a user-experience team that’s had years to refine navigation and make it intuitive from product discovery through checkout. Special care is given to shoppers with visual, cognitive, and motor skills limitations. A click on the icon opens a dashboard with an array of options to customize the interface: an “ADHD-friendly” setting reduces visual distractions while “Seizure-Safe” eliminates flashes and softens colors.

Personalized Recommendations: Using an advanced artificial intelligence algorithm called deep learning, GlassesUSA.com guides shoppers to frame styles based on the individual’s online behavior and trends seen across the site. Amazon and Netflix users know this familiar appeal as “customers who bought this item also bought…”

Service Where You Sit: Customer care is provided by phone (7 a.m. to midnight EDT), email, Twitter, Facebook, website forms, and online chat. Chat, powered by machine-learning technology and available 24/7, answers 80% of questions and customers can speak to a live agent if they prefer.

DIY TOOLS

Online Try-On: To assist decision-making, the website’s Virtual Mirror uses augmented reality to preview frame styles on selfies uploaded or captured with a webcam.

Rx Reader: GlassesUSA’s proprietary, FDA-listed Prescription Scanner mobile app extracts Rx from an existing pair of eyeglasses (single vision only) using a smartphone, computer, and mag stripe card for size calibration. Step-by-step instructions take 10 to 15 minutes. The app has been downloaded 400,000 times.

Found in 60 Seconds: A one-minute eyewear match quiz poses questions about face shape, lens treatments, and style preferences to serve up six frame suggestions from among thousands available on the site.

Up Next: GlassesUSA.com plans to add a new AR try-on tool, and by year’s end, machine learning will enhance personalized frame recommendations based on a person’s facial features and shape and individual prescription.

KNOW THY (ONLINE) COMPETITION.

In this new-for-2022 column, EB reveals the insider details of key online eyewear retailers—the ins and outs of their sites, sales strategies, and spectacles.