Warby Parker is looking to grow its brick-and-mortar presence before a possible initial public offering (IPO). An additional three dozen locations for the direct-to-consumer (DTC) eyewear brand will open by 2021’s conclusion, Bloomberg reported, citing the company.
“There’s still room for us to open hundreds of stores,” Warby Parker Co-founder and Co-CEO Neil Blumenthal said, as per Bloomberg. “When we look at our competitors — the large public optical retailers — they all have well over a thousand locations across the U.S. At the end of the day, the vast majority of Americans need glasses and prefer to buy those in person.”
The eyewear company’s new brick-and-mortar store collection will reportedly have trained eye physicians, as do approximately 80 of the locations that it already has.
Warby Parker, which was established in 2010, differentiated itself through the sale of glasses via the web for roughly $100. The firm provided shoppers with frames through the mail. In turn, shoppers would try them on, select a frame and offer their prescription for their eyewear to be manufactured.
As PYMNTS previously reported, Warby Parker filed confidentially with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to go public.
Beyond Warby Parker, eyewear merchant EyeBuyDirect has expanded its online presence and product activity with the launch of a new Amazon store.
“Our mission has always been to increase access to quality eyewear, and our new shop on Amazon allows us to build on this promise,” EyeBuyDirect CEO Sunny Jiang said in a May press release. “By expanding our offering to Amazon’s marketplace, we’re also making the purchase of eyewear more convenient for customers by meeting them where they choose to shop.”
The shop was to offer 15 non-prescription blue light blocking glasses along with 16 sunglass styles. In addition, shoppers who are Prime members were to have the ability to buy and obtain their products in two days.
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