Launching on 31st January 2016, YouAndEyeOnline.com, an initiative by VisionPlus, will aid in the evolution of optical trade from traditional to digital
There is no denying that the world today is experiencing a dynamic shift from analogue to digital. People are consuming more and more digital content on a daily basis from various media like their mobile phones, laptops, desktop computers and more – and companies that have not yet acknowledged this trend in their marketing strategies need to adapt fast.
With the current generation of technology savvy customers who have access to all the latest information and are already embracing the brave new world of digital media in large numbers, the optical industry has realised the need for this evolution. Being faster, versatile and more effective, the transition to digital is fast becoming a necessity rather than a luxury.
The online medium offers tremendous benefits to the marketer just as it does to the consumer. Business Intelligence, known as BI, is a tool that the biggies in the technology field like Google and Facebook have been using to their advantage and YouAndEyeOnline.com aims to provide this in due course to everyone in the optical industry.
Today’s customer is exposed to a variety of products and is therefore more aware as well as more demanding. For opticians who are keen to take the next step and equip themselves to meet this diverse set of demands, going digital through the medium of YouAndEyeOnline.com holds the key to transforming their business for the better.
An initiative by VisionPlus Magazine, YouAndEyeOnline.com will connect brand owners, opticians and end consumers on one platform facilitating an exchange of information that will ultimately help reach out to consumers in a better way. The portal will be launched on 31st January 2016.
As a businessperson, each one of us would love to track our customers’ likes and buying patterns, update our marketing plans based on this data and of course optimise the usage of time and effort to increase sales. This is not just a need of the optician but also the brand owner and distributor. YouAndEyeOnline.com will help the optician generate leads and more footfall to their stores and at the same time optimise their inventory by being able to purchase eyewear products using the advantages that the online medium offers like filtering products based on material, type, etc and also comparing different products on their screen to help in their decision making.
Using YouAndEyeOnline.com will give opticians and brand owners a chance to connect better with the consumer by giving your business the power to successfully traverse geographical boundaries in order to portray a diverse portfolio of products irrespective of your location.
In fact, the evolution from traditional to digital is already underway and is gaining momentum. Currently, India is the world’s fastest growing e-commerce market. And for the optical industry here, VisionPlus is only playing its part in repaying the trade community for the support it has shown for the past 15 years. Here’s what Mr Siraj Bolar, Editor-in-Chief of VisionPlus Magazine has to say, “I owe what I am to the Indian optical industry. There are a few names that I would like to mention of people in the industry that have been with me and encouraged me to take bold steps when I started the publication, and YouAndEyeOnline.com is my way of saying thanks to them and to the optical industry. Harish Gajjar, Surendrabhai Gangar, Rajinder Sahgal, Rajni Turakhia, Jayant Chheda, Vijay Gogri, Jayesh Chheda, Bipin Jain, Ketan Parikh, Jayanth Bhuvaraghan, Michelle Mendonsa, Vivek Mendonsa, Ronak Sheth, Subash Kataria, Navinbhai Shah, Nikhil Tolia and Kirit Doshi to name a few. I am sure I have missed out on a lot of names in this list as it is practically impossible to name all the people in the industry who have supported me but I am sure they all know that in my heart I remember them and will always be in debt to them for their support. With YouAndEyeOnline.com, I am confident that what I have attempted to create will make them proud of me.”
What is YouAndEyeOnline.com?
YouAndEyeOnline.com is a platform that gets opticians, brand-owners/distributors and the end consumer together. It’s a database of the best in the eyewear world and which comes straight from the source.
The consumer can use this platform to source eyewear and find out which optician stocks his favourite eyewear and directly book an appointment with the optician. YouAndEyeOnline.com aims to increase the footfall in the optical showrooms and hopes the optician community recognise the potential of this platform and use it to the fullest.
The optician and the brand-owner/distributor can access the business zone of this platform to showcase collections and transact with all the benefits that the online medium offers today. Simply put, they can now do business and let the other processes like logistics and payments be automated.
Buying the right product is easier when the choices are easy to display and compare. With YouAndEyeOnline.com the optician has these features which he did not have in the past. List the latest products in plastic frames just with a click of a button or compare products from 2 brands and decide which features suit your needs the best. Yes, all this is possible and more!
Also YouAndEyeOnline.com will ensure that all opticians are verified before they are granted access to the business zone to ensure only genuine business people from the trade are able to login to the portal.
Working closely with brand owners, YouAndEyeOnline.com, attempts to provide the opticians the widest range of sunglasses, spectacles and contact lenses to streamline their business purchases. And at the same time it directs end consumers to their stores with practically no investment!
Additionally, customers will be given a chance to request a callback from their preferred store through the portal itself. As an optician, when you are able to offer this convenience to your customer, it will surely reflect in the form of a stronger relationship that gradually extends to the loyalty of multiple purchases.
Here are the benefits of opting for YouAndEyeOnline.com
Brand Owners:
— Reach opticians across the country
— Display collections on the online platform without logistical barriers
— Establish a stronger connect with your customers
— Use digital marketing tools more effectively with targeted reach
— Use youandeyeonline.com logistical solutions
Opticians
— Connect with brand owners and distributors all over the world.
— Generate leads by letting your consumers know what you stock
— Find out what’s trending and what’s not
— Update your inventory simply at the click of a button
— Experience the luxury of filtering your products based on frame material, shapes, etc and comparing them with competing brands before making the purchase decision.
How to join the bandwagon?
As mentioned earlier, it’s an invitation to participate in the evolution from traditional to digital. VisionPlus subscribers and advertisers will be given complete access to the platform absolutely free of cost.
YouAndEyeOnline.com is a pioneering effort pursued with the aim of helping the optical trade community embrace the evolution from traditional to digital that is fast catching up with every other industrial sector globally. ‘Simplify the trade and maximise benefits’ is the motto for YouAndEyeOnline.com. Registering your organisation is easy and will barely take a few seconds.
As the edition is currently in its beta version we encourage you to test it and provide us your feedback as ultimately it’s you the members of the optical industry who will shape this project.
Payment Benefits
Currently the industry is facing issues of liquidity and additionally the taxes that are being imposed are making business a whole lot more tedious. YouAndEyeOnline.com aims to provide the brand-owners quicker payback than the traditional methods while for the opticians it provides options of paying online and also our tie-up with OnEMI, a promising start-up with multiple options to help the opticians pay back their investments over instalments of 6 to 12 months, a feature we are sure will help opticians in their finance planning and investment.
Committed to providing a safe, secure and quality shopping experience, YouAndEyeOnline.com is designed in an easy to navigate manner. Everything from picking trending products to making the payment is simplified so that the opticians as well as brand owners / distributors find it easy to adapt. To top it all, the platform offers excellent branding opportunity for brand owners as well as opticians.
The Way Ahead
YouAndEyeOnline.com will facilitate an exchange of information that will help brands reach out to more consumers (opticians and end users) and in turn give the consumers a convenient platform to choose from a wide range of options.
VisionPlus has always been at the forefront of pioneering initiatives that have helped in the upliftment of the standards of optical trade and YouAndEyeOnline.com is also an effort in this direction.
As industries across all sector continue to evolve and keep pace of technology which is moving at a frantic pace, it is time for the members of the optical trade to rise to the occasion and embrace the transition from traditional to digital. And for now YouAndEyeOnline.com is an attempt as the first step in this direction.
