The number of independent optical retailers ECP dropped from 58% in late 90s to 49% during first decade of 2000s. This is a known process where the larger chains leverage on their buying power and logistics taking the headway in the competition. This is magnified even further during times of challenge, when the consumer market buying power drops. Naturally, most of the suppliers in the market focus on the larger accounts, including significant discounts reserved only for sharks. The independent eye care practices are left behind. They pay the highest prices in shortest payment terms. In most cases, they cannot meet the aggressive competition pricing.

 

In other market segments, and up and coming trend is for independent retailers to associate in order to improve purchasing terms and leverage on a mutual agenda. In eye care business, buying groups provide a partial solution only to private practitioners, as purchasing of raw material does not cover all deficiencies competing against the chain stores.

 

Online eyewear sales are also becoming a serious issue affecting the ECPs by taking away much of the eyeglasses revenues. K-Mars came into this scenario with a different agenda, supporting independent ECPs and private eye care practices with supplies, lab services and a logistic backbone, countering the competitive advantages so far gained by the large firms only. This shouldn’t be too hard to believe, nor are these empty words. In this reality, K-Mars’ business model is based on the needs of the independent ECPs. This rationale results in a simple equation: K-Mars Optical gains by supporting independent ECPs, and has been expanding its serviced customer base since 1998.

 

 

What K-Mars brings to the table is a complete suite of services, placing the independent ECP head-to-head with the chain stores. It is about cost of frames, lenses and lab work, it’s about logistic backbone and virtual inventory of frames and Lens packages saving the ECP substantial amounts of money. We have even invested in an ECP website and online retail solution setting up every ECP with a fully customized website and online eyewear outlet at a fraction of what it would normally cost.

 

This is only common business sense.

 

CONTACT K-MARS

 

Most eye doctors didn’t go to school to learn how to run a business, they went to learn how to provide health and improved sight to their patients. But when a doctor opens a practice, they become business leaders at the same time. This column will be a continuing collection of tips and advice on how to improve and streamline the business of the practice, while increasing profitability. The column is written

Volume 1: Frame inventory

Making “blessing” out of online eyewear dispensing is a challenging process involving interaction with patients on the single eye care practice level, changing practices and involvement of the all eye care professional community with the regulatory procedures. Frame inventory typically represents the largest capital expense of a practice, after equipment and furnishings. It is also an area that frequently is not managed well. Two things need to be consistently controlled: quantity and styles.

 

Quantity

We recommend inventory turns of two to four per year. This simply means that your number of frames in inventory should be no more than half the number of frames that your practice sells in a year, so your are “turning” your inventory at least twice a year. Example: if your practice sells 1400 frames per year, you should have no more than 700 frames in inventory.

 

There is also a base number that you don’t want to go below, to insure you have products to meet most patients’ needs. This number is typically in the area of 400-500 frames. If you go below this number its possible that you will lose patients who don’t feel you have styles, sizes or colors that fit their needs.

 

Styles

It is important to have a good selection of mens, womens, teens and kids frames with great colors and brands. Avoid the “vanilla effect” of having a lot of similar styles and colors from different manufacturers’ top twenty sellers. It is important to have a diversity of colors and styles to create interest in your practice and a buzz in your community. Keep a good handle on the sales proportion of each of these areas, and match up the inventory of each area with the proportion selling in your practice.

 

For more information, contact Eric Rollins at (231) 740-2929, or ericrollins@comcast.net

 

Visit www.rollinsconsultingllc.com

Introduction

 

The Internet, like other technology innovations is a double-edged sword. The use and implementation can make it either a blessing or a curse. As consumers become used to the convenience and perceived price saving associated with online shopping, it is only natural that eyeglasses are becoming an online commodity as well. The emergence of online eyeglass retailers is typically perceived as a threat by independent ECPs, as these take away business. Huge price differences (up to 90%) make it an irresistible offer, and the local independent ECP finds it very hard to compete with online prices.

 

Online Dispensing – Risks and Opportunity

Making “blessing” out of online eyewear dispensing is a challenging process involving interaction with patients on the single eye care practice level, changing practices and involvement of the all eye care professional community with the regulatory procedures.

 

A regulatory challenge

Eyewear is not a commodity. It is a medical treatment and the product interacts with the patient’s body. Quality standards and professional supervision must be imposed through certification and education of the public.

 

A Threat to Local Independent ECPs

Facing what initially seamed as very low online prices, eye care practitioners need much air to explain the difference. Yes, the rent, the attendants, the personal adaptation by the optician… These all have a cost, and there’s a difference in the eyeglasses, too. Still, online dispensing has been taking away local ECP business.

 

Associated Risks to Patients

Eye care professionals know the difference. The basic rule of life “You Get What You Pay For” is very true here as well. The Internet does not create low prices. It connects people across the globe, making information accessible to all. This includes propositions from merchants who lower prices by slashing down the costs. You all know what it costs to assemble a reasonable pair of glasses. Even with volume discounts it is impossible to make decent eyewear sold at 8.99. So what’s the trick? The materials.

 

Cheap lenses are made from materials with poor optical properties, such as distortions and other surface inconsistencies, which affect the optical performance. The ordinary person is not equipped to validate the prescription, PD, Axis which can cause wide variety of discomforts and eye health problems.

 

Frames made of cheap materials don’t last long. Usage of recycled low quality soft metals or low quality plastic injection molds, can develop grin deposits in the points where it contacts the skin. Usage of very low quality copper alloys, the frame material might contain materials that causing not only nuisance such as allergy (due to high content of nickel ) but also being a health hazard by causing major skin irritation or chronic poisoning (happens with lead based pigments and coatings).

 

The Bright Side – It is an Opportunity for Everyone

It is very easy for every independent ECP today to offer eyewear online, reaching shoppers nationwide.

 

The Internet has opened the opportunity not only to cheap merchants. It facilitates business for everyone, including eye care practices. If shopping online is an alternative that patients are looking at, let them have it.

 

After all this expands one’s clientele and generates additional income from those online shoppers … The difference and leverage that a real eye care practice offers over the “cheap stuff” is that you know what you sell, and you stand behind it. Numerous e-commerce services make the technical implementation an inexpensive and realistic venue for every practice.

 

Benjamin Franklin is credited for inventing the first pair of bifocals in the early 1784. According to the story, “He was getting old and was having trouble seeing both up-close and at a distance. Getting tired of switching between two types of glasses, he devised a way to have both types of lenses fit into the frame. The distance lens was placed at the top and the up-close lens was placed at the bottom.”

 

Conclusions

 

There is no doubt in my mind that regulatory or communal action is required to standardize and distinguish between “Safe” and “hazardous” online sources.

 

Educating the public is eminent. Publicizing factsheets through every practice’s office is a minimum.

 

Making this right is part of our future. The more independent eye care practitioners joining this trend, the more visible will be the difference between the real O.D servicing his clients remotely and a faceless online merchant. The numbers are also in our favor. Even a modest number of real eye care practitioners selling online will dilute the presence of the cheap merchants on the net and in search engines.

 

 

Dan Sadovsky

 

C.E.O K-Mars Optical

By Dan Sadovsky, C.E.O K-Mars Optical

 

Abstract

This article follows the evolution of multi-focal lenses through the latest innovations in progressive lens technology. Multi-focal technology begun much earlier than most imagine, yet gained its boost only in the recent two decades, for socio-economic reasons. What is the state-of-the-art progressive lens technology today? What’s next, and what is the future of this market?

 

The article argues that the future of eyeglasses lenses is in advanced Free Form technologies combining sophisticated software algorithms and robotics, bringing the complete lens design and manufacturing to the optical laboratory level. Single vision Semi-finished lens blanks turn into individually-unique lenses for the specific patient’s lifestyle. This future is already here with commercially-available technology.

 

An Early Beginning

Benjamin Franklin is credited for inventing the first pair of bifocals in the early 1784. According to the story, “He was getting old and was having trouble seeing both up-close and at a distance. Getting tired of switching between two types of glasses, he devised a way to have both types of lenses fit into the frame. The distance lens was placed at the top and the up-close lens was placed at the bottom.”

 

The early Bifocals

Use of eye care industry multi-focal correction lenses increased from 40% in the 80s of the last century to 53% of total correction lenses dispensed in USA in 2008 (Jobson Publication).

 

Bifocal lenses have two powers only: one for seeing at distance and the other for seeing up close or reading. Objects in between (such as computer screen or items on the grocery store shelf) often remain indistinct with bifocals.

 

Attempts were taken to compensate this shortcoming with tri-focal lenses which offer the wearer additional field of corrected vision. Yet, the Bifocal and tri-focal lenses are carry an inherent disadvantage and are uncomfortable due to the sharp transition between focal points. Moreover, in some cases the use can lead to quite a few unpleasant outcomes. One hazard is known as Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS), might result in from using a computer for extended periods. Bifocal wearers have to sit closer to the screen and tilt their heads back to see through the bottom part of the lens. This unnatural posture can lead to muscle strain, neck pain and other symptoms of CVS.

 

Natural Vision Correction

The idea of natural vision correction avoiding an “image jump” – progressive addition lenses (PAL) was first patented in 1907 by Own Aves (British Patent 15,735), but due to the impracticality and complexity this design was never commercialized.

 

The Varilux lens was the first modern design of PAL. It was developed by Bernard Maitenaz, patented in 1953, and introduced by the Société des Lunetiers (that later became part of Essilor) in 1959.

 

The illustration of a progressive lens below shows the typical
configuration of distance, intermediate and near zones

 

Early progressive lenses offered relatively crude designs creating regions of aberration away from the optic axis, yielding poor visual resolution (blur). Combining a collection of powers in a single surface resulted in geometric distortions to the visual field, increasing with addition of power. The early progressive-enthusiastic users accepted these disadvantages for a very simple reason: Progressive lenses gave them a “younger” look; Since bifocal and related designs are associated with ‘old age’, the lack of segments on the lens surface of a progressive lens appears more ‘youthful’ because lenses associated with younger wearers, as single vision lenses are free of segments or lines on the surface.

 

The motto those days was “The best progressive design”. Market leaders attempted to develop pre-made designs to fit wide range of cases (e.g. Varilux Comfort). Yet, this “one size fits all” concept did not satisfy the growing market of aging young individuals.

 

Mid 1990s through 2006 – Quest for the ideal progressive lens

It is very much thanks to the maturing Baby Boomer generation that the decade following the mid 90s was a constant quest for the ideal progressive lens. The mid 1990s were the beginning of economical prosperity, which lasted through the first decade of the second millennium. Unlike their ancestors, Baby Boomers reaching their 40s and 50s had the financial stability to demand eyewear suited to contemporary lifestyle, supporting their office, leisure and sports activities. Ah and, yes. The eyewear must also be fashionable and “young” looking.

 

Industry giants were challenged by increasing consumer demand combining comfort with fashion. Smaller frame styles became fashionable and three piece rimless mounts and wrap around sport glasses complicated the task even more.

 

Introducing the Free Form Lenses

It was a small, unknown Israeli company Shamir, who first introduce the next revolutionary concept, turning away from the “ideal design” concept to the extreme opposite: Individually tailored lens for each patient, optimized for his/her condition, problem and lifestyle. The revolution materialized with the commercial implementation released to the market in 2001. It so happens that these pioneers came from outside the eye care field, combining mathematicians, software and robotic architects. Thinking “out-of-the-box” they have succeeded to implement cost-effective desktop-manufacturing technology enabling optical labs to produce high-quality individually-tailored lenses from plain single vision blanks.

 

Threatened by the new technology revolutionizing the market and consumers’ expectations, industry leaders were each forced to come up with a matching commercial response. This has indeed yielded a variety of branded “Free Form” implementations. Unfortunately, they all differ and lag behind the original Shamir technology for the mere fact that they bind the client laboratory to pre-manufactured blanks of that brand. A little disappointing, isn’t it? After all, it seems that during those years more efforts were placed into marketing campaigns rather than in research aimed to real freedom…

 

It is something to expect, that most of the eye care industry leaders weren’t too happy with the new emerging technology. The immediate commercial implication is freeing the laboratories from huge inventories of pre made semi finished lenses and thus dependence from industry leaders. Realizing this provides an explanation to their resulting solutions “overcoming” this problem by tying the user labs to their proprietary blanks. It is understandable. They are trying to hold the fort for as long as they can…

 

Conclusions

 

So what do we have so far?

• We have a growing aging “young” consumer population demanding eyewear supporting combinations of activities and lifestyles unparalleled before.
• We have a variety of desktop production solutions, which accommodate the consumers’ demand, yet are mostly driven by the giant lens manufacturers, and limited to pre-manufactured proprietary blanks.
• We have witnessed the feasibility and availability of more freedom achieved with technology such as Shamir’s, that goes one step further and frees the lab from dependency on specific blanks and manufacturer.

Understanding similar scenarios in other industries in is inevitable to realize that technology-based commercial processes can be delayed but not stopped.

 

What’s ahead?

Freeing the lab from inventory cost will eventually reduce the production cost, thus premium individual progressives are going to become more affordable to the consumer. Similar processes occurred with computers, GPS, cellphones, I-pods and other luxury item prices.

 

The future is at the doorstep, and it does seem that Shamir Free Form technology is really the pioneer, pointing in the direction that the eye care industry will be moving in years to come.

 

 

Dan Sadovsky

 

C.E.O K-Mars Optical

 

The level of spending is still significantly lower than what we were used to see a year ago. Federal government promises to increase support in public health programs are not fulfilled. One example is that starting July 1st 2009 California Medical will not be financing eyewear for insured older than 21, thus abandoning thousands of elderly and disabled, and cutting income from Eye care providers.

 

This is the current reality and dealing with it successfully requires adaptation: Doing things slightly different in order to improve the bottom line.

 

Pay Less for What You Sell

In an article published late 2008 in Vision Monday Thomas F. Pucket (Managing Director the firm specializing in accusation and mergers of optical wholesale laboratories and optical business veteran) advised optical laboratories to “review the expense side of the business to see where they can become more efficient”. This statement is very true to ECPs even more than to the wholesale labs. Revisiting your direct expenses can make the difference. For example:

• Use of Stock Finished Lenses can save you up to 60% of the cost.
• Use of Frame & Lenses Packages gains you multiple savings on direct cost, less shipping and reduced inventory-related expenses.

 

Sell More with Each Sale

With each sale you make, ensure to offer your customers all that they need. This will increase your average sale amount and gain your customers those add-ons, which they will otherwise lack. As the eye-care professional, it is your call to highlight and recommend different options according to the customer and type of use. Among these offerings are:

Premium AR coating, Photo Chromic, UV and Scratch Protection and Sun clips.

 

 

 

The public is often advised by medical experts of the importance of wearing sunglasses in order to protect the eyes from UV^*, radiation and excessive light exposure. Excessive exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UV) can cause short-term and long-term ocular problems such as photokeratitis, snow blindness, cataracts, pterygium, and various forms of eye cancer^*.

 

The National Eye Institute also recommends sunglasses to help prevent or delay cataracts, in spite of the little research available so far to support the idea.

 

“While sunglasses’ role in cataract prevention may be unclear, they should be worn to protect your eyes against macular degeneration and other conditions worsened by too much exposure to ultraviolet rays. If there’s enough sun to get a tan, you should wear sunglasses,” says Dr. Roberts of the National Eye Institute.

 

Similar approach is conveyed by David D. Richardson, M.D., Medical Director-San Gabriel Valley Eye Associates, Inc.:

 

“I tell all of my patients to wear quality sunglasses with ultraviolet protection. Although we do not have conclusive proof that wearing sunglasses can delay the progression of cataracts, there is substantial laboratory and population-based evidence to support the association of UV exposure with progression of both cataracts and macular degeneration.”

 

Although no one can quantify the correlation between excessive UV and light exposure to vision problems, all ECP are in agreement that this correlation does exist.

 

It is important to purchase quality sunglasses as those are the only ones that I would trust to actually have a UV filter.

The implied from the statement above is that low quality sunglasses without broad spectrum UV protection will reduce light transmission to the eye causing pupil dilation and thus actually increasing exposure of inner eye structures to UV radiation, increasing possible damage.

 

Summary and Recommendations

Eye care practitioners should explain these facts when prescribing protective eyewear to the patient.

 

More considerations to share with your patients:

 

Some lens materials (e.g. glass polycarbonate and several HI index materials are natural UV filters and others) especially acetate lenses used in un expensive sunglasses need additional UV coating.

 

Coating the back side of sun lenses with AR coating reduces annoying glare and increases sharpness of the objects in reduced light environment and thus reduces strain on the eyes.

 

Other qualities of protective eyewear depend greatly on the type of usage for example for some patients (fishing outdoors activities) polarized sun lenses could be very helpful for the others quite dangerous (pilots, downslide skiers) changing depth perception.

 

 

Cancer Council Australia; Centre for Eye Research Australia: Position Statement: Eye Protection. August 2006

Spherical Aspheric

 

Regular lenses have the same curves across its entiresurface and a front surface that is spherical (much like a circle in theshape).

 

Aspheric lenses have a more unique front surface(more like ashape of an oval)that gradually changes in its curvature from the center of thelens out to the edge.

 

 

An Aspheric lens provides a thinner profile for allprescriptions. But the difference really takes place in the plus lenses, whichare thicker in there center than at the edge.

 

The stronger the prescription, the more the center of the lens bulges forward from the frame.

 

An Aspheric lens has much thinner curves, so there is lessbulging of the lens from the frame.

 

This effect gives the eyewear a more flattering and slimmerprofile.

 

Even though the effect of the aspheric lens is lessnoticeable on the minus powers it provides a significant reduction in the edgethickness compared with regular lenses.

 

Aspheric design makes it possible for someone who has astrong prescription to wear a larger selection of frames without worrying ofthe lenses being to big.

 

 

Less peripheral distortion

 

The way regularlenses designed ,a distortion is createdwhen the eyewear is looking away from the center of the lens, whether you lookdirectly to the left or right.

 

 

Aspheric lenses unique design eliminates completely orreduces these distortions for a better peripheral vision.

 

Regular spherical lenses with a strong (-)or(+) causeunwanted minimization or magnification of the eye.this makes objects appesrlarger and closer ( ) or smaller and farther (-) then they actually are.

 

Spherical (+) lenses will give the wearers eyes anunnaturally magnified ”bug -eyed” look, spherical (-) lenses will make eyeslook smaller, “beady-eyed” appearance.

 

 

Aspheric lenses In high (+)power actually reduces this magnification effect.

 

The eye on the left seen thru Aspheric lens and the eye onthe right thru a regular spherical lens, booth the same power.

 

Aspheric lens significantly reduce the magnification and minimization effects so the world looks better to you and you look better to the world.

 

Notice: Aspheric lenses are positioned slightly closer to the face and are flatter then conventional lenses, also most Aspheric lenses are high index lenses and naturally cause more reflections of the front and the back of the lens for this reason it is highly recommended for Anti Reflective coating AR HMC.

 

Photochromic lenses darken on exposure to UV radiation. Once the UV is removed (for example by walking indoors), the lenses will gradually return to their clear state. Photochromic lenses may be made of glass, plastic or polycarbonate. The glass version of this type of lenses was first developed by Corning in the 1960s. More recently, plastic versions of these lenses have been commercialized. The first of these was the Photolite lens sold in the early 1980s by the American Optical Corporation. The first commercially successful plastic photochromic lens was introduced by Transitions Optical in 1991¹.

 

The glass version of these lenses achieve their photochromic properties through the embedding of microcrystalline silver halides (usually silver chloride), or molecules in a glass substrate. Plastic photochromic lenses rely on organic photochromic molecules (for example oxazines and naphthopyrans) to achieve the reversible darkening effect. The reason these lenses darken in sunlight but not indoors under artificial light, is that room light does not contain the UV (short wave length light) found in sunlight. Automobile windows also block UV so these lenses would darken less in a car. Lenses that darken in response to visible (rather than UV) light would avoid these issues, but they are not feasible for most applications. In order to respond to light, it is necessary to absorb it, thus the glass could not be made to be clear in its low-light state. This correctly implies photochromic lenses are not transparent, specifically they filter out UV light. This does not represent a problem, because the human eye does not see in the UV spectrum.

 

With the photochromic material dispersed in the glass substrate, the degree of darkening depends on the thickness of glass, which poses problems with variable-thickness lenses in prescription glasses. With plastic lenses, the material is typically embedded into the surface layer of the plastic in a uniform thickness of up to 150 µm.

 

Typically, photochromic lenses darken substantially in response to UV light in less than one minute, and then continue to darken very slightly over the next fifteen minutes². The lenses fade back to clear along a similar pattern. The lenses will begin to clear as soon as they are away from UV light, and will be noticeably lighter within two minutes and mostly clear within five minutes. However, it normally takes more than fifteen minutes for the lenses to completely fade to their non-exposed state. A study by the Institute of Ophthalmology at the University College London has suggested that even in dark conditions photochromic lenses can absorb up to 20% of ambient light³.

 

Because photochromic compounds fade back to their clear state by a thermal process, the higher the temperature, the less dark photochromic lenses will be. This thermal effect is called “temperature dependency” and prevents these devices from achieving true sunglass darkness in very hot weather. Conversely, photochromic lenses will get very dark in cold weather conditions, which makes them more suitable for snow skiers than beachgoers while outside. Once inside, away from the triggering UV light, the cold lenses take longer to regain their clear color than warm lenses.

 

A number of sunglass manufacturers/retailers (Intercast, Oakley, Serengeti Eyewear, to name a few) offer products that use photochromism to make lenses that go from a dark to a darker state. Because these products are tinted in the bleached state, they are typically used only outdoors and are not considered general purpose lenses.