By Roger Mummert, Content Director, ROB,
Brian Chou, OD, FAAO,
Jerome A. Legerton, OD, MS, MBA, FAAO
Dec. 20, 2017
The past year offered much fodder for debate and reflection and debate in Review of Optometric Business. Here are three conversation-starters about optometry, including ideas for continuing to thrive in a changing healthcare and retail landscape.
Do Warby Parker & Hubble Have a Point?
By Roger Mummert, Content Director, ROB
In recent years, several emerging vendors of optical goods have launched consumer advertising campaigns with claims that they deeply undercut the artificially high prices maintained by the optical industry establishment. The marketing message of these “disputers,” as trend-watchers like to call them, is that they have the answer: eyeglasses or contact lenses at far lower prices, sold directly to consumers online. They are the consumer’s advocate, they suggest, while optical manufacturers and ECPs are price gougers. There is a clear fallacy to this claim, of course, but manufacturers and ECPs have a hard time defending their price structures and looking on the level at the same time. >>READ MORE<<
Opternative: One OD’s Experience & Advice
By Brian Chou, OD, FAAO
“Online eye exam” offerings like Opternative, Prescription Check by Warby Parker and Simple Contacts represent efforts by enterprising entrepreneurs to generate eyeglass and contact lens prescriptions remotely without the user having to step into a doctor’s office. These new services challenge regulations and the sensibilities of eyecare professionals. Will they harm your practice and patients, or are these concerns overblown? >>READ MORE>>
The Weakness Independent ODs Don’t Talk About
By Jerome A. Legerton, OD, MS, MBA, FAAO
A strategic weakness of independent optometry that rarely gets discussed is fragmentation; an industry condition in which the providers function as individuals instead of as a collective or aggregate. An extreme result is the condition of each practice as out for itself, rather than as part of an industry that needs to unite to preserve itself. By noting this weakness, we may be able to find ways to work together to overcome it. >>READ MORE>>
