Ag Talk | Lenskart to tap newer markets & give a variety of options

Carving a niche for itself, Lenskart was co- founded in 2010 by Peyush Bansal, Amit Chaudhary & Sumeet Kapahi. Launched with a vision to be the numero uno eyewear provider in India and to reach to as many consumers as possible through digital, it is giving a sigh of convenience to consumers with wide variety of options.

By leveraging technology and keeping a deep focus on consumer satisfaction, Lenskart has grown more than 200% year on year in the last 2 years, to be among the top 3 optical businesses of India today.

With revenues of close to Rs. 100 Cr., Lenskart is continuing to grow at 15% month-on-month and is changing the landscape of the Indian eyewear with its unique products and services.

To get a deeper understanding Adgully caught up with Peyush Bansal, CEO & Founder, Lenskart.com

Adgully (AG): Eye care is one of the niche categories if sold online. How did the idea come up and what prompted you to get into that space?
Peyush Bansal (PB): Focusing on a niche space and developing related expertise is a key to differentiate oneself.  A third of India's total population needs spectacles today. By using the word 'need,' I am referring to people who have some or the other eye-related problem and not those who use eyewear only as a fashion accessory. Only 25 per cent of these people actually wear spectacles. Need I say more about the kind of volumes this category can bring? The second part of this story is about people who want to use eyewear as an accessory. After launching Lenskart's 'first frame free' offer we have seen a significant rise in the number of people sampling our products. This has the potential of expanding the market for the second set of fashion-conscious buyers who are evolving fast. They are interested in owning multiple eye wears to go with a variety of looks.

AG: What were the challenges that you faced when you had launched viz-a-viz the challenges that you face now?
PB: Initially, our biggest challenge was to change the mind set of consumers that just like books, shoes and mobiles; specs too can be bought online and we make it really easy. We even let you try your specs virtually on your computer and mobile.

Today, we are more focused on taking eye check-up and eyewear from door to door, so that people do not have to bother about stepping outside for their eyewear needs. Our home Eye check-up service, along with the Optos on Bike franchisee program, is going really good and will soon reach nooks and corners of the country.

AG: How are you looking at expansion?
PB: We plan to hire 500-600 more people this year. Besides this, we will expand our offline presence by opening more than 100 stores across 50-60 smaller cities and by strengthening our home-eye check-up initiative.

Another area of focus is to innovate and solve India’s eyewear problems at a very large scale. Home eye check-up, launched last year, has been a huge success for us. Today, we do about 300 check-ups a day and want to scale it up to 10,000 in seven cities that we are present at the moment.

AG: Also very recently you got funding, how are you looking at utilizing the same?
PB: The funds will go into building the team and core technology platform, in addition to increase the efficiency of the eyewear making machines. A part of the capital will be used to expand our home eye check-up service.

AG: Also are you looking at raising some more funds?
PB: We are well capitalized and we recently raised growth capital from TPG Capital & Existing Investors.

AG: How has been the response from the consumers (metros and smaller towns?)
PB: We are seeing a consistent shift in trend of new customers from Tier 2 cities, which now account 40% of our transactions.

AG: What is the ratio of return of the transactions that consumers make?
PB: We have more than 60% of eyeglasses returning to us within a year, or contact lenses, the ratio gets higher month on month.

AG: Which have been the key markets for Lenskart?
PB: Delhi and Bangalore are two cities from where we are getting good business. But we are doing a lot of consumer engagement activities in tier 2 and 3 cities. We have opened stores in a lot of smaller cities, where people can go and experience our brand and place order online.
We are also doing local advertising in smaller cities. We will also launch home eye check-up services in these regions soon. We will cover 40-50 cities by the end of this year.

AG: What is the plan for 2015?
PB: We generated Rs 100 crore in gross revenue in the last calendar year, and we are growing 15 per cent month-on-month. We are targeting close to Rs250 crore by March next year.

We are coming up with a lot of innovation in technology. We will introduce 3D virtual trials in the next six months. This will enable users to try out specs much more real than they do it today.

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