Time to get web-wise

The high-street optician is being squeezed between low-cost internet operations and the giant supermarket chains. Andy Chance-Hill believes it is time to fight fire with fire.

The Optician Index only recently contained a stark warning for the industry, showing all areas in decline, from turnover to the number of eye exams handled and frames dispensed. Some of the blame can be attributed to the inexorable rise of the internet.

Web-based operations are springing up by the week, initially offering just frames but now moving into mobile eye testing – and all the while threatening  to undermine a rich revenue stream for high street opticians.

In addition, the traditional optician’s practice is coming under increasing pressure from the arrival of the major supermarket chains.

Past masters at leveraging the latest technology to reduce costs, these retail leviathans are used to exploiting their economies of scale to offer fiercely competitive prices and wide product choice to eradicate the competition. And as we know from online shopping home delivery, the internet has already been incorporated into the supermarkets’ standard route to market.

With nearly two-thirds of UK homes now having internet access, the buyers are beginning to cut out the middle man and shop online for food, holidays and even homes. Analysts are predicting that by the end of the decade, businesses will need to offer web-based content and applications just to survive, as customers demand to be able to log on before they buy.

A proportion of the market, particularly the older generation, may well prefer to pay a premium for personal service, but there would inevitably be limits to this. The younger generation, however, have already embraced the internet and will simply expect these facilities to be available. With a ceiling on dispensing profitability imposed by market forces, the only way for high-street opticians to improve cashflow and profitability is to increase turnover and reduce costs.

The best way to do this is by maximising sales from the practice’s existing customer base and reducing operating costs within the practice by achieving optimum ‘chair time’ through the effective management of resources.

So, with the traditional markets in decline and a new generation of internet-savvy customers coming on stream, what can traditional opticians do to protect their businesses? Burying your head in the sand is clearly not an option, as a walk down any high street will testify. Countless businesses have gone to the wall by doing nothing.

Look at how Direct Line changed the face of the traditional insurance broker business and how the subsequent widespread adoption of cost-effective call centres has infiltrated most corporate businesses.

What happens within corporate business eventually filters down to smaller businesses and the optical industry can’t be immune for ever. It is only a matter of time before customers expect to be able to book eye tests online and shop around for frames from any branch they choose.

One option is to fight fire with fire and embrace the latest IT technology but, in a traditionally conservative industry such as ours, the idea will no doubt fill many opticians with dread. However, the solution need not be particularly complicated or require major investment in computer hardware.

In fact, internet-based systems are simpler to install and own than traditional systems – most of us are used to banking online without giving a second thought to the massive global IT infrastructures in place supporting the service. Why, then, would we be reluctant to adopt the same strategy for running our optician practices?