Warby Parker is an eyewear brand founded on a problem. Glasses were too expensive. The four co-founders Neil Blumenthal, Dave Gilboa, Andy Hunt and Jeff Raider, discovered that one company, Luxottica, owned the monopoly on eyewear that was then licensed out to brands to be sold with monumental markups.

The founders asked themselves the question, what would it look like if they created a designer product that bypassed retailers and sold directly to the customer passing on the savings. Back in 2010 when the business was founded, DTC (direct to consumer) e-commerce was practically unheard of. Investors thought the company was doomed to fail. 11 years on, the business is now worth over $1,2billion. So what is at the heart of its success?

From the beginning, Warby Parker never saw itself as merely an e-commerce company. The four co-founders set out to create a lifestyle brand rather than an online eyewear store. Building a brand as opposed to just selling a product ensured that the business built brand loyalty and be defensible against competitors coming into the market. Its focus on positioning and the customer perception of the brand ensured that they have built an emotional connection that lasted far longer than the transition.

Warby Parker are a true example of a customer-centric business, with every part of the business from the foundations to the end to end experience centred on delivering against the customer problem and need states. To decide the experience the founders started with asking themselves what is the job to be done ie “how do customers shop for glasses”. This ultimately come down to how they look on their face, so, Warby Parker became a fashion brand first. This became the brand's first principle. To launch Warby Parker, the brand sought PR in fashion segments in GQ and in Vogue. These affiliations saw the business hit the years targets in a matter of weeks, and grow to a 2,000 waitlist.

Their second principle is customer service. The end to end experience is meticulously planned to ensure that the customer experience is front and centre. Staying true to the core consumer purchasing decision- how they look on their face, Warby Parker is innovating the best way to reimagine this experience. 1) Warby Parker invite the customer to pick 5 frames to try on at home, for free 2) they use AI to enable a virtual try how they will look on your face. Customers are encouraged to show their new looks via #warbyparkerhometryon to get feedback from family and friends and share the brand with a wider audience. Warby Parker will also weigh in on social media to help consumers make a selection. This tactic led to the creation of more than 56,000 user-generated content What’s more, Warby Parker found that those who shared content were 50% more likely to make a purchase.

The company responds to all tweets and social posts from customers. Then if a question posed by a customer is too complicated to be answered within a tweet, Warby Parker creates a short video with an answer to the question and sends a tweet with the link to the video on YouTube. Warby Parker has published more than 2,000 of these videos. According to Warby Parker Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Dave Gilboa: “customers were so blown away that we are going to these lengths to meet their needs that they tweet about it and tell dozens of other people.”

The third principle is social mission. Almost one billion people worldwide lack access to glasses, which means that 15% of the world’s population cannot effectively learn or work. To help address this problem, Warby Parker donates a pair of glasses to someone in need, with every purchase.

Maintaining its mission to deliver affordable glasses, delivering on its principles of fashion, customer service and social mission has enabled Warby Parker to build a brand with a strong identity and 50% of its glasses sold are a result of WOM.

If you are looking to turn your product into a brand, get in touch to discuss how Sprowt can help.

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