Pricing spectacles against online sellers you cannot undercut

2 days ago
3 min read

Introduction

An independent practice cannot match online spectacle prices and should not attempt to. The online sellers carry no clinical cost, no dispensing time, no consulting room and no fitting, and a patient comparing a frame-and-lens figure across those two businesses is comparing two different products with the same name.

The practices that struggle are the ones apologising for the difference. The ones that do well explain what is included, price the professional work visibly, and accept losing the patients for whom price is the only consideration.

That is a positioning decision more than a pricing one.

1. Pricing spectacles against online sellers means unbundling what you do

The patient cannot value what they cannot see.

Separate the professional fees from the product

The sight test, the dispensing, the fitting and the aftercare are services. The frame and lenses are goods. Showing them separately makes the comparison honest. It also stops patients treating your time as free.

Charge properly for the sight test

A test priced at or below cost trains patients to think the clinical work is worthless and forces the whole margin onto the dispense. That is a fragile way to run a practice.

2. Price the lenses where the value actually is

Lens choice matters more than frame choice and is worse explained.

Explain the lens options in terms of use

Driving, screens, reading, varifocals. Patients accept a higher lens price when they understand what it does for their own day. Ask what they actually do before recommending.

Show the difference where you can

A demonstration of coatings or a varifocal design is more persuasive than any description. Online sellers cannot do this at all. Keep the demonstration set on the desk.

3. Build tiers rather than one price

A single price point makes comparison easy and unfavourable.

Offer three clear levels

An entry option that is genuinely competent, a middle option built to be chosen, and a premium one. Most patients take the middle. Build the middle as the one you want to sell.

Never make the entry option embarrassing

A deliberately poor cheap option is noticed. The entry level should be something you would happily dispense. Patients notice contempt.

4. Include the things online cannot

Aftercare is the durable argument.

State what is included with every dispense

Fitting, adjustments, repairs, a warranty period, remakes if the prescription needs adjusting. Put it in writing at the point of sale. Most patients have no idea any of it is included.

Explain what happens when something goes wrong

An online frame that breaks or does not fit is the patient's problem. That difference is worth saying once, without disparaging anybody. State it as fact rather than warning.

5. Accept the patients you will lose

Not every patient is available to you.

Let price-only patients go

They consume dispensing time and produce nothing. Losing them protects the margin that funds the practice. Be pleasant about it.

Keep the test even if you lose the dispense

A patient who tests with you and buys online is still a clinical relationship and still on your recall list. Handle it graciously. They frequently return after a poor online experience.

Conclusion

You cannot win a frame-and-lens price comparison, so stop competing there: unbundle the professional fees from the goods, charge properly for the sight test, and make the lens conversation about the patient's own day rather than about a product.

Build three tiers with a middle option designed to be chosen and an entry level you would happily dispense. State in writing what every dispense includes — fitting, adjustments, repairs, remakes — because aftercare is the argument online sellers cannot answer. And accept losing the patients for whom price is the only factor, while keeping the test and the recall relationship even when the dispense goes elsewhere.