The Appeal of Organic Indian Eyewear Brands

Organic Indian eyewear brands have become popular by understanding what Indian consumers want. They create designs that are not only stylish but also seem to suit Indian faces and preferences. This attention to detail means their glasses fit better, are more comfortable, and match Indian styles as well the colour reflecting Indian skin tone.

These brands are also great at giving quality at reasonable prices. While luxury international glasses can be expensive, Indian brands offer similar quality for less. This is great for Indian consumers who want good quality without spending too much. It’s especially helpful in India, where people care about getting value for their money.

Quality and Innovation at Par

One of the most significant misconceptions about organic brands has been about quality. However, Indian eyewear brands have robustly dispelled these doubts, matching, and sometimes even surpassing, international standards in terms of material quality, durability, and design innovation. By leveraging advanced manufacturing technologies and materials, these brands offer products that stand the test of time and style.

Cultural Resonance and Celebrity Influence

Adding to their appeal, many organic Indian eyewear brands are loved even more because they include Indian culture in their designs. They use traditional patterns and modern versions of Indian styles, making people feel proud of their culture when they wear them. Furthermore, the endorsement by Bollywood celebrities and renowned cricketers has not only increased their visibility but also enhanced their credibility and aspirational value among the Indian populace.

The Role of Optical Retailers

For optical retailers, the rise of organic Indian eyewear brands offers a unique opportunity to diversify their product offerings and cater to a growing market segment that prioritises quality, style, and value for money. Selling these brands can also make people feel proud of supporting Indian businesses and craftsmanship.

Stores can make the most of this by showing off these brands in special areas and training staff to talk about why they’re great. This helps customers see the value and makes their shopping experience better.

In selling organic Indian eyewear, retailers are not just offering a product but are becoming part of a larger movement that celebrates Indian identity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. It’s time to take pride in selling organic brands as much as international ones, for they represent the spirit of India – diverse, dynamic, and forward-looking.

Here’s what some organic eyewear brand owners are saying about “Why are consumers in India loving homegrown eyewear brands?”

“Organic Indian eyewear brands clearly understand the Indian consumer’s needs and aspirations better. And that is reflected in the brand’s product offerings. For instance, before Dr. Harmanns’s there was a huge gap in the reading glasses segment. 

Consumers had to choose between either unbranded products of substandard quality or expensive luxury brands. With Dr. Harmann’s we used our knowledge of the local customer’s needs and preferences and delivered a unique offering that filled this gap. 

Besides great designs and high-quality lenses, we also gave them great packaging and elegant cases. Also, from the pricing and collection perspective, the range that Dr. Harmann’s offers is a big hit among our users. These factors have contributed to making Dr. Harmann’s the most widely chosen reading spectacles brands in India.”

“In terms of quality and value, most organic Indian eyewear brands match or surpass many international brands. KOSCH eyewear designs, particularly in terms of colour, quality and aesthetics, evidently align more closely with the tastes of urban Indian customers.

That is why KOSCH was recently ranked among the top four best-selling sunglass brands at one of the country’s leading fashion retailers.

Also, there is an increasing sense of confidence among consumers today. They are looking for genuine relatability and trust, rather than merely opting for a popular label.”

“Nowadays, folks in India are really into trying out different stuff and paying close attention to what they buy. That’s why local brands, especially those making organic or homegrown products, are doing so well. 

These brands understand what Indian consumers want – whether it’s the right fit, colour, or style. And quality-wise, they’re top-notch, often even better than international brands. They offer premium features like special lenses and coatings, just like the fancy foreign brands, but at a much more affordable price. 

People are all about getting the best bang for their buck, and if it’s made in India, they’re even more into it. This shift is happening in the eyewear business too. Brands like Opium are leading the charge, focusing on what customers need and working with big names to keep things fresh. 

Homegrown brands are gaining ground, challenging the dominance of international ones. It’s all about catering to what Indian consumers want and need, even in areas like sports eyewear, where there’s a big opportunity for local brands to shine. The future is very bright, homegrown brands are the way forward. Consumers are realising this faster than the opticians.”

“Organic Indian eyewear brands are not just about looking good; they’re about feeling connected, supporting local craftsmanship. Pavarotti was founded in 2010 by me with the sole vision of creating a wholesome, sustainable future in Luxury Eyewear.

A revolutionary approach to business, art and experience at the heart of the brand with a focus on creating a genuine product that translates excellence through passion and authenticity is the core feature.

Pavarotti is truly the epitome of modern sophistication crafted with precision and innovation combined with unmatched personalisation possibilities.

We continue to honour this rich founding spirit by weaving creative experimentation & passion enriched through our extraordinary customer experience. We now stand as a landmark destination for fashionable, state-of-the-art eyewear brands which is a one-stop shop for all eye-art lovers with designs meticulously engineered to complement your style.”

“Pitt & Mitt’s popularity in India stems from its combination of stylish designs, durability and endorsements by prominent pediatric optometrists, eye hospitals and qualified opticians. The brand’s eyewear caters to children of all ages, ensuring both comfort and fashion. 

Pitt & Mitt’s reputation for quality, coupled with recommendations from industry professionals, has solidified its position as a trusted choice among parents and caregivers seeking reliable eyewear for their children. By offering a wide range of frames designed specifically for young wearers and prioritising both style and functionality, Pitt & Mitt has successfully captured the attention and loyalty of customers in the Indian market.”

“Consumers in India are increasingly gravitating towards organic or homegrown eyewear brands for several compelling reasons. They offer stylish, affordable frames, appealing to those who care about sustainability and style. 

Scott, now among one of the top brands in India, is known for fashionable designs and impeccable quality at affordable prices and appealing to all ages. Each product is meticulously designed with a distinct identity and the brand logo. 

We are repositioning another of our organic brands, Sprint, as the next sports brand catering to India’s growing health-consciousness consumers. Sprint Eyegear offers fashionable, sporty products for activities like running and cycling, aiming to become a major active lifestyle brand, while maintaining superior quality and affordability.”

“In the past decade, consumer buying behaviour has significantly shifted. Today, people are less concerned about whether a brand is international or local and more about how they connect with the brand and what it does for them emotionally. This trend is evident across various product categories in India, especially in the last five to seven years. Consumers now focus on getting what they want at the price they want, creating a level playing field for both local and international brands.

In our industry, where I’ve worked for 15 years, it was once all about superior product quality and aesthetics. While these remain essential, we’ve reached a point where excellent quality, attractive packaging, and reliable service are the baseline. Today, it’s more about what we can offer beyond the product itself.

We remain committed to creating a strong brand presence, fostering habitual changes in consumer behaviour, and supporting the growth of the eyewear industry. Collaboration and innovation are key to our strategy, and we welcome suggestions from industry partners to enhance our marketing initiatives further.”

It is therefore important to recognize that each one of the supply chains has a role to play and has participated in making the end products competitive and affordable unlike some players claiming that eliminating middlemen offers consumers a better deal for a like-to-like product. While you deep dive into the offerings, the opticians who typically procure from a wholesaler/importer can offer a better price to the consumer. This reflects the fact that the supply chain, though can be more efficient through IT systems, and AI for inventory management but gives little room for margin optimization.

The complexities of the wholesalers in managing inventories and obsolescence, cash flow, and the cost of working capital make it even more challenging.  The area of glazing (fitting) is less spoken of but is the most critical aspect of the spectacles offering. Substandard work in fitting could cause discomfort to the wearer and loss of customers to the opticians, which is intangible and cannot be afforded in today’s competitive scenario. 

While auto-edgers are available in the market including industrial edgers for mass manufacturing the fact that India is a diverse market and much of the edging happens at the last mile closer to the optician, the supply chain, therefore, needs to integrate this part seamlessly. It is worth noting that the skill sets of our fitters who operate on semi-automatic or manual edgers are exemplary and would be perhaps the best in the world though they do not get the highlight that they deserve.  

India has 7349 Railway stations and over 1.5 lakh pin codes. Why is this relevant in this context? The stations serve as the transport hub to adjoining towns and villages while the pin codes are where the dwelling happens. The various supply chain in India recognizes these complexities and addresses them in a business-like fashion to remain profitable and sustainable yet competitive. Easier said than done but this re-establishes the role of intermediaries in the delivery system of spectacles, sunglasses, etc. to end consumers.

The eyewear industry as estimated is in the range of INR 23000-27000 Crores (range of 2.7B$ to 3.2B$) at the consumer level and in relative terms quite tiny when compared to many other industries, but the complexities of the business are high or more than the industries which are perhaps ten times larger in market size.  This brings in the point that traditional families having a firm understanding of the optical business must scale up to meet the growing market demand as the need for spectacles would only increase given the demographic nature of the population.

Mr. Ramachandran Parthasarathy

Eyewear Business Strategy Expert South Asia
Honorary Advisor – India Vision Institute

Any representation of information, fact(s), concept(s), opinion(s), and instruction(s) that is capable of being communicated, interpreted, and processed by human beings or by automated means. Further, any data about an individual (Data Principal) who is identifiable by or in relation to such data has been referred to as Personal Data in the Act. As per the Act, there must be consent obtained from the consumer, and the information pertaining to the consumer would need to be protected, and secured by whomsoever having access to the commercial process be it Manufacturers/ Retailers or the supply chain.

The consent given by the Data Principal shall be free, specific, informed, unconditional, and unambiguous with clear affirmative action, and shall signify an agreement to the processing of her personal data for the specified purpose and be limited to such personal data as is necessary for such specified purpose. Illustration. X, an individual, downloads Y, a telemedicine app. Y requests the consent of X for (i) the processing of her personal data for making available telemedicine services, and (ii) accessing her mobile phone contact list, and X signifies her consent to both. Since a phone contact list is not necessary for making available telemedicine services, her consent shall be limited to the processing of her personal data for making available telemedicine services. (2) Any part of consent referred to in subsection (1) which constitutes an infringement of the provisions of this Act, or the rules made thereunder or any other law for the time being in force shall be invalid to the extent of such infringement.

This leads to the appointment of a Data Fiduciary to carry out the duties provided under this Act and be responsible for complying with the provisions of this Act and the rules made thereunder in respect of any processing undertaken by it or on its behalf by a Data Processor. A Data Fiduciary shall protect personal data in its possession or under its control, including in respect of any processing undertaken by it or on its behalf by a Data Processor, by taking reasonable security safeguards to prevent personal data breach. In the event of a personal data breach, the Data Fiduciary shall give the Board and each affected Data Principal, intimation of such breach in such form and manner as may be prescribed.

The Act marks a defining approach to safeguarding Personal Data, addressing longstanding needs in the context of increasing internet users, and data generation, However, it is felt that various details regarding implementation need clarification which may happen upon the establishment of the Data Protection Board of India and the promulgation of Rules under the Act. In its entirety, the Act signifies India’s unique stance on modern data protection, enriched by extensive post-draft consultations. The Act certainly mandates a significant shift from how Indian businesses should now approach privacy and Personal Data.

It would be helpful if the Optical Industry Association formed a task force and prepared its members proactively to ensure compliance with the Act in the future when timelines are drawn by the Govt.

Mr. Ramachandran Parthasarathy

Eyewear Business Strategy Expert South Asia
Honorary Advisor – India Vision Institute

Independent retail business houses regrouped and focused on cash flow with prudent inventories. Hospital driven optical outlets were insulated to the challenges for most part other than the lockdown in 2021. Another interesting highlight of 2022 was to see the younger generation taking leadership roles in their businesses. It is also now a safe hypothesis to state that optical retail in India cannot succeed with just online presence, physical stores are important. Of course, we would need to wait for the report card (financials for the year ending March 2023) to determine the health of the business at the operating level to validate this.

The one trend that has emerged as a clear winner – the inherent need of eyecare at a macro level. While the major cities have global ratios of optical stores to population, the tier 1,2 cities are still lacking options. It is the crowd in these smaller cities that has a growing disposable income and increasing awareness of eye care needs. Vision correction is no more a standalone offering in metros as fashion is playing as a catalyst to encourage people to go for spectacles.

Eye care : Growing global need
The Lancet global eye health report released in the year 2021 sets out the path for eye health for a world without avoidable sight loss. It makes the clear socio-economic case that eye care needs to be recognized as a worldwide development issue and is integral to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The key message of the report states that almost everyone will experience impaired vision or an eye condition during their lifetime and will require eye care services.

Quality eye care services are important and not to be compromised. However, the highly cost-effective vision restoring interventions also offer enormous potential to improve quality and outcomes. There is a fire need to increase the eye care workforce. Optical businesses need to build capacity sharing tasks, training, etc . The Government of India through the gazette has therefore recognized Optometrists, Ophthalmic Assistants and Vision Technicians and all of them would be playing a key role in serving the needs of vision correction.

To quote IAPB document released in the year 2021, 411 billion US$ of lost global productivity could be regained with action and productivity can be improved by 20-30% while addressing eye care services. India would also certainly benefit from this action.

From the business angle while the market has many players and intense competition continues, the vision health awareness has gone up significantly. This, coupled with sunglasses with sale of protection against UV, blue light etc. add a value proposition to the consumers and lead to the average selling price going up in the mid and premium category.

The Indian market is clearly getting segmented with luxury, premium on one side and mid-tier on the other. Brands continue to attract interest in the age group of 40+ while the newer and younger generation are less inclined to brands but prefer to own multiple sunglasses/ spectacles. Eye screening cost continues to be cross subsidized through sale of products in the opticals barring the eye hospitals.

On a concluding note
The year 2022 is behind us and the market scenario is quite positive. The gap to address the uncorrected refractive error still exists and if investments happen in the right regions of India, it could fuel an overall trade boost.

The media houses have also played their role with trade exhibitions in India in many cities and for the first time an Indian expo set their footprint overseas in Dubai attracting international customers.

Clearly a year well managed. As we enter 2023 with cautious optimism, the forecast of global recession in many countries remains. But, India could be in for a surprise as the domestic consumption in the eyewear category continues to grow despite headwinds. So let’s wait and watch!

A few days ago, Lenskart- one of the online eyewear retailers- came out with an advertisement that made some alarming claims. The ad claimed that opticians charge an exorbitant price for products they sell as there are several middlemen like manufacturer, exporter, etc. involved – each one charges their commission.

However, friends and well wishers of the optical trade would agree that this is not true. An optician always strives to give the customer the best possible deal – in terms of the product as well as its pricing. When one considers the quality of the product, the guidance that the opticians offer, and of course the after sales service – the neighborhood opticians emerge as the clear winners!

But such advertisements by Lenskart paint an incorrect picture portraying the hard working opticians as the villains of the story. While many were disappointed with the way things are shown, one man – Sanjeev Madan of Bonton Opticians, Delhi decided to take it up with the authorities.

Sanjeev reached out to CCC -Consumer Complaints Council – elaborating on how the online retailer was making an incorrect claim portraying the neighborhood opticians in bad light. He diligently pursued the matter with them.

After extensive evaluation which included a written clarification by Lenskart, CCC awarded the decision in favour of Sanjeev’s complaint. Lenskart has been asked to modify or withdraw the advertisement latest by June 23, 2022.

It is Sanjeev’s efforts that led CCC to evaluate the matter and rightfully so. In its detailed response CCC said that the claim made by the advertiser was without any substantiation and is denigrating other opticians by showing them in bad light. Further, it was agreed that the advertiser was not able to provide any verifiable comparative data to substantiate its claim.

Kudos to Sanjeev Madan for his relentless pursuit that will help all of the optician community! It is the efforts of such heroes that have ensured that the spirit of the optical trade community stays high.

Panelists at an India Vision Institute (IVI)-VisionPlus Magazine hosted ‘Solving India’s Cataract Crisis’ webinar, June 21, discussed this important public health issue. Moderated by IVI’s CEO, Vinod Daniel, the panel comprised Dr G V Rao, Development Specialist; Dr Arun Sethi, Ophthalmic Director, Arunodaya Deseret Eye Hospital, Managing Trustee, Arunodaya Charitable Trust; Dr Sumit Grover, Ophthalmologist, Academician and Public Health Professional; and Aaron Basaiawmoit, Chief Executive Officer, Bansara Eye Care Centre, North Eastern Zonal Representative and Board Member, Vision 2020 India.

The year that has gone by has taught us a lot. From embracing the new norms of masking, social distancing and sanitising to the accelerated digitisation, the pandemic has a lot of positives. All we need to do is widen our perspective. Even in the case of optical trade, the business has been impacted. But things are finally looking up as the world slowly begins its return to normalcy. Eyewear retailers across the country are getting ready to welcome the post-pandemic customer. Let’s take a look at the changing dynamics in an optician’s store. 

The New Customer 

Your post-pandemic customer is very different. He / She wants a shorter yet fruitful shopping experience. Even eyewear seems to be evolving – from a health requirement to a fashion accessory and even protective equipment now. After all, the lockdown, prevailing uncertainty and focus on health have reshaped the customer behaviour. However, opticians need not worry. The eyewear distributors are empathetic to the new normal and are stepping up their game to support

the opticians. From virtual tryouts to online appointment booking apps, the distributors are helping opticians to get accustomed to this new normal. Some brands like Safilo are also investing in marketing campaigns to help build trust and confidence in customers to shop at stores. 

The Opticians’ Focus 

For eyewear retailers, the sole focus should be on giving their customers the best possible shopping experience. And here is how you can do it: 

• Familiarise yourself with the safety protocols that are the new focus area in the post covid era
• Do not hesitate to take questions from the customer. You have to address their concerns to fuel their confidence in the in-store purchase
• Take feedback and criticism positively. Remember this new scenario is a learning opportunity
• Seek support from eyewear distributors. They have various programmes and initiatives specifically designed to help opticians accustom themselves to the new normal

Optical Business Is Set To Grow

The key challenge that every other retail business is facing, is getting the customer to visit the store. Despite the mushrooming of online stores, touch-feel remain a pertinent part of eyewear purchasing. This ensures that a steady footfall of serious buyers is continued for optical retailers. 

Roy Rana, Sales Head-Wholesale and Distribution, Safilo says, “Eyewear business is a semi-essential category, the recovery for this sector is expected to be much faster. The category may start with mid or low price points, but soon it will touch the high price points within a month or two. On an absolute value, the recovery may start slow, but we can expect to reach 70% of what it was in 2019 by August 2021.” 

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 2.2 Billion people are suffering from eye blindness and vision impairment. A similar number of people across the globe suffer from vision impairment. So clearly, the requirement for eyewear will not go down. All of this puts the optical trade on the front foot for recovery and opticians have a lot of growth avenues to explore in this new era.