GeneralA Guide to Buying Glasses Online

Online shopping is a growing phenomenon and for good reason. With the ability to shop 24/7 from the comfort of your own home and the convenience to quickly compare prices and avoid checkout lines, it’s no wonder that retail sales are expected to increase by a further 20% before 2022.

Within the online shopping industry lies the healthcare sector, in which consumers expect digital tools to be a primary component of healthcare delivery. In fact, 72% of adult internet users have searched online for health information, so it makes sense that we want to access our healthcare needs online too, just as we can with fashion or food.

One aspect of healthcare that is successfully navigating this digital transition is optical care. Today, you can accurately buy prescription glasses online — with just a few clicks, they’ll be delivered straight to your door.

If you’re new to the process of buying glasses online, it can feel a little daunting to begin with, but once you have the correct information, you’ll never look back. If you’re looking for more information on how to buy glasses online, below are three simple steps to follow.

1. Choose Your Glasses Frame

This is the fun part — find an online store and browse the many frame styles, colours and materials on offer until you one that fits your personal preferences, face shape and lifestyle. The size of the eye, bridge and arm are often shown in the product description, which allows you to find a frame that fits.

The beauty of online shopping is that you can go at your own pace without feeling rushed or pressured, so take your time and read the customer reviews until you find one you’re completely happy with.

2. Choose Your Lens Type

At this point, your chosen glasses frame is in your online basket, but you need to choose the lens type (such as single vision, bifocal or varifocal) and enter your prescription details so that the lenses can be tailored to you. You may even want to add optional extras, such as thin lenses, driving lenses or sunglasses tint.

This stage requires you to be examined by an optician beforehand, so make sure to ask for a copy of your prescription after your exam — they must provide you with this by law. An optician can also measure the distance between your pupils in millimetres, which ensures that your lenses are in the right position.

Once you have your eye prescription and pupil distance information, keep it safe and use it to buy your online glasses.

3. Make Your Payment and Checkout

Now that the fiddly part is over, you simply need to add your payment and delivery address details and your new glasses will be with you shortly, along with a stylish hard case and microfibre cleaning cloth to keep your new glasses protected and clean.

The vast majority of prescription glasses are still sold the old fashioned way — in-store — and the primary obstacle appears to be the requirement for consumers to get an optometrist’s prescription. However, with plans in the works for eye exams to go digital, which will have a huge impact on how consumers satisfy their optical needs, we might soon be able to have our eyes tested and buy our new glasses from the comfort of our homes.

This post has been sponsored by Online Opticians UK