I RECENTLY CHANGED UP my workouts and had a need for new jeans! Jeans are seriously the only clothing I will actually try on at a store because you never know how they will fit. I asked the stylist to bring me every pair she thought would be great. I must have squeezed into a dozen pairs. And I was happy with all of them (thanks to my new workout)! I couldn’t decide based on the look so I asked her to tell me the prices. Almost every pair was $95 to $135, except one, which was $350!
What? Why?!? I mean, if they made me look like J.Lo, absolutely! But since that was not the case I determined they were massively overpriced. I asked the associate what made them so special. Come to find out there were only two styles that were brought in of this new brand while the rest of their brands were near $100. My first thought, “Well that is just bad inventory management.” My second thought, “This is exactly what many opticals are doing!”
We see this often when onboarding new members to our FrameTurn tool. Many opticals are missing the “consumer pricing journey.” Opticals often unknowingly limit their ability to sell high-end frames because their retail pricing lacks a plan or attention. When the pricing journey is unknowingly severed an optical needs to direct their attention to the retail pricing mix and the retail pricing support of their frames. When an optical overlooks these, inventory managing components sales will suffer.
MISHANDLED MIX: If brands are easy to sell, opticals bring in more of them. This seems logical, but the mishandling happens when opticals are not aware of the morphing pricing mix. Because one pricing category is an “easy sell,” the inventory will begin to skew into that “easy to sell” range. This will continue to the point that the inventory is bloated in one pricing category. This leaves few options for the patient and profitability stagnates.
NEGLECTED SUPPORT: This is a common mishap in opticals much like the jeans scenario. When an optical unknowingly skips price ranges, patients conclude the higher frame must be overpriced. Having supporting prices leading up to your highest priced frames will make sure you are taking your patient on a journey to those frames. If my jean lady had told me some of the jeans were $120, some $180, some $225, and some $300, the $350 pair would have been less of a shock.
If you take your patient on a pricing journey and offer unique brands with an experience, you will increase sales. Also, an optical should make sure the brands in this higher price range are something special. Offering brands that are more than a label, brands that are truly unique and that give the patient the “WOW” experience will make a much more thrilling purchase. Let’s be honest, we all would have paid for the expensive jeans if they would have given us a “WOW” J.Lo booty!