Ali Hasan
Introduction – Lenskart is a brand that doesn’t need any introduction for itself. They have been around for a while and almost everyone knows about them. They have become a symbol and synonym of eyewear including every aspect of it. They have many products and services in the eyewear industry offering:-
- Eyeglasses
- Sunglasses
- Contact Lenses
- Reading Glasses
- Kids Glasses
- Air Flex Eyeglasses (Ultra Light Weight)
- Home eye-test with a trial
Today we will be talking about them and try to answer why Lenskart wants to be the lens of India. We will also be talking how far they have come into their mission and how far they still have to go. We will give you a glimpse of their brand image and how they are targeting their audience.
Early Days – Lenskart is an Indian optical prescription eyewear retail chain that was started in 2010 by founders Peyush Bansal, Amit Chaudhary and Sumeet Kapahi. It was started with the vision of becoming the largest eyewear brand in the country. They wanted to revolutionize eyewear in India.
Initially, Lenskart wanted to operate through the internet and have a strong digital and social media presence but the Indian market is a difficult one to crack and they realized that some people won’t buy from them until and unless the people have the ability to walk into a showroom and touch and feel some of their specs.
Acting upon this information, Lenskart started opening stores in some parts of the country to have a strong offline presence along with an online one. As of September 2019, Lenskart had over stores in 70 cities in India. But as of writing this blog in 2021, they have an offline presence in more than 100 Indian cities which is expected to grow even further in the near future.
Marketing Strategy – Lenskart marketing strategy was targeted towards the younger generation and they aimed to appeal them in every way. They hired young celebrities who were more popular among the young generation and thus could help the brand have an image of a younger person who uses Lenskart’s specs and lenses to increase their style quotient.
Lenskart had Katrina Kaif as their female brand ambassador while they hired Bhuvam Bam was their male brand ambassador. In another ad, they used female actor Angira Dhar where she was wearing multiple specs offered by the company for female clients.
Their ads also claimed that their lenses were made with laser precision and were designed to perfectly match the unique needs and requirements of an individual. They used a tagline “Specsy is the new Sexy”. They used a hastag named #HalkaRakhYaar which focused on the fact that their lenses are super light weight and easy to use.
Lenskart CEO – Peyush Bansal
In an interview to CNBC-TV18, the CEO Peyush Bansal said that their advertising spending was less than 10% of their revenues which was good news for Lenskart as there are many companies who spend massive amounts of money solely on advertising and marketing.
User Base & Valuation – Lenskart owns almost 50% of the eyewear market segment in India and if they keep growing at a good pace, then they might even cross that threshold. According to the CEO, Lenskart has been growing at a rate of 100% year-on-year which is quite good. Lenskart had a valuation of $1.5 billion by Dec 2019 after Softbank invested around $275 million.
Funding – Lenskart has so far raised a total of $459.6 million in funding over 9 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on December 20, 2019. They have a total of 12 investors out of which 8 are lead investors. They have received funding from various investors such as:-
- TPG Growth
- International Finance Corp
- Adveq Management
- Ratan Tata
- S Gopalakrishnan
- Azim Premji
- SoftBank
- Kedaara Capital
- Unilazer Ventures
- IFC Venture Capital
Revenues – In 2020 Lenskart generated revenues of more than Rs 1000 crores.
Acquisitions – Lenskart has so far made 4 investments into other startups. These startups are as follows:-
- Ditto
- 6over6
- ThinOptics
- Tango Eye
Apart from investments and acquisitions, they also have subsidiary brands named Vincent Chase & John Jacobs. Vincent Chase serves them as a fast fashion brand whereas John Jacobs is more like a boutique brand.
Controversies – Lenskart is a decent brand and is mostly found out of any controversies but during the 2015 India-Nepal earthquake, it was in the middle of a huge controversy. In 2015, when massive tremors rocked India and Nepal, e-retailer Lenskart sought to make the natural disaster into a promotional event by asking the customers to “shake it off” like the earthquake by buying its sunglasses.
Outrage on the social media, however, forced the company to retract the campaign and apologize for the “error.” As the figures and details of massive loss of lives and property were still trickling in, Lenskart sent out promotional SMS-es that read: “Shake it off like this Earthquake: Get any Vincent Chase Sunglasses up to ₹ 3,000 for FLAT ₹ 500, by sending invites to 50 friends….”
The campaign created a massive backlash soon as netizens took to social networks like Facebook and Twitter to lambast the company with hashtag #ShameonLenskart. Later, the company sent out another SMS apologising for the “accidental choice of words“. “We apologise for the accidental choice of words in our SMS. Our intention was not to hurt anyone’s feelings. We are extremely sorry for this error – Lenskart Team,” the new message said.
Present Conditions & Future Goals – As of now Lenskart also provides users with the ability to have a 3D try on where people can see themselves wearing glasses in their own 3D avatar. This cool feature was introduced to let online shoppers see how they look while having specific glasses on their face virtually.
In order to boost their profitability Lenskart opened a fully owned manufacturing facility in 2017 which enabled them to be in control of the entire process and precisely manage their operations. Its manufacturing facility in Delhi manufactures 300,000 glasses a month. Lenskart also has a factory in Zhengzhou (China) which manufactures about 50% of the production. Lenskart invested more than Rs 60 crores to setup a manufacturing and warehousing facility in Manesar.
The manufacturing facility gives Lenskart the ability to control the shape, thickness, size and uniformity of the lenses produced in house. According to the founders, they wanted to have presence in both offline as well as online space as they wanted to connect with the customers on all platforms. They believe if they want to build the biggest eyewear brand in India, then it’s necessary.
In 2017, Lenskart had planned for an IPO in 2020 but it has not been the case for them. As of 2021, there is no sight of an IPO by them. Due to covid-19, they might had avoided to have an IPO themselves but if their business operations and revenues resume to pre covid levels, then they might have an IPO in the near future just like many other unicorns that are expected to have an IPO like Zomato, Paytm or Oyo.
Conclusion – With everything that we just talked about, Lenskart do seems to become the lens of India. They have the necessary funding, they have the manufacturing facility, they have the brand ambassadors, they have the online as well as the offline outlets, they have the vision, the drive and the right co-founders to take the company to the next level.
But why do they wanna do it? Because they have more than 50% of the market share in the eyewear segment and they also know how to cater to a young audience that is tech savvy and will embrace the change which Lenskart wants them to embrace and adapt.
