Disrupting the Eyewear Industry: What’s Behind Specscart’s Success?
By Space Coast Daily // August 8, 2022
It all started way back in 2017 when a broken pair of glasses proved to be the initial spark behind the idea of Specscart – a Manchester-based brand that is now one of the fastest-growing eyewear companies in the UK.
After Sid Sethi—Specscart’s founder—broke his only pair of prescription glasses a day before his semester exams, the story that follows is an inspirational one for all young entrepreneurs.
Sid hurried to the Manchester City Centre and walked from one store to the other looking for an emergency pair. Every time he wished to try on a pair, he had to ask the store staff to help him out as glasses were locked behind thick glass panes.
After going through this not-so-facilitative experience, his search for a satisfactory pair of prescription glasses still did not come to an end. He had no other option but to settle with a high-priced pair. Even then the frames arrived after his semester exams were over.
Plugging the gaps in the eyewear market
Reflecting on his experience in the high street stores that day, Sid came up with the idea of Specscart. With a revolutionary vision of changing the way glasses are perceived, the business model of Specscart would revolve around plugging the gaps in the eyewear market. But what were these gaps?
The then student and a budding entrepreneur had identified three major problems that needed to be addressed by Specscart – high prices, poor customer experience, and high turnaround time.
An award-winning pitch that Sid prepared for the Albert Gubay Award gave Specscart the initial push with a free rental space in Walkden, along with prize money.
Truly changing the way glasses are perceived
Today, Specscart is one of the fastest-growing startups in the UK with three brick-and-mortar retail stores spread across the Manchester region and a flourishing e-commerce website where you can buy glasses online. Read on to know how this rapidly growing eyewear company has solved the three major problems that it set out to address.
A Frame For Every Game
Specscart believes that glasses are one of the most intimate fashion accessories you can own. It wants to make eyeglasses fast-moving yet sustainable, helping people to own different pairs for different occasions and outfits. It makes this possible by offering quality pairs at pocket-friendly prices, so that buying multiple pairs is not at all a burden on your pockets.
A Frame For Every Game is a lot more than Specscart’s tagline. This is how it has addressed the problem of high prices that Sid had identified during his glasses buying experience.
Customer satisfaction over transactions
Specscart has been lauded extensively for its customer experience and this is very much evident if you read its review page. It has built a community of happy customers who have a crucial role to play in its exceptional growth story.
When you walk into any of the Specscart stores, it’s like entering a fashion retailer or a sneaker store but with a warm, family-like environment. The helpful Specscart team works in tandem to make an amazing customer experience a possibility.
Specscart set out to address the problem of poor customer experience and it has been doing exceptionally well here.
Specscart Rocket
The one-of-a-kind free 24 hour dispatch is a fast, efficient, and innovative service launched by Specscart to address the third problem of high turnaround time of glasses. Most of the orders placed at Specscart are dispatched within 24 hours.
Specscart’s headquarters in Bury houses a state-of-the-art in-house laboratory where lenses are glazed. It also maintains the largest bank of stock lenses in the UK. This has made it possible for Specscart to cut down the turnaround time of glasses significantly. 30 minutes – this is the glazing time of lenses for all single vision orders (excluding the ones with a complex prescription or advanced lenses) at Specscart.
In just five years of its existence, Specscart has established itself in the UK eyewear markets and with ongoing expansion, it is certain that big things are in store for Specscart in the future.
