Lenskart.com was founded in November 2010 by Peyush Bansal. Lenskart raised its first round of funding from IDG Ventures India (IDGVI) in 2011. IDGVI invested around INR22 crore (US$3.6 million) in Valyoo Technologies, the parent company of Lenskart.com. In February 2013, Unilazer Ventures invested around Rs. 30 crores in their first ever e-commerce portfolio. Lenskart has used the funding to invest in expansion to smaller towns and cities, build offline franchisees and range development.[citation needed] It has 7 offline franchise owned stores under the brand name ‘Lenskart’ in Chandigarh, Pune, Agartala, Delhi and Goa. Lenskart plans to set up 100 retail stores across India to strengthen its offline presence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenskart
2. What is Lenskart?
Lenskart is an e-commerce company
India’s leading online shopping portal for eyewear
Products range from a large selection of eyeglasses, sunglasses
and contact lenses
Founded by Peyush Bansal in 2010, with the headquarters in
New Delhi, India
Valyoo Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is the parent company of Lenskart
Delivering their products to 450 cities across India
In the last 3 years, Lenskart has seen a remarkable growth with
300% increase in its turnover.
Employee strength currently stands at 150.
4. The brain behind Lenskart..
Peyush Bansal is the founder of
Lenskart. He obtained a degree in
Bachelor of Engineering from McGill
University in Canada, after which he
worked as a Program Manager at
Microsoft in America.
A year later, he returned to India to
pursue his Post-Graduate diploma in
Management for Executives from
IIM, Bangalore.
In 2008, he set up Valyoo Technologies
with SearchMyCampus as the first
business portal.
In 2010, Lenskart, a first of its kind
online shopping portal for eyewear
came into existence.
5. A look back..
• In 2007, Peyush Bansal saw an opportunity in the
reservations of students in India & developed
searchmycampus.com. A classified site for students that
went beyond accommodation to books, part-time jobs,
carpool facilities and internship opportunities.
• Although searchmycampus.com was a hit, Bansal ventured
into the e-commerce world. He launched Flyrr.com. An
online shopping portal, based in the U.S, which exclusively
sold eyewear.
6. All about Lenskart..
After the success of searchmycampus.com &
Flyrr.com, Bansal wanted to test the waters of the
Indian e-commerce scenario.
In November 2010, Lenskart came into existence.
Initially, Lenskart started off by selling contact
lenses only.
A couple of months later, eyeglasses were included
and in March 2011 sunglasses were added.
7. Funding..
Lenskart has so far secured two rounds of VC funding.
Raised its first round of funding of INR 22 crore (U.S
$3.6 million) from IDG Ventures India in 2011.
In February 2013, Unilazer Ventures invested INR 30
crores in their first e-commerce portfolio.
9. Key features of Lenskart..
Providing a platform where people can order from a huge
variety of sunglasses, eyeglasses and contact lenses.
Lenskart.com offers over 5,000 frames & glasses, and more
than 45 kinds of high-quality lenses.
With an array of eyewear brands like Ray-Ban, Oakley, Tag
Heuer, Fastrack, Johnson & Johnson, Bausch & Lomb etc.
Lenskart introduced a home eye check-up program in
December 2013. This program is currently offered by
Lenskart in 11 major cities in India.
10. Providing the best experience
Not age specific – Lenskart offers products that are suitable for
all age groups.
Provides a large selection of eyewear to choose from.
Detailed descriptions and specifications of the products on the
website.
Products are priced reasonably.
Offers discounts and attractive deals.
Convenient payment options where one can choose to pay online
or opt for Cash-on-delivery (CoD).
No questions asked return policy.
11. Providing the best experience (cont.)
The products at
Lenskart go through
stringent quality
checks to ensure
that there are no
defects.
The lenses & frames
are brought together
by the dexterous
fitting team.
After the eyewear are
thoroughly checked
& fitted, they are
packed carefully &
then shipped.
12. The challenges..
“Who wants to buy contact lenses or glasses online?” –
one of the most frequently asked question.
Lenskart’s aim is to address the knowledge gap
between the customers and their eyewear products.
With that in mind, the online-offline divide will slowly
disintegrate.
Moreover, the touch-and-feel segment is no longer a
threat to e-commerce portals.
13. The challenges (cont.)..
But many people are still reluctant to buy eyewear products
online. In order to address this, Lenskart has been offering
various schemes/deals to tackle the issue.
1. ‘First Frame Free’ – where customers will only have
to pay for the lens on their first purchase.
2. ‘Try At Home’ – where customers can choose a
maximum of 5 frames & try them at home before
making a final purchase.
14. Lenskart goes offline..
Lenskart’s vision of providing clear vision to all Indians has
gone a step ahead now with the offline stores.
Lenskart has 23 stores today in different cities.
The stores are present in Delhi, Chandigarh, Pune, Mumbai,
Bangalore, Mangalore, Nagpur, Goa, Ahmedabad,
Vishakhapatnam, Hyderabad & Panaji.
Not restricting itself to the metros, Lenskart has opened the
franchise stores small towns such as Agartala, Teensukia,
Kolhapur & Sangli.
15. Lenskart goes offline..
Not like a conventional optical store.
With modern wooden structures & zero counters.
Clutter free display of eyewear.
Equipped with touch-screens to access the full collection on
lenskart.com.
Free eye check-up by a trained optometrist.
By the end of 2014, Lenskart plans to set up 100 stores pan
India.