Eyewear e-commerce start-up sets its sights on regional expansion

Inspired to provide both an online and offline experience to people who want to buy affordable prescription glasses and sunglasses, Prinda Pracharktam late last year set up www.glazziq.com – an e-commerce start-up that sells eyewear to support “next generation” consumers’ lifestyles.

Prinda Pracharktam, chief executive officer of www.glazziq.com, said she and her friends aimed to enhance the eyewear-purchasing experience by providing high-quality products at revolutionary prices, and by also offering customers both online and offline benefits.  

“We are the first eyewear e-commerce store that is able to provide our customers with high-quality products at prices starting from Bt1,990. All Glazziq glasses are uniquely designed by our team and our collaboration with overseas designers to serve the Asian market.

“We work closely with factories to manufacture our own eyewear frames and partner with global a lens manufacturer that does OEM [original-equipment manufacturing] for overseas markets, to ensure that we are able to offer high-quality frames and lenses to our customers at competitive prices,” she explained.

Prinda said her team also utilised social media in creating a community of people who like styled glasses and sunglasses, and made sure to create engaging lifestyle content, thus enhancing the browsing experience.

Potential customers can easily navigate the website, which offers a choice of more than 170 frames, and then select three of them to try at home. 

The site then will deliver the frames to customers at home, for which it charges a deposit of Bt300, which be returned as a full credit, she said, adding that once they have finished their trial, customers can simply drop off the frames at any 7-Eleven store around the country.

Moreover, customers can get their eyes tested for free and a prescription issued at any of over 100 Better Vision – or Hor Wan – eyewear stores nationwide.

The prescription will then be automatically put into the www.glazziq.com system for matching with the order, and sent directly to the factory where the frames and lens will be assembled and despatched to the buyer’s home address.

Customers will receive the finished products within five to 10 days of their prescription entering the system, the CEO said.

Prinda said the current shopping experience for glasses was complicated, time-consuming and expensive, with many branded glasses monopolised by a few players who controlled selling prices for most of the market. 

Customers feel pressure and have a hard time navigating what is on offer when they visit traditional retail stores, hence the website has created a solution that disrupts the traditional retail model by providing customers with high-quality products at reasonable prices by working directly with the factory, a great browsing experience through high-quality content supported by a free eye examination, and after-sales service through our optical retail partner, she said.

The website, launched last December, has already grown to more than 100 orders being placed monthly. 

The company plans to expand to Malaysia and Singapore next year, with the eventual goal of becoming one of the largest eyewear e-commerce operators across Southeast Asia and Asia-Pacific, the chief executive said.

She added that growing up with entrepreneurial parents, she always knew that she wanted to be an entrepreneur herself.

“I am an only child and my father is my ultimate role model, both in terms of working ethics and leadership style,” she added.