8 minute read
E-commerce
Hydramed.shop A win-win scenario
www.hydramed.shop is an innovative e-commerce site that supports independent practices by cutting them in to the sale, writes Ellie Jarman
It has long been established that the majority of mild to moderate dry eye sufferers buy their drops from all sorts of outlets – and rarely via their optician. It is estimated that the optometric sector has about a five per cent share of the overthe-counter market, which is valued at around £80-100m at retail (excluding the similarly sized prescriptions market).
On the one hand, this is a depressing fact but, as some practices who buck this trend can testify, there’s a great profit opportunity for High Street optometry to target. The perennial frustration to the optical sector is the fact that many products like contact lenses, eye drops and supplements, that are originally prescribed and/or recommended by eyecare practitioners, end up being purchased elsewhere. Increasingly, this is online.
A significant and important development during lockdown was that people almost totally relied on the internet for buying things outside of their weekly shop. If the internet genie wasn’t completely out of the bottle for optics before lockdown, then I think it’s fair to say that it is now. Many patients, perhaps believing their practice to be closed, have searched online for fresh supplies of ancillary products and discovered that, in addition to the convenience of home delivery, many brands seem much cheaper than on the High Street.
It still puzzles us as to why so many practices continue support manufacturers who flood the internet and, for that matter supermarkets and pharmacies, with their products. Perhaps more concerning is just how many eye drop companies actually have a direct-to-consumer sales website –effectively biting the practitioners’ hands that feed them.
E-COMMERCE WITH A DIFFERENCE It is against this background that Positive Impact (PI) has launched hydramed.shop –a new and innovative way to support independent practitioners and their patients in receiving HydraMed eyedrops to their home. This new consumer website is an e-commerce platform with a difference, HydraMed: unique HA and is unique and TSP formula in supporting the business of our independent customers who recommend HydraMed.
The website’s USP comes from allowing the patient to buy online without cutting out the practice from the sale. When ordering HydraMed via the website, the consumer enters a unique code provided to them by their practitioner. This code enables the patient to get access to special offers and free delivery. Additionally, the code is a unique identifier for the patient’s practice, thus guaranteeing the practice receives a share of the transaction value.
As well as meaning the patient isn’t forced to either travel to the practice or, for convenience, resort to purchasing elsewhere, this model ensures that we don’t cut out the source of the original HydraMed recommendation. We feel this novel alternative approach is the classic win-win scenario.
Consequently, this website turns the conventional stock-in-trade model on its head. It allows the patient to order their supplies immediately they need them, 24/7, whilst the practice generates revenue just as if they had sold the product themselves, without ever having to buy the stock. Of course, we would recommend that the practice continues to hold a small stock for patients to purchase their initial supply, as well as to repurchase when they’re in town.
Ellie Jarman is digital marketing coordinator at Positive Impact.
Keeping the practice in the sales loop
A WEBSITE WITH A CONSCIENCE
Hydramed.shop is a direct-to-consumer website with a commercial conscience. It provides your patients with the convenience of buying HydraMed online, with free home delivery, whilst the practice receives reimbursement on every sale. There are three order sizes: three, six or nine months (excluding any additional free promotional items).
How it works • Recommend HydraMed to your patient and sell (or sample) them their preferred format from stock • We give you a unique practice code and a pack of HydraMed.shop
‘business’ cards • Write the unique practice identifying code on one of the HydraMed.shop cards and give it to your patient • When patients buy on the site, they simply enter your unique practice code at checkout to get free delivery • The practice receives a monthly statement showing all the patients who ordered using the practice code • The practice receives the total rebate owed
Practice benefits • The practice receives a cash rebate on every website sale • Reduces cash tied up in stock • Reduces the likelihood of your patient searching out other online retailers
Patient benefits • Home delivery of three, six or nine months’ supply • Order when they need to 24/7 • Free delivery with code from their ECP • Ideal when patients can’t get into the practice e.g., during the current pandemic, or when they live far away
In 2019, we saw radical lifestyle shifts around the world towards improved sustainability, with the fashion industry making some of the greatest strides. Quoted recently in Vogue, Livia Firth, founder of the Green Carpet Challenge - a project that aims to raise the profile of sustainability and social welfare via celebrities - stated “There has been so much building up to this: many years of campaigning for a more sustainable and just fashion industry ...the plastic movement, the Greta Thunberg effect, these are all pieces of a giant puzzle, which is getting clearer and clearer”. And this year's dramatic effects of the global lockdowns have shown us that if we take action now, the Venician canals can remain crystal-clear, the New Delhi skylines can remain visible and bees can thrive again, with wildflowers blooming in record numbers and pollinating for longer.
Recognising now is the time to take the climate crisis seriously, and with the optical industry sitting firmly inside today’s cutting-edge fashion arena, Eyespace founders, Jayne and Julie Abel felt it imperative to contribute to the growing global movements for positive change affecting both people and our planet: “Considering most of us upgrade our spectacles once every two years, the eyewear industry is an undeniable and persistent consumer of plastic. Whilst frames themselves are not single-use, frame bags, packaging and demo lenses are prime examples of disposable plastics that pose a serious problem for the environment. We feel an increasing responsibility to ensure today’s frame-wearers have sustainable, environmentallyconscious and compromise-free eyewear choices available to them - and by that we also mean a choice that remains easily accessible and affordable to the majority of patients."
This step-up in efforts has resulted in the brand new ECO Conscious eyewear collection; offering opticians and their patients - especially those in search of social and ecological change - an effortless solution that adds to the growing ripples of environmental revolution. After meticulous research Eyespace collaborated with an industry leading manufacturer whose company ethos and practices aligned with their wishlist of envirocredentials and traceability and the award-winning company proudly unveiled ECO Conscious during 100% Optical, receiving an extraordinary reception from visitors discovering the products for the first time and who fully embraced the mood for change. The debut collection of 18 pieces is loaded with positive fashion and environmental endorsements, providing a win-win for the wearer. The innovative bio-acetate material is from a completely renewable source and, setting it apart from regular acetate, is formulated with natural, non-toxic plasticisers. In addition, demo lenses are optical-grade and fully biodegradable. With no difference to colours or textures - bio-based acetates maintain the same premium look and feel as standard acetates - Eyespace have not compromised on frame design and their signature, awardwinning attention to quality and intricate detail is ever-present. Eyeshapes are unapologetically fashionable and highly wearable, with the collection loaded with doses of fashion attitude and bold bursts of trend-led colour. Unique to the collection, features include laser etched core wires, custom-made pin detailing and bespoke hinges.
To add to the environmental tick-list, throughout the fullyaudited manufacturing process, factory water is not wasted, instead being recycled and redistributed to benefit other local industries, such as agriculture. Practicing entirely what they preach, Eyespace have also eliminated all plastic elements from the ECO Conscious collection's packaging and merchandising materials, replacing them with FSC-accredited, biodegradable and recyclable card-based assets that are printed with vegetable inks. Where possible, the company now also carbon offsets production through World Land Trust ™ . Committed to eliminating as many single-use plastics as they can across the entirety of their business, Eyespace have introduced a series of sustainability initiatives that will gradually move them into an even more socially-conscious position, including the sole use of biodegradable frame bags and packaging, upcycling and recycling waste, using only FSC certified papers and cards and working towards fully carbon-neutral output.
These are all trademarks one would expect from leaders in their field, but there is still a lot more to be done, as Jayne expands, “Our youngest children and their generation recognise that we each have an individual responsibility to protect the planet; their awareness and passion has instilled in us a desire to embed sustainable thinking into Eyespace's DNA. Global temperatures continue to rise, causing a devastating chain reaction of environmental damage across the world, so we must react now to safeguard our future. Trees are vital to our ecosystem, lowering temperatures, releasing oxygen and removing air pollutants including carbon dioxide, dust and other toxins. Minimising the carbon footprint of our manufacturing is an area of primary focus with ECO Conscious so for every frame purchased we will make a donation to the reforestation charity ‘One Tree Planted’ meaning through this collection and its supporting initiatives we can truly make a difference together”.
