Essilor buys EyeBuyDirect.com – Interview with Essilor Canada president

Thursday, May 16 2013 | 00 h 00 min | News

Essilor has acquired a majority stake in EyeBuyDirect.com, a leading online optical retailer with a presence in the United States, China, and Hong Kong.

In 2010, Essilor acquired a majority stake in FramesDirect.com. The French giant then relied on FramesDirect to start up the MyOnlineOptical.com platform in the United States, offering eyecare professionals a tool to create an online retail business for themselves.

Marc Tersigni, president of Essilor Canada, explains that his company bought EyeBuyDirect.com to relaunch the platform, enabling eyecare professionals who use it to compete in the e-commerce arena, where a tough price war is raging.

The platform is not available yet in Canada. “Before launching such a product here, we want to make sure that it will be well received by our clients and is compliant with Canadian legislation, which is different from U.S. legislation,” explains Marc Tersigni. “We think that the platform may be the right vehicle to encourage sales growth for eyecare professionals. However, our priority is still to support the establishment of storefront practices and to ensure Canadian patients receive the best possible care,” he adds.