Lenskart

Lenskart.com

Type of site	Private
Founded	2010
Headquarters	New Delhi, India
Area served	India
Founder(s)	Peyush Bansal, Amit Chaudhary, Sumeet Kapahi
Industry	Internet
Products	Sunglasses, Eyeglasses, Contact Lenses
Services	E-Commerce (Online Shopping)
Employees	1000+
Parent	Lenskart
Slogan(s)	Log On ! Play On.
Website	www.lenskart.com

Lenskart.com is an Indian eyewear online portal founded by Peyush Bansal, Amit Chaudhary and Sumeet Kapahi in November 2010.^[1] The company objective is to offer disruptive and one of its kind services to the consumers. The product range contains prescription eyeglasses, sunglasses and contact lenses.^[1] The company’s offline stores are spread across 110 cities as per end of 2016. Lenskart currently operates 250 stores where customers can either buy, pickup their order or get it home delivered. The company is planning to expand to 400 stores by 2016-end.^[2]

Lenskart is valued at about Rs. 1700 Crore ($250 Million) as per September 2016^[3]

History

Peyush Bansal (CEO & Founder), Amit Chaudhary (Co-founder) and Sumeet Kapahi (Co-founder) launched Lenskart in October 2010 with a vision to “create value using Internet” and today this unique venture of selling eyewear online has become a huge success.^[4] At a time when people were just wondering whether they would buy anything other than books online, this trio managed to sell eyewear online.

Since the beginning of the brand, the aim has been to figure out problems and solve them in the most unique and creative way possible.

Fund Raising

In September 2016, Eyewear retailer Lenskart Solutions Pvt. Ltd raised funding from PremjiInvest, the private investment arm of Wipro Ltd chairman Azim Premji.^[5] Premji joins other Indian corporate leaders like Ratan Tata, Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan and Ronnie Screwvala as investors in Lenskart Previously,^[6] the company raised $4 million in its first round of funding in 2011 from IDG Ventures.^[7] A year later, Lenskart brought in media veteran-turned-investor Ronnie Screwvala’s Unilazer Ventures on board as it secured another $10 million. In 2015, it raised Rs 135 crore in a Series C round led by private equity firm TPG Capital,^[8] Hong Kong-based TR Capital and IDG Ventures.

Offline Presence

Lenskart introduced its first franchisee store in Chandigarh on January 28, 2014.^[9] The company has 250 stores from where customers can book products and pick up later from the store or get these home delivered.^[10] The stores are not only in Metros like Delhi & Mumbai but even cities and towns like Shimoga, Dharmapuri, Rourkela, Devangere, Patna etc. The company is investing Rs. 60 crore to set up a lens manufacturing factory in Greater Noida as per August 2015.^[11]

Key features & technology

Lenskart has innovated itself over the years and have come out as service innovators:

• Made by robots: Lenskart is India's first and the only brand to use robotic technique that delivers glasses which are accurate to 3 decimal places. These machines imported from Germany, ensure perfection on all front: an automated system that allows to inspect lenses, determine the geometric center, and load the lenses for edging without the need of a finishing block^[12]
• 3D Try On: You can try 1000’s of frames in 3D on your face
• Home Trial: In December 2013, Lenskart introduced a home check-up program. Book an appointment and their certified optometrist will visit a prospective customer at home/office who will also carry over 100 frames with them. It’s as easy as booking a cab, Book it through the app or website
• Try it before you buy it: You can choose from thousands of styles online and select up to 5 frames to try at home. Lenskart will send someone to your house for a free trail

Business Model

Lenskart follows an inventory-based business model.^[13] Various styles and brands are available on the website as well as the store.^[14] The online retailer ships close to 1,20,000 orders a month,The company makes more than 5,000 spectacles a day, and plans to raise it to 30,000 as per March 2016.^[15] In March 2016 NDTV reported that Lenskart sees 2 lakh visitors on its platform every day, and ships between 800-900 glasses a day from its facility in Okhla in Delhi.^[16]

Revenue

As per September 2016, Lenskart had annualised revenue run rate of over Rs 350 crore, with a target of reaching Rs 2,500 crore in the next four years. It expects offline channels to contribute to 50% of the revenues in the next two years. The company's current gross merchandise value is around Rs 300 crore. By 2021, the company plans to have a GMV of around Rs 2500 crore. Overall, the company has grown by 150% in the last one year.^[17]

Awards & Recognition

• Lenskart’s e-mail marketing campaign was included in the "honorable mention" in the "Create and Design - E-commerce" category at Marketing Sherpa Email Awards 2014^[18]
• Peyush Bansal, Founder & CEO; Lenskart.com was one of the most searched businessmen of the year in 2014^[19]
• Valyoo Technologies won The Red Herring Top 100 Asia Award 2012^[20]

References

1. Pani, Priyanka (24 February 2014). "Eyewear selling redefined". The Hindu Business Line. Retrieved 24 February 2014.
2. "Online to Offline". Outlook Business. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
3. Biswarup Gooptu, Madhav Chanchani. "PremjiInvest is eyeing a stake in Lenskart now - The Economic Times". The Economic Times. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
4. Sarkar, Ranju (13 August 2016). "Lenskart: Growing a category by improving access | Business Standard News". business standard. Retrieved 22 May 2016.
5. Desikan, Aparna. "Lenskart raises funding from Premji Invest - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
6. "Lenskart raises Rs 400 crore from IFC, Ratan Tata". The Hindu. 4 May 2016. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
7. "IDG - News: Press Releases 2011". idgvcindia.com. Retrieved 31 October 2011.
8. Sahay, Priyanka. "Lenskart raises $22M in Series C round from TPG, TR Capital, IDG; valued at $100M". vccircle.com. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
9. "Lenskart.com makes a debut in Chandigarh". news.franchiseindia.com. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
10. Jain, Varun. "With expansion in mind, Lenskart appoints top level executives - The Economic Times". The Economic Times. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
11. Jain, Varun. "Lenskart to invest Rs 60 crore to set up a new facility - The Economic Times". The Economic Times. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
12. "Lenskart.com - Zero Error Specs , Made by Robots". 15 December 2015. Retrieved 22 November 2016.
13. Nautiyal, Rohit (23 June 2014). "Lenskart has one of the lowest return rates in the industry: Peyush Bansal". Business Standard India. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
14. Abbey, Nitin. "Online-to-Offline (O2O), a step toward Omni-channel". Franchise India. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
15. Choudhury, Karan. "The Smart Investor". smartinvestor.business-standard.com. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
16. Sathe, Gopal. "From a Click, to Your Face - How Buying Glasses Online Works". NDTV Gadgets360.com. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
17. Biswarup Gooptu, Madhav Chanchani. "PremjiInvest invests about Rs 200 crore in eyewear portal Lenskart - The Economic Times". The Economic Times. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
18. "Lenskarts Email Marketing Campaign Powered by netCORE Gets Recognized at MarketingSherpa Email Awards 2014". Retrieved November 12, 2013.
19. Sankaran, Krishnan. "Successful Indian Business leaders under Forty - Peyush Bansal". itimes.com. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
20. "Valyoo Technologies wins The Red Herring Top 100 Asia Award 2012". afaqs.com. Retrieved 14 September 2012.