Warby Parker gifted with a 40% lift in holiday traffic
Balance sheets were reading particularly well for two major eyewear retailers at the close of 2023.
Warby Parker, the digitally native brand that entered brick-and-mortar in 2013, and discount chain America’s Best Contacts & Eyeglasses both saw substantial year-over-year traffic increases in each of the past five months.
According to a new report from foot traffic analytics provider Placer.ai, Warby Parker scored a remarkable 40% YoY lift in December. America’s Best saw more modest, though still substantial, gains. Its highest bump of 12% was recorded in September 2023.
Across its 250 locations in 38 states, Warby Parker has seen the median household income of its customers decrease, according to Placer.ai, signaling that a wider variety of shoppers are visiting the retailer. Over the same period, the median household income of the brand’s captured market continued to climb, which indicates that Warby Parker has been successful at reaching well-to-do audiences even within its newer, more economically diverse markets, according to Placer.ai.
America’s Best, which operates more than 900 stores in the United States, serves a lower household income demographic that is more price-conscious. The median household income of the chain’s captured market in the fourth quarter of 2023 was $66,200 – 4.7% below the nationwide median of $69,500. In the retailer’s three largest regional markets, Texas, Florida, and California, the chain’s captured median household income in each of these states is also lower than the relevant statewide baseline.
Nationwide, the share of singles and individuals from large households in America’s Best’s captured market is just slightly above nationwide baselines. In California, however, the share of large households in America’s Best’s captured market is 21.0%, a number much higher than the statewide baseline of 16.5%, while the share of singles falls below the state’s baseline of 23.2%.
(Placer.ai defines a chain’s captured market by weighting the census blog groups (CBGs) in its trade area according to the share of visitors from each CBG – thus mirroring the characteristics of the chain’s actual visitor base).
“Digital try-on and easy returns have made online glasses shopping a viable option for many consumers,” wrote Placer.ai’s Lil Margalit. “But the continued offline success of Warby Parker and America’s Best shows that there’s still plenty of demand for brick-and-mortar eyewear stores – discount and higher-end alike.”
The full report can be found here.