Blog: Jamie Murray-Wells talks glasses trends and Specsavers

who said glasses shouldn't be fashionable

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If you thought online spectacle retailers traded merely on price think again. Glasses Direct, one of the first internet businesses to take on high street opticians, wants customers to buy glasses like they buy shoes – who said glasses shouldn't be fashionable?

I spoke to Glasses Direct founder Jamie Murray-Wells about customers designing their own glasses, keeping up with high street fashion trends and partnership deals.

Styleshake.com allows users to design and buy garments online. When will your customers be able to design their own glasses?
Absolutely – without a doubt that is where we are headed in the future. We're always looking for ways to offer something unique but it's important to us that new services represent great value so we'd need to work hard on building a custom manufacturing process to support it, but that's just a matter of time.

How is your selection process managed? Are you buying in accordance with fashion trends or going for more classic styles?
A combination of both. As glasses have become more fashionable, new designs have begun to mirror the fashion seasons with fresh styles coming out as often as every three months. Just as shops like H&M and Zara have made high fashion accessible at everyday prices, we're aiming to bring the same fun and affordability to glasses.

In addition, we'll be working with more and more designer brands to bring them within reach of more glasses wearers.

It's important that our range reflects fashion trends but also that classic designs are covered. We find customers keep coming back to get their favourite model in a new colour.

You've done a co-brand website with OK! Magazine, are there any others on the horizon?
Now that more and more people are buying glasses online every day, any consumer brand can now effectively compete with high street opticians such as Specsavers.

We can help them do that, and to generate incremental revenue as we have built tried and tested systems and processes that are able to support blue chip retailers demands – we are really one of a kind in that respect.

Right now, we're talking to selected retailers and on the lookout for others, and expect to be in a position to announce further partnerships shortly.