Teamwork, timing and key relationships with people and companies supplying stock are all integral to getting the most out of your frames collection, for the customer and the business.
When it comes to optimising your frames stock, rotating your inventory and getting your practice cranking, two heads are better than one.
Teamwork in the store and building a trusting relationship with suppliers are key to success, say a number of industry professionals.
Dr Katherine Duong, co-owner and optometrist at Theia Optical in Five Dock, Sydney, keeps a close eye on the frame stock and selections, but advice from customers, colleagues and her suppliers is vital to helping build a better and more profitable picture.
She started the greenfield independent practice about three years ago with business partner Dr Anna Tang. It was one of the few good things to come out of COVID, especially after both were “let go” from their optometry roles as the global pandemic spread and lockdowns started to bite into businesses.
“But COVID allowed us to realign our goals, and really forced us to work on them. That’s when we decided to start our own practice, where it would be located, and what we wanted to specialise in.”
The demographic in their area is largely European, and features a big Italian community. They have a predominantly older clientele, with conservative tastes in eyewear.
Quality and good brands are important, but they don’t like anything that’s “too loud in terms of branding and logos” or with colour or style.
Cost is not a key concern, despite ongoing worries about consumer rising prices and their impact on spending across Australia.
“We’re a boutique clinic catering to mid- to high-end eyewear,” says Duong, “so when people come into our store they don’t expect the cheapest frames.”
There is the odd person wanting to re-use their frames and simply replace the lenses, but that has not been a concern “because we always encourage patients to have a really good quality frame that they can actually reuse”.
As part of the work to maintain that quality and meet their market, Dr Duong and her team keep a close eye on their stock and whether there are gaps in price points and brands.
“We try not to duplicate too much and make sure that we have a large range,” she says. “We also consider what is our best seller, what type of designs tend to sell better, whether it aligns with our target audience.”
They try to keep their stock as fresh as possible, with the support of a regular “aged stock report” generated by Sunix.
“It’s one of the patient management systems, but essentially it allows us to review stock that is older than 12 months, or things that don’t sell well,” says Duong. “So we’re able to clear this stock more regularly, so that our range is always fresh.”
Rotation of stock depends on the brand.
“If it’s quite popular and sells quite quickly, I find that we don’t need to rotate it as much. But if there’s a brand that’s a little bit more stagnant, then it’s just something that we need to focus on and try to work with the supplier to try to have frames that are maybe more appealing to our demographic.”
Dr Duong is heavily involved in frame selection and rotation but she also leans on the store’s optical dispenser and other staff.
“They tell me, ‘Oh, we might be missing stuff from this particular brand, we probably need a bit of a top-up.’”
The relationship with their supplier is also vital.
“When we first opened our store, we didn’t know what the target demographic would really want, so having that support of the supplier, and also flexibility, really helped us in the beginning.”
Those relationships have endured and helped the store succeed.
“We’ve worked with suppliers that allowed us to say, ‘OK, this is not working for our demographic. Let’s be flexible and switch it out.’”
That’s a win for both store and supplier, “because we have more popular frames on the shelf and that means we’re both able to make more sales”.
Even better if that strong, trusted relationship is with a supplier carrying a good number of brands.
“It allows you to negotiate things like discounts and marketing material better; it also reduces all of our freight costs, and also allows us to have a bit more marketing support, in terms of things like window decals and different display frames.”
She’s a “little more wary” about working with suppliers who are strict on the numbers and inflexible on the store’s rotation practices.
As part of that rotation, less popular frames are “phased out” and possibly exchanged with other more suitable brands in the supplier’s portfolio.
Putting this all together is important to retain customers and grow business, she says.
“You don’t want to do an eye test and they come out and they can’t find anything that they want, and then they say, ‘Oh, I’ll come back later when I find something that I like’.”
Teaming up for success
Frame selection and stock rotation is even more of a team responsibility at Horsfalls Optometrists, a long-established company with seven optometrists among a staff of 18 across two stores in Echuca and Kyabram in Victoria.
Practice manager Ms Jess Bussell does a lot of the backroom work to support those more customer-facing staff.
Inventory, pricing and managing that stock rotation are key parts of the job.
As a regional practice, the business sees plenty of trickier eye conditions that metro operations might not, and the customer base is largely older and retired, with a regular influx of holiday-makers.
“You’ve got the stereotypical person who’s grown up in the country their whole lives, the farmer who needs something pretty-much bulletproof,” she says. “And then we have people who are that little bit more out there in terms of what they want to have on their face all of the time, and we have a lot of fun with it.”
That means having to carry a number of different, sometimes ‘boutique’ frames.
In putting together that in-store collection, the staff do plenty of their own research.
“We take a lot of interest if our patients are struggling to find something in our stores, and what is it that we are missing and getting some feedback, or if there’s a particular brand that’s going really well – why do they love that one? What’s so good about it?” says Bussell.
“But also making sure we’ve got our price points covered across the range.”
Involving the team is important, she says. It creates buy-in.
“We get our team actively involved in selecting our frames and go to trade shows and things like that to have a look at what brands, what suppliers, what demographics we want to cover.
“We find the ownership of having participated in it increases the likelihood of that frame getting sold. If they don’t like it, they won’t sell it.”
Sometimes that research extends to inviting regular customers along when reps are visiting the store, and having those clients pick from the whole range, rather than just the frames the staff pick.
“That’s something that an independent optometry practice can do, that the corporates can’t.”
Practice management systems help to give a good overview of what stock looks like; that picture is built up further by the feedback from patients and staff, and regular visits to conferences and trade shows.
And then, every couple of months, the staff will do its own stocktake, not only on what it has on the shelves but also the service it is getting from suppliers.
“A lot of our team are really good at gut feel, they know which displays they haven’t gone to for a while,” says Bussell.
“And sometimes we have a look and go, ‘do you know what? We just haven’t seen that rep for a few months, and we’re bored of that frame’, and we go and give it a freshen up, and all of a sudden, magically, it’s reborn in terms of sales.”
That is followed up every six months by a more formal “overhaul” of stock and displays, and then a full range review every May, including data and sales reports. That gives them more evidence for when suppliers visit with new brands and styles.
Like Duong, Bussell says that relationship with the suppliers is crucial.
Unlike Duong, whose business is barely three years old, Horsfalls Optometrists has built those partnerships over the last 70 years.
“They know our store really well because they’ve been our rep for so long, and they help us manage what stock we’ve got on the shelf, what’s moving on, what needs rotating, that kind of thing.”
That longer relationship and built-up trust sometimes allows the practice a little extra leeway.
“What we’ve got on the shelf might come in four different colours. We can borrow that from our supplier, and if the patient wants it, great; if they don’t, the supplier will take it back.”
Like their Sydney counterparts they too will work with their suppliers to phase out those frames not selling well, and possibly look to swap them for a different brand or newer models.
Building up great, trusted relationships
Ms April Petrusma, CEO of Optical Dispensers Australia, says that partnership with suppliers cannot be underestimated.
“Building strong relationships with your reps and the supplier’s customer service team is one of the most valuable things you can do for your practice,” she says. “Making a point to check in with your reps frequently will keep you informed about new products and promotions and also shows that you value their expertise.”
She says regular purchasing was not only good for the practice, in maintaining steady stock levels and keeping patients interested and engaged, but also signalled to the frame supplier that the practice was a reliable and proactive partner that could be worthy of better pricing, priority access to new products, and favourable purchasing terms.
Petrusma says reps often have extensive knowledge about market trends, fashion preferences, and new product innovations.
“So don’t hesitate to ask for their insights or recommendations on what frames might work best for your demographic.”
If a practice develops this strong relationship, then suppliers might also work with them to create marketing campaigns or promotions to drive the business.
Leaning on others to help pull together a collection or rotate stock could also help the practice “avoid the common pitfall of choosing frames based solely on personal preferences”.
“While it is natural to gravitate towards styles you find appealing, your tastes may not necessarily align with those of your patients,” says Petrusma.
And it’s not always just about gut-feel and instinct. She encourages practices to also take a data-driven approach to a successful buying strategy.
“Reviewing past and present sales history reports can provide valuable insights into which styles, colours, and brands have performed well in the past.
“Pay particular attention to the most popular colours and frame shapes, as these can help align your purchasing with your patient’s preferences.”
That wider picture should also take account of the overall aesthetic and branding of the practice.
“The eyewear you choose should complement your brand identity and create a cohesive experience for your patients,” she says.
Just as important is the impact of collaboration within the team and practice.
“It’s not uncommon for the practice owner or manager to be the one conducting the frame buying,” says Petrusma. “However, involving your dispensing staff in the stock selection and rotation process can offer real benefits. They are responsible for the majority of frame sales and face-to-face patient interactions within the practice, which means they will have valuable insights into patient preferences and current sales trends.
“Fostering a collaborative approach can enrich your product offerings whilst also cultivating a motivated team.”
Like Bussell, she sees the opportunity for buy-in and greater sales.
“When staff members feel that their opinions matter and that they have a stake in the product offerings, they are more likely to advocate for those frames in a passionate manner.”
Ms Lisa Wymond is co-owner and national brands manager of Eyes Right Optical, Modstyle, Morel Australasia and Sunglass Collective.
Those four companies supply 22 brands, including FACE A FACE PARIS, ProDesign Denmark, WOOW, Project Green, MOREL, Serengeti, KALEOS and Avanti.
She says working in partnership with a few strong suppliers can save practices a great deal of time and effort.
“Reducing suppliers is saving practices hours of time, not only in reducing the amount of paperwork, i.e. invoices and credits, but also reducing the number of sales reps they see.
“The crucial decision for a practice is to choose the high-quality suppliers that cover the most product segments, offer excellent product and also fantastic service to back it up,” she says.
“If a few solid companies can offer everything the practice needs, the practice will do more business with those companies and become a more significant customer to them.”
Practices also need to be proactive, to ensure they are carrying popular, top-selling brands and styles for their patients.
“Practices should re-order their best sellers immediately,” she explains. “If the practice doesn’t re-order and waits for the rep to come around every three months, they are capping themselves at selling that particular frame only four times in a year, whereas they could have sold it a lot more if it had been re-ordered.
“If the practice has ranges that are selling well, they are doing buying backed up by sales reports, not just gut feel, and fast-moving product is frequently re-ordered, so rotations aren’t a big thing as the product mix is correct.”
But it isn’t just about the relationship with the supplier; working collaboratively with their sales rep is just as important.
“If you have a great sales rep, they are worth their weight in gold for a practice and supplier alike,” says Wymond.
“They know your practice and your patients and will genuinely want to help the practice grow. They see what is happening all around the country, they know what works and what doesn’t, what you should try and what you’re missing out on.
“I encourage practices to tap into that wealth of knowledge. A great sales rep will help a practice analyse their sales reports and stock-on-hand reports and help figure out if the practice is missing something in their collection and provide solutions.
“If you have an excellent working relationship with your sales rep and supplier, they will move heaven and earth for you.”
And if the product mix is correct, all of the frames will move to eager patients too.
Sometimes the product mix might require some tweaking to get the mix right, says Wymond.
“For the supplier, returns are a cost of doing business to make sure best sellers are on the shelf at the practice. While we do offer a generous rotation policy, rotations aren’t ideal as they represent missed opportunity for both the practice and supplier alike.
“It is important to respect that returns are a privilege that some suppliers offer to a practice to help them out, just in case the practice gets stuck with a certain frame that hasn’t worked,” she says.
“Often wholesalers cannot return those frames to their international supplier, so the wholesaler wears the cost of that return that will most likely never sell again.”
That meant it was important for everyone to do their research, understand their market and order appropriately by using an educated buying process.
“In a time where everyone is trying to be more eco-friendly and reduce their impact on the Earth, an educated buying process to make sure the right product is on the shelf and reduce the chance of purchasing product that won’t sell, resulting in a return, is more important than ever.”
More reading
Project Green eyewear plants 2,318 more trees
Eyes Right Optical now supplying William Morris eyewear in Australia and New Zealand
Eyes Right Optical – the first port of call for Australian independents
