Warby Parker, founded in 2010, is a brand- and customer-centric online retailer for stylish and cheap eyewear.

They disrupted an industry that was tired, overpriced, and dominated by 1 Goliath company when they started.

How they do it? By solving 3 key points:

• Making Eyeglasses More Affordable (Starting at $95)
• Enjoyable Customer Experience/Purchasing Experience (buying it online)
• Creating A Strong Direct To Consumer Approach & Marketing Campaigns

Inside Deep Dive Into Businesses Podcast Episode 13, we dove into some of Warby Parker’s best tactics that helped them achieve this growth. Below I highlighted some of these strategies that can be incorporated into majority of Direct to Consumer businesses that will help strengthen their overall brand & increase sales.

Listen To Our Podcast

Warby Parker’s Marketing & Growth Strategy Breakdown

Incorporate A Lifestyle Content Strategy

Wearing Warby, a short video series created by Warber Parker that shares interesting stories on creators, customers, employees in which they are wearing Warby Glasses but also sharing a glimpse of each of their lives.

This is a great way to get some of your creators/ambassadors/customers involved with the brand by sharing their stories.

When I was dissecting this series, I noticed that each video had the same format/style.

The video opens up with the individuals introducing themselves & what they do. The follow-up question (you actually don’t hear the question, because the individual rephrases the question within their answer) is “Which Warby Parker glasses do they use and when did they purchase it?”

You can see how I implemented a similar strategy to my eCommerce business, Rebhorn. I started interviewing some of our content creators and asked them questions that followed a similar style to Warby’s & called it Rebhorn Everywhere.

Create In-Store Experiences By Having Customers Try Samples In Their Home

Warby Parker was one of the first D2C brands to launch an at home try one strategy.

The customer can choose up to 5 frames online that they like to try on and Warby Parker ships it for free. This is one of the biggest pinpoints of a customer when they are purchasing types of goods like glasses.

This is one of those products that the customer needs to physically try on before purchasing. Other products like that are apparel & some home decor accessories like rugs.

What if you can’t implement a similar strategy?

Then you need a strong Return Policy. You need a way for the customer to feel that they can purchase something & if it doesn’t match their needs then they can return it hassle-free.

Encourage Your Customers To Share On Social Media

Warby Parker encourages their customers to share their try-on glasses on social media to get feedback from their audience on which ones they should get. FREE ADVERTISING for Warby & also a fun way to get the customer to interact with their audience. This is a win-win for both parties.

Identify Your Why & Sell The Shit Out Of It.

Warby is committed to matching every dollar raised for poverty-stricken middle schools in New York City, enabling eye care professionals to visit the classrooms and administer eye exams to the students.

This brand has a strong vision & values. They show that by aligning themselves with something that relates to their brand and gets customers involved with helping those in poverty to receive the proper eye care they need.

Pura Vida Bracelets, does something similar as well. Each bracelet was aligned to a specific foundation/charity which also drew awareness.

Talk With Your Customers To Gain Better Insight

Do you know where Warby had its first show room? Inside one of their apartments in NYC. They had customers come in their walk-up apartment & try on their glasses. They were able to connect w their customers in a more personal way & built stronger relationships.

They realized that this option wasn’t feasible since they were getting a bunch of complaints when their business was starting to gain traction and eventually launched the at-home try-on model.

Use Quizzes To Aid Your Customer’s Journey

Quizzes are a great way to gain more information about the customer so that you can segment them better & create more personalized marketing campaigns.

In order for people to participate in your quiz, you need to create something that can help them find something that fits their needs.

Since some of our faces are shaped differently, Warby created a quiz that helped their customer on finding the perfect frame that matched their needs.