Half your customers are one click from leaving

Let’s start with the bad news. We surveyed 200 Canadians about how they buy glasses, and 37% have already bought a pair online. Another 46% have thought about it. Only 17% said they never would.

• No, but I've thought about it46%
• Yes37%
• No, and I never would17%

Have you ever bought prescription glasses online? (% of 200 buyers)

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The people who bought online told us why. Price, over and over. “It was about 75% cheaper than in store.” “Everything is cheaper, it’s astounding.” You are not going to win that fight, and this post is not going to ask you to.

Here is the good news. That 46% in the middle is the biggest group in the survey, and they are your customers right now. Most of them bought their last pair in a store. They have looked at a website. They have not clicked. So we asked them a simple question: what would make you pick a local store over buying online next time?

What keeps a customer in your store

Here is what the fence-sitters said, in their own words, sorted into groups.

1. 39%

   Try it on and see it on my face

   36 people

2. 28%

   A better price or a deal

   26 people

3. 26%

   Someone honest to help me choose

   24 people

4. 10%

   Close by, quick, same place as my exam

   9 people

5. 9%

   Fit, adjustments and after-sale care

   8 people

6. 9%

   Selection and brands

   8 people

Price is on the list, but it is not the top of the list. The top answer is the one thing a website cannot do: put a frame on a real face and let the customer look. Right behind it is a person who will tell them the truth.

Compare that with the people who already buy online. Ask them the same question and 49% say price. Only 16% say try-on. The customers you have lost want a cheaper pair. The customers you can keep want to see themselves in the frames, and they want someone honest standing next to them. Both of those are yours to give.

The try-on is your best weapon, and it is not working

Here is the catch. Later in the survey we asked: in a store, how well can you judge what frames look like on you while trying them on?

• Easily36%
• Partly guessing, the display lenses aren't my prescription36%
• With difficulty, I can't see myself clearly15%
• I ask someone else12%

In a store, how well can you judge what frames look like on you? (% of 181 who answered)

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Only 36% said easily. The other 64% are guessing, squinting, or asking a friend. The display lenses are plain glass, so a customer with a strong prescription takes off her glasses, puts on a frame, and sees a blur. One person put it plainly: “I’m -9 on both eyes so I can’t even use the mirrors in the store.”

So the thing that keeps customers in your store is the try-on. And for two out of three of them, the try-on is broken.

Now look at who is thinking about buying online. It is the people your mirror fails.

1. 63%

   Would never buy online

   32 people

2. 38%

   Have bought online

   69 people

3. 25%

   Thinking about buying online

   80 people

Among people who would never buy online, 63% can see themselves fine in your mirror. Among the fence-sitters, 25%. The customer who can see herself is happy to stay. The customer who can’t is already wondering whether a website would be any worse.

It costs you on the way out, too. People who said they judge frames “with difficulty” were the least happy customers in the survey: 14% very satisfied, and 28% neutral or worse. People who could see easily: 36% very satisfied, 7% neutral or worse. And they come back less.

1. 39%

   Can judge frames easily

   66 people

2. 29%

   Partly guessing

   66 people

3. 21%

   Can't see clearly

   28 people

The happiest customers had someone honest beside them

One more number, and it tells you what to do. The people who said “I usually ask someone else’s opinion” were the happiest group in the whole survey: 57% very satisfied. Happier than the people who could see easily.

Think about that. The customer who could not see well, but had someone honest beside her, walked out happier than anyone. Usually that someone was a friend. It should be you. Your customers said so:

“Maybe have like an advisor that is brutally honest on whether a pair of glasses look good on me or not. Like I don’t care if it seems mean, if it doesn’t look good on me, please let me know.”

“Being honest if frames look good or not, and not just claiming they are to get a sale.”

How to keep them this week

None of this needs new software. It needs a habit at the counter.

1. Be the honest second pair of eyes. Say what you think, kindly and straight. “That one is too wide for your face. Try this.” A customer who trusts your no will trust your yes. A website has no opinion.
2. Take their picture. Phone, three frames, three photos. Then they put their own glasses back on and look. It is the only way a -9 customer will ever see herself in a frame before she buys. Virtual try-on can’t do this; one buyer said it “could not get a true sense” of how frames looked.
3. Don’t rush them. The best moments people described were “I was not rushed at all” and “she took her time with me.” The worst was feeling watched, “like trying on clothing in front of a salesperson.” Hand them the mirror and step back.
4. Say out loud that fit is free. A quarter of the fence-sitters were scared of getting it wrong: the fit, the prescription, a return. Tell them: if it slides, pinches or sits crooked, bring it back and we fix it. A website cannot make that promise.
5. Be clear about the price. You will not match online, and you don’t have to. But a customer who doesn’t know what the frame, the lenses and the coatings each cost assumes the worst. Insight 1 showed that customers who understood what they paid for were five times more likely to end up very satisfied.
6. Let them browse at home. The best idea in the survey came from a buyer: “do the frame selection online, then do the exam and pickup in person.” If your frames are on your website, the fence-sitter browses with you instead of against you.

In Lume, the notes on a customer’s profile are where this lives. Write down what she tried, what she liked, and what you told her. Next time she comes in, you pick up where you left off.

How we know

We surveyed 203 Canadians who wear prescription glasses or contact lenses. We found and paid them through Prolific, between July 21 and 23, 2026. Two hundred answered the questions about buying online, and 196 wrote an answer to what would make them pick a local store. We read every answer and sorted them by hand, so an answer that mentioned two things counts in both groups. The mirror question was added after the first 19 people had finished, so 181 answered it. Every percentage is out of the people who answered that question. With groups this size, small differences don’t mean much. Treat 63% and 25% as real, and 36% and 38% as the same number.

They came from nine provinces and bought their last pair everywhere a Canadian can buy glasses. Who they are and what we asked is in the series introduction.

One thing we’d rather say out loud than hide. The group leans Ontario, at 47%, and leans young, with 77% under 45. So it isn’t a perfect picture of Canada.