James Green's Reflections

The pioneering company recently decided to shutter its signature try-at-home program. But that doesn’t mean the endeavor wasn’t a tremendous success.

By James Green

Eyeglass retailer Warby Parker made headlines last month when it announced that it would be ending the try-at-home program that had been the hallmark of the company since its early days.

This must mean the program was a failure, right? Not so fast.

The company was launched in 2010 by a group of Wharton Business School students who believed that shopping for eyeglasses in stores had become too much of a hassle.¹ The company launched exclusively online at time when, according to Caroline Janson of Retail Dive, only 2.5% of eyeglasses were being sold over the internet. The company was able to shake up the status quo and achieve success partly by offering a “Home Try-On Campaign” where buyers could have as many as five frames sent to their home with the option to send back the ones they didn’t want free of charge.²

After achieving tremendous success, the company is now reversing course. So what happened?

The Pandemic Boom

According to Lauren Hirsch of the New York Times, Warby Parker, like many online retailers, experienced a boom in business during the pandemic in 2020. The company’s sales rose significantly at a time where many established competitors who relied on brick-and-mortar sales struggled due to shutdowns. This led to the company going public in 2021 with a value of $6 million, double its private value of just a year earlier. This seemed like a sign that the future of eyeglass retail was online.

But the company was quietly moving in a different direction.

Warby Parker had opened its first physical location in 2013, and by 2021 it had 145 with no intention of slowing down. Despite the headlines the company achieved with its try-at-home program, it still was making two-third of its sales in brick-and-mortar stores before the pandemic. Although that figure was closer to 50% in 2020, Warby Parker was prepared for a return to the mean once people were able to go out and shop again.

A Different Direction

Now, in 2025, Warby Parker has seemingly undergone a complete 180, operating 300 retail locations and shuttering its try-at-home program.

However, it isn’t that simple.

The company isn’t putting all its eggs in either the online or brick-and-mortar basket. Yes, it is touting its retail presence and, according to Mitchell Parton of Modern Retail, claiming that “most” of its customers live within a 30-minute drive of one of its stores.

But it’s not giving up the online initiative that spurred the launch of the company. Not by a long shot.

Warby Parker still believes that offering the ability to shop at home is a big part of the future of eyeglass retail. But instead of offering customers actual, physical frames to try on at home, the company is shifting to offering an AI-powered, virtual trying-on experience. According to Parton, this technology can advise customers on what frames to buy based on an individual’s personal preference and face shape.

As DeAnn Campbell, a retail consultant for AAG Consulting, told Modern Retail, this model makes sense for Warby Parker:

 “They’ve been … getting people to come in instead of having to ship everything, and slowly building that physical presence to reduce their operational cost and to streamline their shipping costs and their supply costs.”

DeAnn Campbell, a retail consultant for AAG Consulting

Campbell estimates that Warby Parker will save around $100 million per year by discontinuing the service. Add that to the fact the company finally reached full profitability this year, and you seemingly have a very bright future for Warby Parker.

What Does This All Mean?

It means that, like the future of retail in general, the future of eyeglass retail isn’t all online or all brick-and-mortar. The future is an omnichannel approach. There are, of course, benefits to both in-store shopping and online shopping that are here to stay. While online shopping provides the ability to make purchases conveniently and quickly, there are aspects to the shopping experience that ecommerce struggles to replicate. Shoppers like being able to see and touch their items before they buy them, and they like having the chance to receive personalized, one-on-one advice from salespeople. It remains to be seen whether virtual programs like Warby Parker’s will ever truly come close to replacing this experience.

Warby Parker’s marketing strategy goes well beyond offering its frames either online or in physical stores. As part of its omnichannel approach, it is focusing on both converging technologies and influencer culture. The company has:

• Partnered with tech titan Google to develop smart glasses.

• Agreed to an endorsement deal with college football superstar Arch Manning.

The Google partnership already has been particularly lucrative, as its share price rose 15.6% after the announcement of $150 million deal.

Challenges Lie Ahead

It’s not necessarily going to be smooth sailing for Warby Parker from here on out, however. Like any other company, it always will be face significant challenges. And that’s particularly so during these turbulent times.

A primary challenge for many retailers at the moment is finding a way to navigate the tariffs imposed this year by the Trump administration. Incredibly, Warby Parker has been able to maintain a $95 price point for its budget frames for 15 years. So far the company has been able to hold steady on this price despite the tariffs, choosing instead to raise prices on higher-end items. It remains to be seen if this approach will be sustainable.

Ironically, another potential challenge could come from a surge in ecommerce. Some analysts are predicting just that, with Market Watch reporting that the surge could result in the closure of 45,000 brick-and-mortar stores by the end of the decade. If Warby Parker’s retail locations are among those affected, the company might have to make yet another strategy shift.

1. Mahoney, L. M., & Tang, T. (2016). Strategic social media: From marketing to social change. Wiley‑Blackwell. ↩︎
2. Mahoney, L. M., & Tang, T. (2016). Strategic social media: From marketing to social change. Wiley‑Blackwell. ↩︎