Wal-Mart expands online turf again with prescription contact lens service
WalMart.com is again expanding its online turf with the addition of a service that allows shoppers to purchase or refill orders for prescription contact lenses online.
A new Contacts Lens link on Walmart.com’s home page provides information on how to fill or refill valid contact lenses prescriptions. Shoppers seeking contacts are first prompted to enter prescription information and directed to enter patient and doctor information. Wal-Mart will verify the prescription information by contacting the customer`s physician.
Customers can select pick-up at a Wal-Mart Vision Center or home delivery as permitted by state regulations. Where delivery is not restricted, Wal-Mart says it will process most orders within two days and ship to a customer’s home or to the local Wal-Mart Vision Center. Customers can return unopened packages to a Wal-Mart Vision Center or return the prepaid package to the online returns center at WalMart.com.
“We’re excited to respond to the needs of our customers who wear contact lenses by offering this Contacts Online service,” says Ron Tiarks, senior vice president, Wal-Mart Optical Division. “With just the simple click of a mouse, customers can save time and money by ordering or refilling their contact lens prescriptions online.’
The initiative is Wal-Mart’s first online move into prescription contacts, a space in which rival Sears already is established. Recently, Sears Optical’s web site, operated by Cole National Corp.’s Cole Vision Group, achieved a 152% increase in the sales of contact lens prescription refills, the site’s only offering, over a matter of a few weeks as the result of new online CRM initiatives.
Wal-Mart itself already has established a presence in the optical space offline with its in-store Wal-Mart Vision Centers. The move to extend that offering online, and its timing, later than some competitors, is reflective of both Wal-Mart`s online strategy and the power of its enormous sales volume overall, says Mary Brett Whitfield, director of the E-Retail Intelligence Program at Retail Forward Inc. "Wal-Mart is looking for ways to maximize the web`s contribution to all departments," she says. "At the same time, it is so big it has the luxury of being able to be patient and see how something new unfolds, and jumping into it only when it makes sense to do so."
Back...
