When Ratan Tata invested a small amount in a start-up in 2016, even he did not think that it would become a venture that would grow five times that of the Tata giants. Let's see how Lenscart has grown three years later than Tata's giant brand Titan i Plus and today has five times the revenue of Titan i Plus. Lenscart achieved this success by solving four major problems in the eyewear market. Before all that, we need to know what the glasses market was. Till 2010 the market was unorganized. It used to be that if people wanted glasses, they would buy them from the nearest shop. Indian markets had not even started thinking about eyewear as a brand. Even today this situation is not much different as 70% of the glasses market is held by these unorganized shops.

The interesting story behind Lenskart is that its founder, Piyush Bansal, is neither an optician nor is he in any way associated with the eyewear market. He was working as an electrical engineer at Microsoft. The turning point in Piyush's life was once he met Microsoft founder Bill Gatiss. Bill Gates shares some of his ideas and thoughts that will change the world. After this, Piyush came to the idea of ​​doing something on his own. With this he came back to India and started a small business at home, Lenscart was his first venture. The site was SearchMyCampus.com. It was a site that contained all the information a college student needed. A site that contains everything about colleges, accommodation near the college and so on. The initiative was a success. But Piyush realized that this could not create a change in the society that he wanted. That's how he started Flyer.com Flyer is a first step for Lenscart. But it was made only for the American market. Flyer's method was to deliver the product to their dealers and they deliver it to the customers. This too was a success but not enough to satisfy Piyush. It was during this time that Piyush met his co-founders Amit and Sumeet. Together, they started Valeo Technologies, their goal was to improve the quality of life of the customer by eliminating retailers. It was also a time when the potential of the online market in the Indian market was opening up. Understanding this, they are starting an e-commerce platform with multiple brands. Bag cart, jewel cart, Lenskart started the concept of brand for everything. This is where the Lenskart initiative started. It is while working on this that Piyush realizes the fact that there is no big eyewear brand in the Indian market. It was a time when people started paying attention to the brand in whatever they bought. Thus comes the idea of ​​an eyewear brand that is loved by people of all ages across India. This is why this mover Sangam is leaving all other ventures and focusing only on Lenscart. They realized that the eyewear market is that big. The only competition they had was the Tata i Plus which was currently in the market at that time.

But today almost 14 years later Lensukart has 30% of the Indian eyewear market and 25% of the organized market. Today, Lenskart is a company with a turnover of Rs.3000 crores. And Lenscart today has five times the market share and profits of Titan Eyewear. That being said, not only Titan Plus but Lenscart is more profitable than the entire Titan Eye Wear company. This will include the Titan Eye Plus, Fast Track and Titan Glass. Tata's eye care division grew by 33% year-on-year while its lens care division grew by 100% year-on-year. That's how Marutivan Piyush came out with the lens cart in the Indian eyewear market. Now let's hear about the 4 biggest problems in the Indian eyewear market that the Titan Eye Plus couldn't solve.

The first of these was the issue of accessibility. India is known as the blind capital of the world. 40% of the world's visually impaired people live in India. In other words, the market that Lenscart was targeting was huge. And they compete with the likes of Titan Eyeplus and regular eyeglass shops on Indian streets. The first issue to be resolved was that of distribution or accessibility. That's why they are pioneering India's first D2C model by bridging the online and offline markets. Indian consumers have a peculiarity that they like to see and understand the things they are buying. Creating a hands-on experience like this in the eyewear market requires a lot of capital. For this, Lenskart has brought in many investors since its inception. Ratan Tata IFC, Azim Premji, Ronnie Screwvala and others have also invested in Lenskart, the world's largest technology-focused investment fund, Massachusetts Vision Fund. This way they were able to reach the first tier markets. Later it expands to Tier 2 markets. Today Lenskart has 2000 stores in 200 cities. Titan i Plus has a total of 1000 stores in 200 seats. Lens Cart stores were the kind that India has never seen till date. Stores with very polite staff assisted by very vibrant technology. All this made Lens Cart different from other eyeglass stores. These were all offline market strategies. Next is the online market. It was a time when the online market was booming in India. Understanding this and understanding how consumers behave in the online market, Lens Cart has introduced its website. In 2017, they brought India's first e-commerce app. With the help of technology, Lenskart has helped a lot by bringing a feature on their phone that lets us understand how glasses would look on our face. This way they avoid the hassle of going to the store and buying. Similarly, a system was introduced where eye specialists come to homes and conduct eye tests for just 99 rupees. Now remember every time you had an eye exam at the lens cart. Aren't those optometrists the best salesmen too? As soon as they check, you will be given glasses of the lens cart to try on. Those of you who are a little nervous after an eye exam will surely appreciate these glasses that are available now. Thirdly they started free home trails. Different types of glasses will reach your homes. You can pick one out of it and get it right there by paying money. Fourthly they ensure delivery within three to four days and provide free repair services.Their fifth and most popular marketing strategy was the viral referral program. It was a scheme where customers would get Rs 50 to Rs 100 if they sync their phone contacts with their app. By doing this, LensCart got a database of 200 million people in six months. Lenskart was also able to reach such a large number of people with their marketing campaigns. If even one percent of these people become their customers through such marketing campaigns, they will get two million customers. Whether it can be implemented in today's society is another question but it was a success back then.

Now let's see what is the second problem that Lenscart solves. It was an unaffordable price for glasses. Piyush had a dream that his venture should be that big. For this, Piyush realized that satisfying one percent of India's premium customers would not be enough. Instead they targeted the average Indian customer. For this, the price of spectacles has been made affordable to the common man and value based pricing has been implemented. Although their product is affordable, they have taken care to ensure a premium experience for customers visiting their stores and website. The tag lines like Eyewear starting at Rs 500 and Eyewear at 50% offer have attracted the average Indian customer. In the beginning they were giving even the first frame for free. The area where money can always be made in the eyewear business is the lenses, not the frames. That's where LensCart brought customers into stores with attractive, inexpensive frames that enticed them to buy more expensive lenses. They also introduced offers like Gold Membership to ensure customers buy more than one lens. Buy one frame get one free offers were attractive to everyone. This way they got more customers. Go to the lens cart to buy glasses that offer a premium experience yet are affordable. The premium experience at Lens Cart stores never drives up the price of frames. This is where the Titan i Plus falls behind. The CEO of Titan Plus said in an interview that we are no longer giving discounts because that is not our brand identity but this has not gone down well with them.

Now the third big problem that the lens cart solves is awareness. Most companies succeed in creating a hype but it is difficult for a brand to build fans and followers. A startup building in-house brands is a rare thing. Vincent Chase John Jacobs are all in-house brands of Lenscart. All of these brands generate more revenue than most startups combined today. This is one of the famous Tata's own strategies. That means building different brands at different values ​​and marketing them differently. Take for example Westside and Sudio, two companies that exist in the same market for the same product at different value propositions but both are Tata's own inhouse brands. These are marketed in two ways and delivered to the markets in two ways.

Lenscart invested heavily in advertising for this. They marketed glasses as a fashion element rather than a necessity. In this way, Lenskart was able to make customers think that only one pair of glasses is not enough. This was something not even a Titan could do. Today Lenscart has a collection of over 5000 variety frames. This is their USB too. All this was aimed at ensuring multiple sales from a single customer. Realizing that using small stars for this is not enough, they used people with big star value for the advertisement. Karan Johar, the current brand ambassador, was a big attraction. Despite all this, it was his appearance on Shark Tank that made Lenscart a household name. Piyush himself became a brand as customers started coming looking for frames worn by Piyush on Shark Tank. The ad featuring Karan Johar and Piyush was a huge success. Through this Laneskirt has become a familiar and readily available trusted brand.

The fourth major problem Lenscart solved was that of unit economics. Managing the supply chain and stores is a challenge for a large enterprise like Lenskart. But Lenscart solved this very well. The next time you visit a Lenscart showroom, you'll know that it's a company that's making good use of AI technology. Lenscart uses not only barcodes but also AI technology for inventory tracking. They track everything from stocks in stores, inventory transits, sales, Tata product performance to current trends. For example, if a frame is selling very well, the system is automatically set up to ensure stock for that frame and reduce stock if a frame is not selling well. From the way the frames are stacked in the stores, focusing on the trends, it helps to attract the customers who come to the store. It was also recently reported that Lenskart Factories is starting the world's largest automated eyewear manufacturing unit. Lenscart is now becoming a global brand with over 500 stores outside of India through its acquisition of Japan's Ondays with d2c.

In short, the biggest difference between Titan i Plus and Lenskart is their marketing strategies. Piyush Bansal's idea of ​​a big initiative is behind it all.