Mister Spex on course for expansion: First international stores in Austria and Sweden
- 31. Mar. 2021
Europe’s leading omnichannel optician Mister Spex is bringing its successful store concept to the international level and opening stores outside the German home market for the first time with three new locations in Austria and Sweden. Mister Spex has been operating its own stores since 2016, focusing on an omnichannel offering with complete digital integration and on-site consultation. Customers can now shop in 38 stores throughout Germany and receive advice on site. 16 of them were successfully opened during the pandemic year of 2020 alone, and this despite restrictions in local retail business. So far in early 2021, four more locations have already opened. A store in Vienna and two in Stockholm will be added in April.
Mister Spex is thus continuing its successful growth course: In the 2019 financial year, sales were already increased significantly to 139 million euros. In the Corona year 2020, Mister Spex was again able to achieve double-digit growth, thus significantly outperforming the comparable market. Almost a third of sales are now generated in international markets.
“We are intent on driving the digital transformation of ophthalmic optics across Europe. We are already successfully offering our innovative and intuitive online eyewear purchasing service in ten European countries. We are pleased to be able to offer the full spectrum of our omnichannel expertise in Austria and Sweden,” says Dr Mirko Caspar, Co-CEO of Mister Spex. “Thanks to seamless linking of the online and offline worlds, we can offer our customers the best possible shopping experience – they alone decide where, when and how they shop at Mister Spex.” In addition to personal expert consultation on site, Mister Spex stores are offering additional services, such as eye tests and spectacle fittings. Customers also benefit from all the advantages of being online with virtual access to the entire Mister Spex range, including more than 10,000 pairs of glasses from over 100 brands.
The Mister Spex store in Vienna will open on the 8th of April in Shopping City Süd, Europe’s largest shopping centre, and will present over 900 pairs of glasses and sunglasses on 100 square metres of retail space. The 120-square-metre shop to be located on Stockholm’s popular Drottninggatan shopping street, which opens on the 21st of April, will also be offering more than 900 pairs of glasses and sunglasses. On April 28th, the second Stockholm store will open in the Mall of Scandinavia. As with the German market, Mister Spex is opting for popular high-traffic locations in shopping centres or on main shopping streets.
“We have already been very successful in Austria and Sweden for many years with our online shops and partner optician programmes – we know the markets very well and have successfully developed our brand in both countries. So, we are sure that this next logical step will also accelerate the success story of Mister Spex internationally,” said Caspar.
Mister Spex has been active in Austria since 2008. More than one in two people there know the brand, which is partly due to the TV adverts that have been broadcast since 2015. The partner optician programme was launched in Austria in 2014, and there are now numerous partner opticians in all major urban centres. There is continuous growth in all product categories, with glasses being the strongest growth driver ahead of contact lenses and sunglasses. Online preferences with regard to the various brand segments are very similar to German customers, whereby in recent years there has been a sharp rise in demand for brands in the premium and luxury segments in particular, as well as for Mister Spex’s private label brands, e.g. as part of influencer and designer collaborations. Mister Spex has also repeatedly demonstrated its innovative strength in Austria. As with Germany, the online eye test was introduced in April 2020, and audio glasses from Bose and Fauna have been sold via the Mister Spex online shop in Austria since the autumn of 2020. The improved digital 3D virtual try-on tool for eyewear has recently led to a tripling of the usage rate for the smart online feature. It is now being used by almost every second Mister Spex glasses customer in Austria.
“At the end of the day, all our efforts are about putting our customers’ needs first. Buying glasses should be easy, intuitive, and first and foremost, fun to do,” said Caspar.
Mister Spex entered the Swedish market in 2013 with the acquisition of the two Swedish online eyewear companies Lensstore and Loveeyewear, which now operate under the Mister Spex brand. With a strong local team, its own customer service and warehouses in Sweden and Norway, the omnichannel optician has been steadily expanding its presence in the Scandinavian market. There have been partner opticians in the most important metropolitan regions of Sweden since 2018. Compared to Germany, customers in Scandinavia are more attracted to contact lenses and like to switch between daily lenses and glasses. Similar to Austria, prescription glasses are also an important growth driver for Mister Spex in Sweden. A special feature of the market is that luxury and independent brands are even more popular with Swedish customers, and the affinity to sunglasses and prescription glasses is three times as high as in Germany. These include trendy Scandinavian labels such as Chimi, EOE or Vasuma, which Mister Spex offers not only in Sweden but in all international markets.
Contact details for journalists:
Mister Spex Corporate Communication
press@misterspex.de
About Mister Spex:
Founded in 2007, Mister Spex SE (together with its subsidiaries, “Mister Spex”) is a multi-award-winning company that has become the leading digitally native omnichannel optician in Europe. Mister Spex has been at the forefront of the industry’s transformational shift, growing from a pure online player into a successful omnichannel optician with more than 5 million customers, 10 online shops across Europe and physical retail stores. A digital native, technology and innovation have always been an integral part of the company’s evolution, from 2D to 3D digital frame fitting tools to intelligent browsing functionalities. The focus of Mister Spex is to make eyewear purchase for customers an easy, transparent and fun shopping experience by combining a comprehensive and varied range of high-quality products with optician expertise and services through its customer service, own stores and an extensive network of partner opticians.
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