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What Is the GTM Playbook for Eyewear DTC Brands in 2027?

By Kory White · Updated Nov 2026 · 10 min read
Rows of eyeglass frames on a lit display wall in an optical store
Direct answer

The go-to-market playbook for an eyewear DTC brand is to sell glasses at a clear, low entry price, add stores that carry eye exams so the exam brings in the prescription, accept vision insurance so benefits cover the purchase, and use online try-on and the website to start and finish the sale. The filings this page read point the same way. Warby Parker, the best-known DTC brand, reported 2025 net revenue of $871.9 million, up 13.0%, with 323 stores at year end, 285 of them offering in-person eye exams, and glasses starting at $95 including prescription lenses.

Insurance is the part most new brands underbuild. Warby Parker says insurance is used in approximately 60% of U.S. vision care purchases, yet insurance-backed orders were only 8.3% of its 2025 revenue. National Vision, the large value optical chain, says managed care was 42% of its fiscal 2025 revenue from continuing operations. The sections below cover vision insurance, stores and eye exams, online try-on, pricing, and the sales KPIs worth tracking.

Every figure carries its period and source. Private brands (Zenni, Lenskart) are labeled as reported by named outlets or by the company, not audited by this page, and anything marked Judgment is my reading, not a disclosure. Several things are not published by these companies, including store-level sales at Warby Parker, the cost of its Home Try-On program and any Zenni revenue, and this page says so rather than estimating them.

Vision insurance: the benefit is the payment method

Eyeglasses arranged in red display trays in an optical store
Photo: Shixart1985 / CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Most eyewear shoppers in the United States have some vision benefit, so a brand that cannot use it asks the customer to pay twice. National Vision cites The Vision Council for the figure: approximately 70% of consumers reported having some sort of vision care coverage in 2025. Warby Parker's 10-K puts it differently, saying insurance is used in approximately 60% of U.S. vision care purchases while its own insurance-backed orders were 8.3% of 2025 revenue. It calls that a significant opportunity for growth.

Warby Parker describes two moves. The first is in-network access: it says insurance is a powerful customer acquisition tool that attracts some of its highest value customers, who spend more on initial purchases and return more frequently. The second is making out-of-network benefits easy to use. The mechanics matter operationally, because for insured orders the company submits claims directly to the carrier and is reimbursed by the carrier, and receivables from customers and insurance carriers are typically collected within 30 days.

National Vision shows the other end of the range. It lists vision insurance providers as a dependency in its risk factors and says it maintains strong relationships with almost all vision care insurers in the U.S., which it also names as a concentration risk.

Judgment. For a DTC eyewear brand, insurance is not a side feature. The filings show one company growing through it and another that wants more of it. A new brand without in-network status can still compete on price, as Warby Parker does at $95, but it should say plainly at checkout how a customer uses an out-of-network benefit.

Stores and eye exams: the exam starts the sale

The DTC eyewear playbook has moved from online-only to stores with an optometrist. Warby Parker opened 47 net new stores in 2025, 39 in 2024 and 37 in 2023, ending 2025 with 323 stores against 276 a year earlier. Of those 323, 285 offered in-person eye exams, which is 88.2% of its fleet, up from 85.5% and 81.9% in the two prior years. It says its optometrists are either employed directly or by independent professional corporations with which it has contractual agreements.

Exams are also where the economics get tight. National Vision's costs of services and plans were 93.6% of its net sales of services and plans in fiscal 2025, up from 91.9%, and the company ties the increase to slower growth in add-ons and exam revenue relative to optometrist-related costs. Exam revenues rose $21.1 million, or 9.0%. Warby Parker lists failure to recruit and retain optometrists as a risk to its business, and National Vision lists the availability of optometrists as a factor in comparable store sales.

EssilorLuxottica, the largest integrated optical player, gives a view from the product side. It reported 2025 group revenue of Euro 28,491 million, up 11.2% at constant exchange rates, with AI-glasses selling more than 7 million units and its myopia management portfolio up 22% in revenue. The text of its release that this page read does not give a store count.

Judgment. Treat the exam as the front door and the optometrist as the scarce resource. A store plan that adds locations faster than it can staff exam rooms will show up in the exam line first. The filings do not publish store-level profit for Warby Parker, so any claim about its store returns would be a guess.

Online try-on: the website starts the journey

Sunglasses on lit glass shelves in an eyewear store
Photo: Tony Webster / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Warby Parker describes an omnichannel model in which many customers start online with its Virtual Try On before visiting a store, and many retail-first customers ultimately transact online. It also runs a Virtual Vision Test, a telehealth app that enables eligible patients to renew their prescription at home, and launched Advisor, an AI-driven recommendation tool, in 2025. Its Home Try-On program costs sit inside marketing, which it reports as advertising costs of $113.9 million in 2025, up from $95.8 million in 2024.

The 10-K is candid that online has limits in this category. It says consumers have historically been slower to adopt online shopping for glasses and contact lenses, and that its customer acquisition costs may continue to rise as it grows. It does not split revenue between stores and online, and it does not give the cost of Home Try-On, so this page cannot say what share of sales starts on the site.

Lenskart is the large private reference point outside the United States. Entrackr, reporting the company's DRHP, said its operating revenue grew 23% to Rs 6,653 crore in FY25 from Rs 5,428 crore, with sales of goods at Rs 6,360 crore and services such as memberships and home eye check-ups at Rs 133 crore. Eyewear unit sales rose 30% to 2 crore. These are as reported by Entrackr, not audited by this page.

Judgment. Online try-on lowers the cost of a first look, but Warby Parker ties its 2025 revenue growth partly to 47 new stores, and Lenskart's reported year included 282 new stores. The practical read is that the site should route people to the right next step, whether that is checkout, an exam booking or a prescription renewal, rather than try to replace the store.

Pricing: a low entry price, then upsell

Pricing is where the category splits. Warby Parker's published model is simple, unified pricing: glasses starting at $95, including prescription lenses. Zenni, the low-priced online-only player Warby Parker names as a competitor, says on its own blog that complete prescription pairs start at just $6.95 and average just over $40. National Vision's growth in 2025 came from the opposite direction: its filing attributes eyeglass sales growth of $123.4 million, or 10.8%, to pricing and product mix initiatives.

Margins show the cost of the model. Warby Parker's gross margin was 54.0% in 2025 versus 55.3% in 2024, while it reached net income of $1.6 million after a net loss of $20.4 million in 2024. National Vision's costs of products were 28.7% of net product sales, versus 29.6% a year earlier. These two margins are not comparable line for line because the companies define their cost lines differently.

Judgment. A flat entry price works when the brand can raise average spend with lens upgrades, contacts and insurance, which is what Warby Parker's average revenue per customer suggests. A brand that competes on a very low price, like Zenni, has no store to upsell in, and Zenni has not published the revenue that would show whether that trade works.

Sales KPIs to run the playbook

These are the measures the public companies themselves report or discuss, and the ones a DTC eyewear team can track from its own data.

Judgment. If you can only track three, track insurance share of revenue, exam attach rate and average revenue per customer. They map to the three levers the filings keep returning to: benefits, the exam and spend per customer. Customer acquisition cost is not published by any of these companies, so it has to come from your own books.

Questions people ask

What does GTM mean for an eyewear brand?

GTM means go-to-market: how a brand finds, converts and keeps customers. For a DTC eyewear brand that means its entry price, its stores and exam rooms, how it handles vision insurance, its website and try-on tools, and the metrics it uses to run them.

Is Warby Parker the model for eyewear DTC?

It is the best-known public reference. Its 2025 net revenue was $871.9 million, up 13.0%, with 323 stores and glasses from $95 including prescription lenses. Its net income was $1.6 million, after a net loss of $20.4 million in 2024. It is a model to study, not to copy line by line.

How important is vision insurance?

Warby Parker says insurance is used in approximately 60% of U.S. vision care purchases while its own insurance-backed orders were 8.3% of 2025 revenue. National Vision reported managed care at 42% of fiscal 2025 revenue from continuing operations.

How big are Zenni and Lenskart?

Zenni is private and this page found no company-published revenue; its blog states prices from $6.95 and over 51 million pairs sold as of May 2, 2023. Entrackr reported from Lenskart's DRHP that FY25 operating revenue was Rs 6,653 crore, up 23%. That figure is as reported, not audited by this page.

Do eyewear brands need stores?

The filings read here show stores driving growth at Warby Parker (47 new stores in 2025) and National Vision (33 new stores in fiscal 2025). Zenni describes itself as an online retailer. Whether a new brand needs stores depends on whether it wants to offer exams and insurance, which are easier to deliver in person.

Sources

This page reads company filings and named reports as of November 5, 2026. Figures from private companies are labeled and are not audited by this page. Anything not published is marked as such.

Top photo: Shixart1985 / CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

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