Buying Glasses Online

Online is now a permanent channel in eyewear — about one in seven recent US glasses purchases happens online (The Vision Council) — and it's not hard to see why. The selection is enormous, the prices are lower without retail rent, and the technology has caught up. Virtual try-on, once a gimmick, is now genuinely useful for narrowing the field. It won't replace a mirror, but it'll keep you from ordering frames that were never going to work.

Before you buy, measure first. You'll need your prescription (with an expiration date that hasn't passed), your pupillary distance — the PD number nobody volunteers (see p72) — and your current frames' measurements if you have a pair that fits. Those little numbers stamped on the temple (lens width, bridge, temple length) are your cheat code: match them and fit is mostly solved.

The returns policy is the whole game online. Only buy from sellers with free, no-questions returns and a real remake policy. A site that won't remake a botched prescription is a site that doesn't stand behind its lab. Read the policy before the product page. Check reviews specifically for how the company handles mistakes — that's the review that matters.

One more rule: start with one pair, not three. Nail your size and your PD on a single order. Then go back for the rest. The internet rewards the patient.

And photograph everything. Your prescription, your PD, your frame measurements, the returns confirmation — keep it all in a phone album labeled "glasses." Next order takes five minutes instead of fifty. The organized buyer is the buyer who never overpays for rush shipping.

Sources: The Vision Council, The Vision Council Releases New Research Spotlighting Q1 Consumer and Market Trends; Cleveland Clinic, Pupillary Distance (PD): What It Is & How To Measure.