With 20 years of expertise, the founder-led optical retailer operates in over 30 markets with in-house opticians, a proprietary platform, and a vertically integrated model built for long-term growth.
Over the past two decades, SmartBuyGlasses has grown into one of the most successful privately held eyewear companies in the world. Serving customers in more than 30 countries, it has sold over two million pairs of glasses, and has done so without raising a single dollar of external capital. A consistent commitment to independence has shaped its growth; the company is founder-led and profitable, with full control of its supply chain from the warehouse to the front door.
That would be unusual for any consumer category. In eyewear, where a handful of giant corporations control everything from manufacturing to retail distribution, it’s almost unheard of.
Global expansion
In 2006, long before most retailers believed people would buy prescription eyewear online, SmartBuyGlasses launched in Australia. With bases established across Australia, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, orders surged within the first year, prompting the team to roll out its first proprietary e-commerce platform.
By 2012, the company had 120 employees running a scaled, multi-country operation with a multilingual, multicurrency platform tailored to each local market. Over the following years, it continued to expand and now operates in 30 localised markets across Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Americas, and Africa, supported by its own warehouses and logistics hubs.
Its scale today is striking. The company carries around 100,000 products from over 300 designer brands, ranging from global fashion houses to niche labels, at prices that undercut traditional retail.
This translates to results: more than 120,000 Trustpilot reviews, averaging “Excellent”, speak for themselves. With over 30 million visitors and 2 million pairs sold, SmartBuyGlasses has become one of the most trusted names in online eyewear.
A case for independence
The online eyewear market has no shortage of well-funded competitors. Most grew following the same script: raise venture capital, spend aggressively on customer acquisition, and figure out profitability later. SmartBuyGlasses went in the other direction. It prioritised long-term resilience over short-term hype, building its own warehouses, technology, and optician teams rather than relying on third parties.
Behind the storefront sits a rigorously built, vertically controlled operation, where the decision to stay independent shapes the entire operating model. The company manages its own warehouses, where lenses are fitted and verified using precision tracers. It also runs its in-house global supply chain, and directly employs dedicated opticians and customer service teams, rather than outsourcing the most important parts of the customer journey.
The result is tight control over quality, speed, and pricing across every market, all to enable a mission that has remained disarmingly simple: make quality eyewear accessible.
Technology built for an online optician experience
To achieve its mission, SmartBuyGlasses knew it needed to bring the in-store optical experience online. This wasn’t simple as unclear size guidelines, uncertainty around lenses, and the need for expert support throughout the process were all issues the eyewear e-commerce industry had been struggling with for some time.
The company was quick to invest in the necessary digital tools to remove these barriers: Virtual Try-On technology and a pupillary distance scanner help customers order accurate prescriptions from home, the kind of experience that used to require an in-store appointment.
Behind those tools sits a broader operating model built around proprietary systems, in-house opticians, multilingual support teams, and years of accumulated sales and prescription data. Together, those capabilities enable SmartBuyGlasses to operate not just as a retailer, but as a global digital optical business with meaningful control over both the fashion and functional sides of the category.
“We set out to build the gold standard optician, online or offline,” says Doron Kalinko, co-founder and CEO. “Most online eyewear companies outsource the hard part, the optical work itself. We employ the opticians, trace the lenses, and verify every prescription. That’s why we can always guarantee our service is up to standard.”
Twenty years in, still founder-led
SmartBuyGlasses has already passed milestones that many digital retailers spend years chasing. It has sold more than two million pairs of eyewear, built long-term supplier relationships across the category, and established a globally scaled operation while remaining privately held and self-funded.
That matters because it speaks to the company’s operating model as much as its growth. In a category shaped by consolidation and outside capital, SmartBuyGlasses has spent two decades building control into the parts of the business that matter most: product range, optical support, fulfilment, and service.
Its next phase is not about changing direction, but about deepening capability by refining the customer experience, strengthening optical services, and continuing to raise the standard for what online eyewear can look like. Two decades in, SmartBuyGlasses occupies a rare position in the category: founder-led, privately held, globally scaled, and operationally built for long-term trust.
Text By Andrea Joy Dizon
Photo courtesy of SmartBuyGlasses
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This article is a paid feature and is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the publication.
