Ben & Frank begins to bring its revolution to the ‘four eyes’ of South America. Thanks to the elimination of intermediaries, the Mexican start-up that sells glasses at affordable prices began operating in Chile in March of last year, days before the outbreak of the pandemic.
“The timing was terrible and we decided to stop the growth project in Chile for a few months to focus on saving the business in Mexico, where we already had physical stores,” says Eduardo Paulsen, co-CEO and co-founder of the company. “The business model proved to be resilient in Mexico and we resumed our plans towards the end of last year.”
Since then, it has not stopped growing in the South American country. The option to choose four frames online and the subsequent delivery to the customer’s home so that they can choose one of them – after a refundable deposit of 100% of the value – adapted very well to the mobility restrictions imposed in Chile. “The exclusively digital scheme has an important barrier, because glasses are, at the end of the day, a product that people want to touch, especially when you have a value proposition with a price much lower than that of traditional chains”, says Paulsen . “To answer consumer questions, we launched this home test program.”
Added to this was an increase in the demand for glasses to preserve sight from the effects caused by the increased use of electronic devices. The category ‘Lentes pa’la compu’ of the firm, managed to expand the radar of clients. “The greatest increase in demand is seen in people who traditionally did not need glasses: when the pandemic hit, customers joined who began to purchase these products without prescription, but with the special filter,” says the entrepreneur.
In the midst of this growth, Ben & Frank had to make adjustments to adapt its operations in Mexico to the particularities of Chile. The main difference between the two markets lies in the sight exams. While in Mexico clients take their exams at the opticians for free and there they obtain a prescription with the corresponding graduation, in Chile the regulation requires that they visit an ophthalmologist. The company established alliances with health centers: the client can request an appointment at one of these centers on behalf of Ben & Frank and the company offers to pay all expenses not covered by the health plan.
With these adjustments, the Chilean operation has been gaining speed. “Chile is the first experiment outside of Mexico and the beginning was atypical due to the pandemic: it took a while to start, but as of September it began to take the pace we expected,” says Cristóbal Perdomo, co-founder and general partner of Jaguar Ventures LP , a venture capital fund that decided to invest in Ben & Frank in 2018. “In Mexico they are clearly leaders and there was an opportunity to expand to other countries where there is no player like them: now the focus is on Chile, which is a market that is fairly quick to cover because it is basically Santiago and a couple of other cities, but the idea is to move forward with a second country outside of Mexico ”.
For now, and in the short term, the intention of the company is to open its first physical store in Chile. The goal is to open between two and four stores this year. That goal is tied to the rapid vaccination plan that is being carried out in that country, with official projections that indicate that 80% of the population will already be inoculated by the end of July.
“The expectation is that the physical part and retail will rebound much faster in Chile than in the rest of the region, so we are hopeful that the Chilean market will give us significant growth this year,” says Paulsen. “In the medium term, we will definitely see ourselves in more South American countries: Chile is a test to test certain concepts of the brand outside of Mexico and, once this learning has been developed, we do intend to move forward with expansion plans to other very attractive markets in South America and that have a considerable size ”.
