When you wear glasses all of the time, there are not many options to choose from when you’re blinded by the sun. You can either get prescription sunglasses or settle for a pair of clip-ons that just don’t seem to fit your frames the way they should. Sunclipies is giving eyeglass wearers a third option: custom clip-ons.
People that wear eyeglasses finally have the option to choose a clip on that is light, easy to use, and designed to fit any style of glasses. Each set of Sunclipies is designed using a photo that you take of your glasses following the instructions on the website. Through that simple photograph, they are able to create a custom clip that will fit right over the inside of your lens.
We recently spoke with Chris Leistritz about this unique business and the business opportunity they offer.
Tell us a little about Sunclipies.
Sunclipies are the innovative new sunglass clip-ons for all eyeglasses worldwide, exactly tailored from just 1 photo of the frame. Very many eyeglass-wearers buy them.
How do they work? What frame styles do they work best with?
Sunclipies are thin, rigid, bendable lenses which are simply clipped into the inside of the eyeglasses – thus just changing the eyeglass lens-color, and not the design. They are precisely designed and manufactured from just a photo of the eyeglasses. When not in use, they are just 1mm thin and small and easy to carry in an eyeglass case or pocket. They weigh practically nothing, which is very important too, because on your nose every little additional weight counts. The innovative patented design works perfectly with all eyeglass-frames worldwide. And fits their styles perfectly, because they practically just change the lens color.
What inspired them?
I wanted to avoid buying a second pair of eyeglasses with tinted lenses, as suggested by my optician. These would have cost me $300 to $600. Then there were no clip-ons available for my eyeglasses either (only the grandpa-style flip-ups, which looked just ridiculous, and put heavy weight on my nose). The traditional tailored clips didn’t fit the style of my eyeglass-frame at all.
In the beginning we wanted to use the thin vehicle-windshield sun-protection-films. But that was not possible. Many months of engineering and tests later, we found the perfect thin polycarbonate material and patented shape and manufacturing process that we use now.
When was Sunclipies launched? How has the business evolved since then?
In 2007, after 1 year of development, we started selling them from the website and they were an instant success. Through constant testing, optimization and communication with our customers we further refined the product and manufacturing process until 2009.
They were selling nicely from the website, and through opticians, but we only reached a tiny fraction of the market like this. 99% of all eyeglass-wearers do not know that something low-cost and perfect like the Sunclipies exists at all, and therefor do not search for them on the internet. They expect being offered a solution like this from their opticians – but these often do not want to endanger their sales of the much more expensive solutions. We are now additionally selling them through all kinds of shops and salespeople worldwide. This turned out to be the best way to approach eyeglass-wearers: by personally showing them our sensational product. In the meantime there are many customers who started selling Sunclipies professionally.
What separates you from the competition?
Competitors offer clip-ons which are much heavier and destroy the look of the eyeglasses. Also, for exact tailoring the customer has to send his eyeglasses in – whereas we just need 1 foto of the eyeglass-frame for production of exactly tailored Sunclipies. Also, when not in use, those traditional clip-ons are bulky to carry around. Competitors also offer standard-size clip-ons. They never fit the individual frames perfectly, whether in style or in size, and carry all the disadvantages mentioned above too. All this prevented most eyeglass-wearers from buying sun clip-ons so far. But Sunclipies are practically weightless and invisible and are tiny and small to carry around. They convert every pair of eyeglasses into perfect sunglasses. And they cost (much) less than other solutions. Therefore, they are also ordered a lot for children’s eyeglasses.
Tell us a little about your business opportunity.
Sunclipies are for the ca. 90% of all eyeglass-wearers, who do not yet own sun-protection, because the traditional solutions are expensive, bulky or ugly. They are the new “must have accessory” for all eyeglasses. About 50% of all eyeglass-wearers we approach buy Sunclipies instantly (and about 40% of the population wears eyeglasses). The nice thing is, eyeglass-wearers are easy to spot most of the time. All kinds of shops are selling Sunclipies now – from shopping-mall-carts to gas-stations. From newspaper- and gift-stands to fashion-stores.
The salespeople ask every eyeglass-wearer they see whether he/she knows the Sunclipies already. If they are interested, they show a sample. If the customer wants to buy, they take a photo of the eyeglasses and the customer’s address, which they simply e-mail or send us by mobile/MMS. We send the Sunclipies to the eyeglass-wearer directly (usually the next day already). Selling and taking the photo just takes a minute or two. The customer pays (between 29.99 and 49.99) and the seller keeps his commission of 50%. Shops are selling ca. 2-40 Sunclipies per day, depending on how many eyeglass-wearers they can show the Sunclipies to.
This is also a great opportunity for (sales-) people who visit or call shops. They can easily convince them to start selling Sunclipies – it provides them with a very attractive income, because they profit from every sale made by the shops. And “setting up” a shop takes just about 15 minutes of work. 30 shops provide them with monthly commissions of ca. 3000.-$ – possibly for many years (if we assume just 2 sales per shop per day on average).
What is included?
A further advantage of the Sunclipies: there is no inventory and no costs! Sunclipies sellers just need a camera (even a mobile-phone camera is totally sufficient). And send the eyeglass-photo and customer-address per e-mail or MMS. We provide the sellers with a display and Sunclipies samples to show the advantages to potential buyers.
What are some goals you hope to accomplish over the next year or so?
Our main goal in 2011 is to provide our unique product and profit-opportunity to as many shops and salespeople as possible, worldwide. And making many more eyeglass-wearers happy with our product.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
The Sunclipies offer a great opportunity for shop-owners and sales-people to create a lot of additional profit from their current stream of customers. Without any cost for inventory or ads – they provide pure profit from the first sale on.
Any advice you would like to offer anyone that might be considering your opportunity?
Please contact us at [email protected]. If you are still hesitating, please do also have a look at the customer-statements on [our website].
