Warby Parker Inc. reported that it grew ecommerce sales in its fiscal first quarter ended March 31 — and it did so while opening eight new physical stores.

The retailer, founded in 2010 as an online-only business, ended Q1 with 245 total stores. Including the eight in Q1 2024, Warby Parker has added 41 new stores since Q1 2023. Senior vice president and chief financial officer Steve Miller said this 20% increase in Warby Parker store count compares to retail revenue growth of more than 24% over the same period.

Warby Parker grew total revenue 16.3% in Q1 2024. Co-founder and co-CEO Neil Blumenthal said in a statement that this marked the retailer’s highest year-over-year revenue growth for a quarter since 2021.

Along with expanding its physical stores business, Blumenthal said in an earnings call with investors, Warby Parker has also been investing in long-term strategies including:

• Hiring optometrists
• Scaling up its contacts sales
• “Introducing new frame and lens innovation”
• Reinvesting in marketing

The April 8, 2024, solar eclipse drove traffic and sales, some within Q1 and the rest bleeding over into Q2, Blumenthal said. The company gave away International Organization for Standardization-certified glasses for viewing the eclipse in its stores ahead of the event.

“It actually drove our highest retail traffic week ever,” Blumenthal said. “We were distributing hundreds of thousands of these eclipse viewers.”

Warby Parker is No. 351 in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s database of the largest ecommerce retailers in North America.

Warby Parker ecommerce vs. physical store growth in Q1 2024

In Q1 2024, Warby Parker ecommerce grew 2% year over year. Total revenue increased $28.0 million, or 16.3% year over year, to $200.0 million. That’s its highest quarterly revenue to date.

Retail stores far outpaced Warby Parker ecommerce growth, increasing more than 24% year over year.

Blumenthal said contact lenses guided some of Warby Parker’s ecommerce growth in the quarter, drawing sales from both new and returning customers. Co-founder and co-CEO Dave Gilboa added that contact lens sales grew about 40% year over year in the quarter. They represent about 9% of revenue, “which remains well below the 20% industry average,” he said

Glasses drove about 70% of revenue growth in Q1, Blumenthal said. As a product line, he added, glasses sales grew more than 13% year over year in Q1, which compares to 8% growth throughout 2023. Furthermore, glasses are Warby Parker’s highest-margin product, he said.

“The composition of our ecommerce channel is evolving with Home Try-On driving a smaller percent of our orders, as we’ve scaled our store base and as customers are increasingly comfortable purchasing directly online with the support of our virtual Try-On feature,” Blumenthal said.

Eye exam impact

Warby Parker stores that offer eye exams drive higher sales than those that don’t, he said. Blumenthal said that industry-wide, about 75% of prescription glasses purchases are made where customers conduct their eye exams. Revenue from eye exams grew 40% year over year to represent about 5% of revenue, Gilboa added.

That’s “well below the approximately 15% industry average,” Gilboa said. “Today, the majority of our customers still gets their eye exams elsewhere and brings their prescriptions to Warby Parker, highlighting the opportunity in front of us.”

Increasing the number of stores offering eye exams has helped grow average revenue per customer, Gilboa added. Average revenue per customer increased 9.6% year over year in Q1 to $296. Meanwhile, Warby Parker’s number of active customers increased 3.2% to 2.36 million.

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