Finding the right pair of glasses can be overwhelming — especially if you’re shopping solely online. When it comes to choosing an online retailer, convenience and quality reign supreme. This means combing through product reviews, reading up on warranty policies, and utilizing virtual try-on features.
To help siphon through spectacle-shopping best practices, we asked a few experts for advice on buying glasses online. First thing’s first: Keep in mind that expensive frames are not necessarily better than their less-costly counterparts. “Don’t necessarily look for the highest- or the lowest-priced merchandise,” say Jonah Berman, an ophthalmologist based in New York City. TL;DR: Just because a pair of glasses is costly doesn’t mean it’s the best on the market. On the flip side of that, inexpensive doesn’t always equate to a good deal if the quality of the frames is bad. Instead of counting on the price as a factor of whether or not to buy, looks for details on materials used to make each pair, ask an eye doctor for recommendations, and check reviews from other shoppers before buying.
Before starting your online shopping, consider making an in-person visit to an optician to ensure that you’re ordering the right lens prescription. Your needs may have changed since your last pair of glasses, so get things all squared away with an eye doctor before adding to cart. “If you have a more complicated prescription like a very high plus or minus — or especially a progressive prescription [which combine three different prescriptions into one pair of lenses] — it may be a good idea to go into the optician for a proper in-person fit,” New York City-based ophthalmologist Yuna Rapoport tells Allure.
If your eyewear needs don’t require a visit to an actual store, there are plenty of options to choose from online. We narrowed down a few online glasses retailers that our editors love shopping. They all make the process fuss-free and convenient, and there are options on the list that fit every budget.
Why we like it: Sapphire Eyewear was founded by optometrist Seamus Flynn and his wife, Dearbhaile Collins. The company sells prescription and non-prescription blue light glasses with anti-reflective coatings, as well as sunglasses and transition lenses. Sapphire Eyewear also has phone service and live chat support seven days a week, allowing customers to speak directly to an optometrist before ordering their frames. The virtual try-on tool is also helpful when it comes to selecting frames. And, as an added bonus, for every product purchased, Sapphire Eyewear donates a pair of glasses to the Mission for Vision charity.