2022年12月27日

本周你可以期待大量隐形眼镜的销售，因为医疗FSAs(灵活消费账户)的持有者面临一年一度的“使用或失去它”的截止日期。他们可能会通过1-800-CONTACTS、Warby Parker等D2C播放器订购送到家的隐形眼镜，或者今年可能是第一次通过自己信任的眼科医生订购。或者说，通过艾比?'sAbby谁?在ABB光学集团(ABB Optical Group)推出三个月后，她就成为了美国约2000家眼科护理提供商的平台。ABB光学集团是知名的品牌隐形眼镜分销商，占有约60%至70%的市场份额。这意味着成千上万的潜在的D2C隐形眼镜供应商正在销售。艾比也是一个动画，风度翩翩的角色，她是每个眼科护理提供者的在线面孔。眼科护理人员会给他们的病人一张隐形眼镜的处方，并告诉他们可以使用Abby将隐形眼镜直接送到他们家里。艾比吸收了运输成本，消费者也省下了去看医生的额外费用。ABBOptical负责战略和商业化的执行高级副总裁埃里卡·尤伦斯告诉《市场日报》，使用Abby也比通过1-800-CONTACTS等公司订购更简单。 “It’s cumbersome,” she explains. “They have totake a piece of paper [from their doctor], call 1-800-CONTACTS; [Then] 1-800-CONTACTS has to call the doctor and ask, ‘Is this a valid prescription?’ The doctor has to say yes. Then theprescription can be sent to the patient.” Going D2C for contact lenses also saves eye doctors lost revenue. That’s because providers don’t get paid much for eyeexams, she explains, while contact lens revenues “really help keep them in business.” Despite consumers -- whose embrace of home delivery was exacerbated by the pandemic --increasingly choosing to fulfill their eye doctors’ prescriptions through the likes of 1-800-CONTACTS or Warby Parker, Jurrens reports that ABB Optical research found that 80% of them wouldprefer to purchase from their own doctors but were choosing not to because of such factors as limited office hours. “Abby allows that doctor’s office to be open 24 hours a day,every single minute of the day,” says Jurrens. Indeed, Abby is designed to be an extension of the eye care providers’ office, with ABB Optical staying behind the scenes. “The doctor has to be in the center of the conversation,” Jurrens stresses. That extends to such marketing tools as follow-up emails from Abby, which remind customers whenit’s time to visit their doctor for a new exam or to reorder lenses, she notes. “We want to make the doctor the shining star,” she says. “We don’t want to be aconsumer brand.” After 50-some years as a B2B company, Jurren adds, ABB Optical considers Abby not its entrance into B2C marketing, but rather “B2B2C.” “Thedoctor and the doctor’s staff have to be the front line,” she explains. “They are the folks handing out brochures and telling their patients, ‘We’ve placed your orderthrough Abby,’ ‘You’re going to get a product from Abby delivered to your door,' ‘Expect that Abby’s going to send you a reminder in three months.’” Jurrens says that ABB has invested millions of dollars in the Abby platform, which was developed by Bounteous.