Where is the Best Place to Buy Contacts Online?

Where is the Best Place to Buy Contacts Online?

Now that we’ve addressed the advantages of buying contacts online, let’s talk about the next steps on choosing where the best place is to buy contacts online.

Is any online vendor touting the best savings the smartest choice or should you take your time to research individual shops? There is a lot more to the contact lens buying game than just price!

We don’t recommend jumping into it before doing a little research.

You can end up with better long term savings, better quality lenses and the soul satisfaction that a store has your back no matter what, if you took the time to look around first:

It starts with your priorities. What matters to you most when it comes to your contact lenses? Price? Shipping speed? Customer service?

We’ve put together a laundry list of questions for you to ask.

How to Determine the Best Place to Buy Contacts Online

You don’t have to ask each of these before deciding which option is right for you, but it’s worth picking out a few that you would deem fit your top priorities:

• What makes a great online contact lens retailer?

What matters most to you? Are you budget-focused, service-focused, or need someone who ships quickly and reliably? Finding a retailer that meets all three would be ideal.

• Do they offer free shipping?

Why does free shipping matter? Because when you’re dealing with contact lenses, the packages shouldn’t cost all that much to ship domestically and should be free. Retailers that charge high for shipping are just looking to offset their discount they gave on the contacts.

• How is their selection?

Do they carry most brands or just select major brands? Are there a good amount of options, or is the shop only pushing one particular type of contact lens? – Although this may not apply as much since most people are prescribed one brand of contact lens by their doctor, a healthy stock of brands is a positive sign you are dealing with an established business.

• What about coupons and savings?

Be sure to get into the nitty-gritty and investigate these because you’d be surprised what goes overlooked in pursuit of savings. For example, a store that consistently offers contact lenses year-round at “20% off” can create some urgency around their product with a great coupon—but are you really getting additional savings or is this discount already baked in?

• What happens when you’re a second-time customer?

If you buy from a particular contact lens store as a result of great offers, do those offers stick around the second time? Or do the promo codes and coupons only apply for first-time customers? The goal here is to find a long-term contact lens store you can trust to give you a deal every time.

• How’s their customer service?

If you’re not sure, call them up. How long does it take to get past the automated call managers and to an actual representative? How does their customer service team handle dissatisfied customers in their reviews? Are their reviews from 3rd party verified purchasers or in any way manipulated on their end?

• How is the lens quality?

You’ll only really know once you place an order, but have you ever wondered why sometimes your lenses tear right out of the box or don’t last as long as they’re supposed to? It could be that you are paying for lesser quality contacts of the same brand at a discounted price. Reputation from your vendor is everything and sometimes a great deal could be too good to be true.

• How is the return policy?

If nothing else, you want some assurances that your order is going to be what you expected. If everything else looks right and you get something wrong with your order, you want to know that the contact lens store is going to stay accountable. In case your prescription changes and you’ve already bought a year’s supply of contact lenses, you want to know what your options are. Some stores allow 365 day returns for unopened contact lenses, a must-have if you are planning to get your eyes checked soon and want the savings that buying an annual supply will get you.

• Can you trust them?

To gauge trust, try to determine whether their customer reviews seem real and organic. Also consider the validity of what source or website they are being collected on. Third party review sites featuring verified orders that do not allow the business to manipulate any of the reviews are the best barometer to gauge whether you can trust them or not.

You can actually learn more about a business by looking at how they handle their 1 or 2 stars reviews compared to their 5. By looking at how they react, it can give a glimpse on whether to trust them with your business if something were to happen with you.

That’s a lot of questions

Whew, we’ll be the first to admit it: that’s a lot of questions, but if an online retailer passes all of these then there is a good chance you are dealing with an ideal or best place to buy your contacts.

The key here? Having a look through the list to see if there are any considerations you might have missed if you were shopping without any other thought.

High shipping costs, manipulated customer reviews, and discounts designed only for first time customers, should be high on this list.

Customer Service: The Difference-Maker

Overwhelmed by all this work? Then let’s narrow down priorities. Sometimes, it really does come down to one thing:

Quality customer service.

Customer service can mean the difference between fast solutions to your contact lens problems and countless headaches. It can mean the difference between pulling your hair out as you listen to “hold” music and opening the door to find your latest contact lenses at the doorstep.

Quality customer service also cuts through the complexity of research. You can tell a lot about a company based on how much effort they put into keeping your experience a positive one.

There’s just one issue though: how exactly do you know when a company has good customer service in the first place?

Here are a few tips:

• Look for companies with on-site customer service representatives versus out-sourcing them.
• Read the company’s reviews from 3rd party review sites and judge how their service team handles dissatisfied customers.
• Contact them! If your phone call takes too long or you are prompted by more than 1 automated answering machine, it shows that the company has had issues with high volume phone calls to their customer service team in the past, something that is not a good sign.

Never Shopping for Contacts Again

If buying contact lenses is something you dread and you don’t want to go through the process of finding the best deal online every single time, then take a look at subscription services for contacts. These services are out there, however most of the time do not match the savings you can get by ordering manually.

So, if you’re looking to reduce the amount of times you need to shop for lenses, then consider subscribing to one of these services.

To Wrap it Up

Contact lenses are little things that make a huge impact on your well-being —and the best places to buy contacts online should care about the consequences of not getting your lenses on time.

Choosing where to buy contacts online can be tricky at times, but we hope that we gave enough information and brought up enough questions for you to consider when settling on an online lens retailer.

Who knew there could be so many tips on buying something like contact lenses online?

Consider your mind blown.

But in all seriousness, the next time you shop around remember to consider your priorities and what makes a great online contact lens vendor right for you. After all, they’re your eyes and they are the window in which you’ll see the world.