Eyewear industry in the Far East is becoming more virtual and entertaining these days; another strong indication that the “fashion-meets-tech” is ongoing globally, or for this particular industry, “fashion-NEEDS-tech.” In Japan, one of the industry’s leading casual eyewear retailer brand JINS (a.k.a. “UNIQLO of eyeglasses”) tapped into the online virtual eyewear experience this spring with its “Salon de MEGANE!” and “Megane-muite-HOI!” online services (also an iPhone app), and is gaining momentum along with other competitions (Zoff is another major player in this category who looks like the 1st mover in 2007). These services utilize several cutting edge technologies such as AR (augmented reality) and motion portrait technologies in the backend.
JINS was founded in 1988 as a lifestyle & fashion producer and retailer, but shifted its core business focus towards eyeglasses around 2001. Like other successful manufacturing brands in Japan, JINS shifted its core manufacturing facilities overseas (think China) to compete in the
casual retail space. The company is somewhat known in Japan as “the Uniqlo of eyewear”, breaking the old regime of eye glasses that had been previously sold at $400-$600 to a much affordable $100-$200. The company went public in 2006 on Japan’s NASDA
Q-equivalent market, opened its 1st overseas boutique shop in China in 2010, and in recent years been very successful in producing a series of best selling original eyewear including the ultra-light titan-based eye-frame brand (“AIRFRAME”) series etc. The company sold over $220 million in revenues during fiscal year 2012 and is still growing through its disruptive business strategy despite declining overall market size in the country.
Here is how “Salon de MEGANE!” works; you upload a picture either from your digital camera or the ones from your existing social networking accounts like Facebook or Mixi. Next, you select the frames you would like to “try on”, then fit them onto your picture. Since there is an automatic face recognition technology embedded, the service can identify your facial structure to either “round, rectangular, triangle or long-shaped” facial structure. It will then come up with a series of suggestions for your specific facial structure (you can ignore them if you want). The system also has a 3D technology so that you can witness your facial expression (happy/angry/sad etc.) and from slightly different angles (* most of its technology is reportedly developed by a Japanese tech startup called KAYAC). One of the keys here is that this technology will help users to virtually try the frames even in online shopping which was viewed as one major pitfall for online retailers comparing to in-shop experience.
In regards to the “Megani-muite HOI!” game, we won’t go deep here (it is a derivative of a traditional Japanese scissors-rock-paper related game), but in a nutshell, users will play a simple game, and if one get away with consecutive victories in the game, he/she can receive up to $25 in coupon. Users can use those coupons when they shop online. Not a bad thing if you are considering of buying a $125 glasses.
As mentioned earlier, the eyeglass industry is a mature, but declining market. with lack of growth potential in Japan. However, JINS identified a new theory through changing the market sentiment thus the entire rule of the game. Eyewear was thought to be something consumers purchased one or two of because they are relatively pricy and with less emphasis on style. JINS thought more on eyeglasses as “fashion” “something you can own more than one=cheap and affordable” “playful/fun”, which led them to capture a totally new audience. With this new online experience, it has successfully tapped into a whole new audience that also is the core demographics in mobile/social commerce/game. These demographics can also be viewed as core element for e-commerce players nowadays.
