We are all busy people. Between work, home life, and trying to keep up with our social obligations life gets pretty demanding. Who has the time to stop, go to the eye doctor’s office, get an eye exam and then pick out glasses? While we know this is something we should get done once every one to two years, we often put it off in lieu of other things. Besides the cost, which can be astronomical, the task itself is time consuming. Yet, there is another solution. While nothing should tear you away from getting a 15 minute eye exam, you no longer need to waste time look for glasses. With the advent of the Internet, shopping online has become a favorite past-time for people on the go who don’t have time to waste. Shopping for glasses online is no different. Before you embark on a mission to find your perfect pair of eyeglasses frames online, there are a few things you should keep in mind before you even start shopping.
Do you have a copy of your prescription (rx) for your eyeglasses? It may seem like common-sense but having a copy on hand makes the process a lot easier. If you do not have a copy of your eyeglasses prescription, you will not be able to buy glasses online. If you have a copy of your prescription for contact lenses, head back to your eye doctor for an eyeglasses rx. Why? There is a lot of information written on your eyeglasses prescription that won’t be on your rx for contact lenses – like your pupil distance (PD), for example. Plus, your contact lenses don’t always contain the same prescription as your eyeglasses do. Additionally, it’s important to walk out of every eye exam with a copy of your prescription. If you don’t and your doctor refuses to give it to you – remind your doctor that he or she is violating United States Federal Law.
Online optical stores make buying glasses really easy but it’s helpful to know if your face is better suited for small, medium, or larger faces. If you currently wear glasses, look on the inside of your frames – you’ll see a set of three numbers (ex. 50-17-140). Those three numbers help tell you what size frame you should go for. In this example, 50 millimeters (mm) stands for the lens width; 17mm is the bridge width; and 140mm is the length of your temples. Using this as a guide, you can do an advanced search for glasses that meet these criteria or the criteria of 1mm above or below what you have already. If you do not wear glasses, ask your eye doctor to measure you for eyeglasses and take those measurements with you when you shop online.
Here are some other great things to think about before buying glasses online: do you want plastic or metal frames? Should they be rimless, semi-rimless, or full framed? Do you want a bold color like red or purple; or do you want to play it safe and stick with black, brown, or gunmetal? If you can’t answer even one of these questions, head to the site’s virtual mirror to “try on” any pair of glasses before you buy them.
Buying glasses online makes life more convenient because you can shop from your home at any time – day or night. Yet, without knowing a few key pieces of information – like having your eyeglasses prescription handy – you can go from ‘easy process’ to ‘annoying’ in about five seconds. Think before you buy and shop wisely.
Hillary Glaser is a social networking specialist and expert in cross-media promotion, currently working on promoting prescription eyeglasses. She is the Director of Marketing and Special Projects for GlassesUSA – the easiest way to buy glasses online, which now offers free shipping on all US orders with the code FreeShip10.