The digitally native eyewear retailer is on course to 40 stores this year whilst accepting the hit it has taken from Omicron.
Warby Parker has so far opened eight new stores this year, bringing its store count to 169 locations. The openings included Warby’s first store in Nebraska, and going deeper in Houston and Tampa, where it opened its sixth and third stores respectively.
“We remain on track to expand our retail footprint by 40 new stores this year, ending 2022 with 201 stores,” Co-Founder and Co-CEO Dave Gilboa said on the company’s earnings call. “Even with this rapid growth, at year-end we will still represent less than one per cent of the 41,000 optical shops open in the US today.”
In addition to opening eight stores during the quarter, the company noted that it also expanded its eye exam capacity, launched four new eyewear collections, scaled its vertically integrated supply chain, and continued to deliver “above-and-beyond experiences” to its customers, “who are spending more with us than ever before.”
Warby Parker reported that its revenues rose 10.3 per cent to $153.2M in the quarter ended 31 March. The company said it lost about $15M in sales due to the Omicron variant, whose onset coincided with peak demand in the optical industry as customers seek to use flexible spending dollars ahead of year-end expirations.
