The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2013–2022
Lenskart built its own automated lens factories and home try-on to own eyewear end to end
India's eyewear retailer went vertical: robot-run plants, own stores, home try-on — scale that cuts cost and wait.
Lenskart
the move
Lenskart started online in 2010 and opened its first store in 2013, betting that Indians would buy glasses from a brand that controlled the whole chain. By 2022 it served over 7 million customers through an omnichannel model with more than 25% share of India's organized eyewear market.
Its Bhiwadi, Rajasthan unit — the company's largest factory — is fully automated, uses mobile bots and can serve up to 100 million customers a year; a partner-built distribution center can dispatch more than 200,000 pairs of eyewear daily. Lens lab, frame making, storage and dispatch were brought under one roof to boost margins and speed.
The model extended to the customer's doorstep: at-home try-on launched in 23 cities in 2022, and the acquisition of Japan's Owndays added premium stores across Asia, with Lenskart planning to serve those markets from India. Founder Peyush Bansal said its engineering and optimization ecosystem made it 10 times better at manufacturing.
why it works
- Own factories cut unit cost and lead time at once.
- Automated distribution makes a huge SKU count manageable.
- Home try-on removes the biggest barrier to buying glasses.
- Scale lets it undercut and out-deliver unorganized retailers.
what transfers
In a market where nobody else builds the supply chain, vertical integration is the moat: owning manufacturing and distribution cuts cost, controls quality and speeds expansion.
what came after
Lenskart kept pushing manufacturing into India — a new Hyderabad plant followed Bhiwadi — and filed for a ₹7,300-crore IPO in 2025 at a valuation north of ₹70,000 crore, still selling a pair every few seconds while expanding across Asia and the Middle East.
references
- Lenskart may shift SE Asia manufacturing to India plant
- Lenskart CEO Peyush Bansal on post-IPO vision, manufacturing push and more
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