Online optical stores constantly compete for business, offering discounts and bonuses to attract the most number of patrons. Unfortunately, when purchasing contact lenses, the discounted price often does not include thorough eye examination, lens-care kit, and follow-up check-ups to ensure the lenses you bought suit your needs and preference.
Likewise, shipping costs may be tantamount to an increase in overall expenses. It is thus often best to consider a reasonably priced package along with a seller that can relate to your physician.
Logically, larger companies have larger inventories so they surely have more stocks available. Since they buy in large volumes, they are able to sell at lower prices as well. Greater savings are more likely with online retailers than with conventional opticians.
However, since there are uncountable combination of power, curvature, and diameter, no company can stock all prescriptions.
To get your money’s worth, ask your prescriber what options are available to be truly the best buy, one that is not only cheap but also what best meets your needs. Then consult such price-comparing websites as Lens Price, LensShopper, BizRate, MySimon, Shopping.com, Froogle and Yahoo! Shopping.
When you type in a brand name, it will pull up listings with prices in ascending or descending order. These websites may not be up to date because some sellers often include rebates. They might not allow you to compare cost of shipment at all times, too. Still and all, the links to the sellers are beneficial since the independent and unbiased user reviews you may find there can help you judge unfamiliar merchants.
Many sellers advertise themselves as carriers of all major brands of discount contact lenses such as Acuvue, Focus, Freshlook, Preference, Biomedics as well as hard-to-find specialty lenses such as toric, colored, bifocal and multifocal lenses. Majority of them promise unbeatable savings with big discounts, special payment schemes, rebates, freebies and privileges. Some even offers an affiliate program wherein you earn by marketing their products and inviting prospective customers through a link on your own website. Others develop certain payment methods that allow no billing for ninety days on orders that reached the required minimum purchase.
Internet sites allow 24/7 shopping and make it easy to canvass for the cheapest products. The disadvantage lies in the shipping costs. Some retailers deliberately offer extremely low prices, but shipping costs are very high. Others offer free shipping on all orders within the USA, but their prices are considerably higher than what the others give. The best choice is to look for companies with free shipping on large orders. Contact lenses are non-perishable and take very little storage space, so if you can afford to buy more pairs at once, you can save on shipping.
There are indeed a numerous brand names, manufacturers, and distributors to choose from for optical needs. Next time you plan to buy discount contact lens online, bear in mind that it is ideal to do a little research, consider shipping charges, and have regular visits to your eye doctor. Smart shopping and proper eye care are good for the budget and most of all, for your vision.