QUAY, well known for it's designer eye-wear offers speed and efficient prescription service in-store with eyebot technology.

QUAY

Retailers have spent years talking about removing friction, and now eyewear-specialist, QUAY is taking that principle somewhere rather more literal by installing automated vision testing inside its stores, allowing eligible customers to obtain a doctor-verified glasses prescription in less than 15 minutes. The speed and efficiency could potentially turn many more browsing trips into a completed prescription purchase in the same visit.

The partnership with vision technology company eyebot has begun at QUAY’s Irvine Spectrum and Victoria Gardens stores in Southern California, with further locations planned. The kiosk combines optical imaging and automated vision testing with clinical oversight, with every prescription reviewed and signed by a licensed eye doctor.

QUAY says its optical category has grown 154% year over year, making it a core growth driver for the business. Earlier this year, CEO Katherine Cousins confirmed optical had already grown 105% year over year following its February 2025 relaunch, beating forecasts and projections. Before that relaunch, optical represented only around 4% - 5% of QUAY’s overall business.

Identifying The Point Where The Customer Walks Away

“One of the biggest barriers we were seeing in optical was customers finding a frame they loved, but realising at the point of purchase that their prescription had expired or they didn’t have a valid prescription,” Cousins tells me.

“That creates an unnecessary break in the shopping journey and can ultimately prevent them from completing their purchase.”

QUAY’s answer is to move that step closer to the transaction.

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“We saw an opportunity to solve that friction at exactly the right moment,” Cousins says. “By bringing vision testing directly into QUAY stores, customers can get a doctor-verified prescription in less than 15 minutes and continue their optical journey without having to schedule a separate appointment or come back another day.”

eyebot’s kiosks are designed for adults aged 18 to 64 without known eye conditions. They collect information including visual acuity, refraction, lensometry and patient history before the results are sent to a licensed eye doctor, who determines whether to issue the prescription. eyebot is explicit in highlighting that AI does not write the prescription. And there is an important clinical boundary to the convenience.

“To be clear about what this is: it’s a vision test for an updated prescription, not a replacement for a comprehensive eye health exam,” Cousins says. “Those exams are essential, and we point customers to an eye care professional for them.”

Retail Technology At The Moment Of Intent

What makes the trial interesting beyond eyewear is where the technology has been placed in the customer journey. Rather than asking shoppers to adopt technology simply because it is new, it appears at a very specific moment when it can solve an identifiable problem.

“It’s really about meeting the customer in the moment of intent when they’ve already found a frame they love and making it easier for them to complete their purchase,” Cousins says.

A great deal of retail technology has historically concentrated on the beginning and end of the transaction: discovery, recommendations, checkout and payment. Increasingly, the more valuable opportunity may be identifying the interruptions in between.

For prescription eyewear, one of those interruptions is obvious. A customer can discover a product online or in-store, try it on and want it, yet still lack one of the pieces of information required to buy it.

QUAY’s own website illustrates the issue. Customers buying prescription glasses online need a valid, unexpired eyeglass prescription containing the required information.

Put the ability to update that prescription into the physical store and the economics of the journey potentially change.

“It changes the timing, not the care and yes, we think that matters commercially,” Cousins says.

“Today’s consumer expects convenience across every part of their shopping experience. The traditional path from an expired prescription to a new pair of glasses can involve multiple steps and locations. Bringing vision testing into the store creates a much more seamless path from discovery to prescription to purchase.”

For QUAY, Cousins says the opportunity is not simply faster transactions.

“That has the potential to expand who participates in the category, improve conversion and make optical a more meaningful part of our overall business. It’s not simply about making an existing process faster, it’s about making prescription eyewear easier to access and shop.”

Turning A Need Into A Fashion Purchase

There is another reason optical is an interesting growth category for a fashion-led eyewear business.

Prescription glasses occupy an unusual position between necessity and discretionary fashion. Consumers may medically need the product, but the frame they select remains highly personal.

That gives retailers an opportunity to bring the discovery and desirability associated with fashion into a category traditionally shaped by a more functional purchasing process.

QUAY has already been pursuing that opportunity. Its optical relaunch adopted a wholesale-first strategy, building distribution through independent optical retailers and buying groups while investing in design and industry presence.

“We don’t see function and fashion as competing ideas,” Cousins says. “That’s actually where we believe QUAY has a real opportunity in optical.”

“Customers come to QUAY because eyewear is an expression of personal style, and we want prescription glasses to feel just as exciting and discovery-driven as shopping for sunglasses.”

The kiosk therefore does not need to become the attraction. Its job is almost the opposite: make the functional requirement sufficiently straightforward that the customer can concentrate on the product.

“The vision test technology makes the functional part of the experience easier, while QUAY delivers the fashion, product and environment that make customers want to shop,” Cousins explains.

“Ultimately, we are pairing a doctor-reviewed prescription with the product, fashion, and environment customers already come to QUAY for: convenient, accessible and still rooted in personal style. The goal is for customers to leave thinking first about the frame they love.”

For retailers looking at the next generation of store technology, that may be the more useful lesson from QUAY’s experiment.

The smartest technology in a store does not necessarily need to give the customer something entirely new to do. Sometimes its commercial value is in spotting the one thing stopping them doing what they already wanted to do and removing it.