Industry Compliance

Sell Worry Free with LiveOptical

Perhaps the main reason why privately owned optical stores don’t offer online services is because they are afraid to compromise their professional license. Up until recently regulations about Internet dispensing were not well understood, nor discussed. In the meanwhile, millions of prescription eyeglasses were sold over the Internet from within Canada and US to Canadian and US customers. LiveOptical is an advocate of local dispensing regulations and worked in the dispensing rules into our software. LiveOptical found a way to help licensed opticians and optometrists compete with online glasses stores and serve the local consumer in the best way.

How Are You Regulated?

Many Canadian and American professional optician and optometry associations indeed prohibit online dispensing of prescription eyeglasses. They impose strict limitations on their own members (i.e. Ontario College of Opticians on all licensed opticians in Ontario) to not dispense glasses over the Internet. Such limitation only applies on sales made within Ontario, because this is the geographical limits of Ontario College of Opticians. This means that opticians licensed by Ontario College of Opticians are allowed to sell prescription glasses to all residents of British Columbia where Internet dispensing is not regulated. 27 States of America are not regulated as well. Canadian and American opticians and optometrists are not bound by any laws for eyeglasses sold outside of Canada and the US. In most cases you are allowed to collect money via online for a full prescription purchase as long as your customer comes to pick up eyeglasses from your store, which they would want to do anyway knowing that you are in their region.

How is LiveOptical Compliant?

LiveOptical software has built-in flags that can be configured to stop any customer who falls within geographical limit from making a prescription glasses purchase. These configurations are done by our team once your account is set up.  In addition, you can also allow your customers within your province to place a prescription glasses order online and pre-authorize the payment, then have a customer walk in to pick up their prescription glasses from your licensed optician. Once your local customers will realize that you have a walk-in location they will be glad to pick glasses up themselves, save shipping costs and take advantage of your professional service. Once you start selling online you will gain a fair amount of unexpected new business from such customers. 

Internet has no geographical limits and most of you customers will come from outside of your bounds, from US and rest of the world. You can sell worry free the following products without any limitations:
- Prescription frames
- Non-prescription sunglasses

Prescription frames and non-prescription sunglasses make over 80% of all glasses related purchases over Internet.