Episode Overview

Title: Warby Parker Kills Its Signature Home Try-On Program - What This Means for Growth
Date: August 21, 2025
Hosts: Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga (Omni Talk Retail)

In this episode, Chris and Anne dissect Warby Parker’s decision to discontinue its flagship Home Try-On program, explore the motivations behind the move, and examine potential implications for the eyewear brand’s future growth. The conversation spans financial strategy, store expansion, differentiation, and retail partnerships, particularly the new alliance with Target.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Warby Parker Ends Home Try-On Program

• Announcement Details: Warby Parker will end its popular Home Try-On program by the end of the year. Executives state that most Home Try-On users live close to a Warby Parker store ([00:00]).
• Strategic Pivot: The company plans to focus on enhancing its in-store and digital experience instead.

2. Slow Brick-and-Mortar Growth and Urban Focus

• Store Expansion Pace: Despite nearly 15 years in business, Warby Parker has only about 300 stores—averaging 20 stores per year ([00:37]).
• Demographic Reach: Most stores are reportedly situated in dense urban areas, which affects both the customer base and expansion strategy.
• Acquisition Tool Shift: Chris questions whether Home Try-On ever truly paid off outside urban centers, suggesting it wasn’t effective for national customer acquisition ([00:37]).

“If your stores are only in dense urban areas, yeah, that's probably true. So...what this announcement is trying to say is we no longer need online for the acquisition and that it provides.”
— Chris Walton [00:37]

3. Virtual Try-On Limitations & Market Differentiation

• Skepticism Toward Digital Supplements: Chris doubts that virtual try-on technology can replace the Home Try-On experience, calling those tools “gimmicky” and “never look right” ([01:48]).

“Virtual triad. Come on, seriously. And I mean, how many of those things have we tried? How gimmicky are they? They never look right on your face, like they look ridiculous half the time.”
— Chris Walton [01:48]

• Loss of Differentiation: With the Home Try-On program gone, Chris questions what sets Warby Parker apart from traditional eyewear retailers ([01:50]).
• Growth Concerns: The hosts worry that national brand expansion could stall without an effective online acquisition tool ([01:50]).

4. Financial Rationale and Operational Challenges

• Cost-Saving Measure: Anne frames the decision as fiscally responsible because the Home Try-On program was expensive with limited return ([02:15]).
• Customer Behavior: She raises a key question about whether consumers within 30 miles of a store will actually visit the physical locations and highlights the possible changes in consumer volume post-cancellation ([02:15]).
• Store Experience Scalability: Anne expresses concerns about sustaining the brand’s desirable in-store experience—with well-trained staff—especially in a tight labor market ([02:15]).

“There's a certain kind of educated employee that's working in that store that in a, in a tightened labor market, like, I just wonder if they're going to be able to keep that up because if they can't pay that off and they don't have home try on anymore, there's no difference between them and every other player out there selling classes online.”
— Anne Mezzenga [02:15]

5. The Target Store Partnership: Expansion or Risk?

• Potential Growth Lever: With the end of Home Try-On, the new partnership with Target (currently five store-in-store locations) becomes more significant ([02:15]).
• Open Questions: Anne considers whether this partnership will help expand the brand’s reach into more geographies or become an ineffective experiment ([02:15], [04:11]).

“Will they figure out like, we have to be in more areas, we have to take more advantage of this Target partnership, or does it just completely go away and, and they're stuck with their, their 300 stores?”
— Anne Mezzenga [02:15]

6. The Big Question: Where Does Growth Come From Now?

• Both hosts close on the central concern: With Home Try-On gone and a slow store rollout, what’s Warby Parker’s future growth strategy? ([04:22]).

“The big net net question that you and I have then is like, where's the growth opportunity coming from? How are they going to continue to scale if this goes away?”
— Chris Walton [04:22]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Eye Pun:
  “I think it says there's a lot more to this story than meets the eye. And see what I did.”
  — Chris Walton, opening up with a pun as the discussion launches ([00:27])

• Candid Skepticism:
  “Virtual triad. Come on, seriously.”
  — Chris Walton, expressing doubts about virtual try-on’s effectiveness ([01:48])

• Operational Concerns:
  “There's a certain kind of educated employee that's working in that store…in a tightened labor market, like, I just wonder if they're going to be able to keep that up…”
  — Anne Mezzenga, on labor and store experience ([02:15])

Important Timestamps

• [00:00] – News overview: Warby Parker ending Home Try-On
• [00:37] – Chris analyzes slow store expansion and strategic implications
• [01:48] – Critique of virtual try-on technology
• [02:15] – Financial and operational impact, Target partnership potential
• [04:11] – Anecdote about the Target location in Bloomington
• [04:22] – Closing thoughts: fundamental growth questions

Summary Takeaways

• Warby Parker’s decision to end Home Try-On is primarily a financial and strategic move reflecting shifting customer proximity to stores and challenges with remote customer acquisition.
• The brand’s future growth appears to hinge on successfully scaling its store experience, leveraging its Target partnership, and finding new ways to differentiate from online eyewear competitors.
• Hosts remain skeptical about whether current efforts will deliver significant national growth, raising key questions about operational sustainability and expansion strategy.

Listeners are left pondering: With this signature program gone, how will Warby Parker re-capture its distinctive edge and continue to grow in a crowded eyewear market?