Hy-Vee adding hybrid eyewear kiosks at select stores

Dive Brief:

Hy-Vee has partnered with online retailer Pair Eyewear to bring eyewear kiosks to select stores, the grocer announced last week.
In addition to the brand’s “base frame,” shoppers can pick different “top frames,” including customizable ones, that attach magnetically and change the style of the glasses. The kiosks will allow customers to have a hybrid shopping experience that lets them place orders for prescription and non-prescription glasses and top frames, along with trying on different base frames in-store.
The addition of the eyewear kiosks to select stores is the latest innovation from Hy-Vee to expand the services and retail assortment available at its grocery stores.

Dive Insight:

Hy-Vee is continuing to branch out into services and general merchandise as it looks to make grocery shopping more of a one-stop shop for customers’ needs. In the past year, the Midwest grocer has brought shoe stores, financial services and nail salons to select stores.

By using the kiosks, shoppers can place ship-to-home orders and choose from more than 1,000 customizable top frame designs online. Base frames start at $60, including prescription lenses, and top frames start at $25 each.

The first glasses kiosk will be located at the Midwestern grocer’s store in Grimes, Iowa, which opens on Sept. 14. Hy-Vee did not indicate the other stores it will bring more than a dozen kiosks to over the next year.

Hy-Vee said in the announcement that it is the first U.S. retailer to offer the try-on and shop Pair Eyewear products in-store. The kiosks combine the convenience of in-store try-ons with the ease and expanded product variety of online shopping, potentially attracting more orders than kiosks without the online component.

Other grocers have embraced the hybrid shopping model with in-store kiosks that customers can interact with and order products from. In the spring, Giant Eagle announced a "virtual vitamin aisle" by partnering with Vous Vitamin and medical technology company Higi on in-store digital stations that let customers take a quiz and place orders for home delivery.