Zenni’s CTO elevates the brand’s tech capabilities and customer experience

Glasses are a tool for survival for many, but let’s be honest, people want to look cool too. And Zenni’s new chief technology officer wants to help consumers with that.

David Ting has been with the company for just over a year, but during his short tenure has elevated Zenni’s technological capabilities to help it contend with the industry’s major players such as Warby Parker and GlassesUSA. The evolving AI landscape is becoming increasingly competitive due to consumers’ elevated expectations around the customer experience—and glasses are no exception.

In May, Zenni introduced a new, AI-powered image search tool on its app and website that allows customers to upload a picture of any style of glasses they like and immediately find similar versions within Zenni’s catalog.

• Before making a purchase, shoppers can virtually try on glasses by submitting their own image or photo of their desired style.
• Additionally, Zenni provides stock photos of glasses customers can browse to find matching frames that the company carries in its inventory.

Alongside the image search tool, Zenni also launched a prescription scan feature that reads a customer’s prescription, so they do not have to manually enter the information.

“It shows you if it’s too small, what’s the right size, so it’s a mirror, but then you don’t have to have that physical on and off, you can just scroll through a number of looks very quickly,” Ting told Retail Brew.

Turning the corner: Zenni’s new tech approach comes at a pivotal time for the company, which earlier this year celebrated its 20th anniversary and surpassed 51 million pairs of eyeglasses sold.

• Company sales last year increased 15% year over year, and more than 60% of Zenni’s customers in the past year returned to make another purchase.

Last June, at the start of Ting’s tenure, Zenni redesigned its mobile applications and saw its daily active users more than triple from 7,000 to 28,000 in Q3. Additionally, mobile app revenue between June and August doubled, and the company expects to see 15% month over month growth as a result.

• The company saw sales of $20 million during the latter half of last year through its mobile app alone.

Ting, who has led growth strategy for tech companies including Yahoo, IBM, and Blizzard, believes future AI advancements could disrupt the retail and e-commerce spaces, and he wants Zenni to be a leader in the space.

“When you’re looking at DTC, what I believe is the ultimate is actually using technologies to bridge as well as the integrated manufacturing to get that ultimate service experience to the customer,” he said.

Zoom out: It would have been kind of scary to read this a decade ago, but this is the year of artificial intelligence. Retailers—and tech companies that work with retailers—are rapidly introducing new AI-powered tools to elevate the customer experience.

• Last month, eBay released a plug-in that, through generative AI, allows sellers to automatically generate text for their item descriptions based on product attributes, which helps cut down on the time and effort required to list items.

Also, Google introduced a new shopping feature to close at least one of the gaps—virtual try-on for women’s tops, powered by AI. The company plans on rolling out that feature for men’s tops later this year.