• Alana Whitaker

Why I Created This Site

Hi! I'm Alana Whitaker aka California Glasses Girl. Besides the "About Me" section on my website, I wanted to delve a little more into why I created my website.

1. I wanted a place to be able to elaborate on topics that I touch on from my Instagram posts. There is so much more I can talk about with visual merchandising, inventory management, frame styling, etc, that can't all be in a social media post. Hence, one of my reasons. If someone chooses to want to learn more about a particular topic, then they can easily read about it here. Or if they want to keep on scrolling, I totally understand that too!

2. I've found that often times, the frame buyer in a practice does not look at frame buying from a business standpoint. (I've had this conversation many times with many different reps.) If you're a practice owner or optical shop owner that does not personally buy frames and does not have a commission structure in place- then you 100% need to be teaching your frame buyer the impact optical has on your business. There is so much more that goes into this besides just picking out pretty frames. Visual appeal, inventory, salesperson knowledge, returns and marketing all affect your bottom line!

3. I've also found that optical shops do not utilize their eyewear reps near enough. This goes back to my previous point about things that affect your bottom line. Your eyewear reps are an excellent free resource that are under-utilized. From display materials, educational info, eyewear trends and general industry knowledge- you should be maximizing your relationships with reps. With that being said, not all reps can offer the same resources. Smaller independent companies don't always have as much as large companies in place. HOWEVER, even if a rep can't buy you a whole window display, that doesn't mean they don't have a wealth of knowledge about the industry that they can share with you. I want to use this space to bridge the gap between eyewear reps and independent optical shops.

4. There has been an influx of eyewear reps creating social media pages since VEE 2018 (clearly their companies pushed social media as a tool for them at VEE). HOWEVER, 98% of them are all doing it wrong. Y'all need help and guidance and guess what? There isn't anything out there yet specifically for eyewear reps! (Not that I've found anyways.) I want to share what I've learned to help eyewear reps grow their business by implementing a social media strategy. Trust me, I've already done the research and put into practice what I've learned successfully.

Be sure to follow me on Instagram @CaliforniaGlassesGirl & sign up for my email list! (At the bottom of this page.) Please feel free to reach out to me at any time for more information or to see how we can work together. Cheers!

#eyewear #practicemanagement #socialmedia #eyewearreps #framebuying



Dr. Michelle Ahumada