ETİLER OPTİK
40 years of heritage…
We support people to integrate their style with the glasses they wear. We provide eyewear consultancy like a personal style consultant.
Hello, as we all know, opticianry is a profession that you inherited from your family. Can we talk about your first entry into the profession and your journey so far?
Ufuk: As you have said, Etiler Optik is a family company. It was founded in 2007 by and under the leadership of my late uncle, Mr. Arif, the father of Ms. Seda. As a result of my uncle’s 30 years of experience, after Etiler Optik was opened in 2007, we have realized our sales and targets every year and we have come to these days.
Seda: My father has been in this business for many years and when he decided to establish this business, he prepared me for it until he got to that stage. I first started working in the sector in a lens company and then I continued in a frame company. Then my father said, “OK, you’re ready” and we opened this place in 2007. After that, he said, “You can’t do it here alone. You need some support,” and we started working together, as Ufuk told us.
Etiler Optik is a legacy of 40 years of experience for you. It is a great achievement to continue this, and also, to move forward by adding more to it every year. What has this journey been like for you and what are your plans for the future?
Ufuk: It was a very challenging process. You know as is an idiom: “fighting tooth and nail” Especially after the death of my uncle, we worked from 07:00 in the morning until late in the evening so that the customers would not feel his absence and continue to come here. We are glad that we did so, because we continue to grow with the number of customers increasing every year.
In 2022, you had your store redecorated. Let’s talk about the inspiration for your new concept and its reflection on customers.
Ufuk: To be honest, after 15 years, the store needed to be renovated and updated. We worked with a very successful architect who is an expert in his field. Together, we analyzed the decorations of some boutique eyewear stores in Italy and America and designed and built a store that would appeal to Etiler Optik customers and this location. The feedback from customers has been very good. We are enjoying the new store.
Etiler and its surroundings have always been a favorite neighborhood for big brands, companies and businesses. What kind of responsibilities does owning a store here and being in the middle of this competition bring?
Seda: We are aware of the location and our customer base. The people who prefer us do not prefer products that they can find elsewhere, on the contrary, they prefer products that are never seen and no one has. You can find fashion brands and collections of boutique brands in all the stores around us. We make choices that will suit our customer base and offer them what they want rather than the best-selling eyewear. We buy products knowing what we can sell to whom. In fact, we help people integrate their style with the eyewear they wear. We provide eyewear consultancy like a style consultant, not to meet needs. Here, the customer’s submission to us is a very nice feeling. They respect our ideas and suggestions, the choices we deem appropriate for them and they trust us very much. When our customers come here, they say, “There are very different designer eyewear, I have never seen them before, they are exactly what I am looking for”. This is a proof of how much we know each other.
Where and how do you source these different and special eyewear for your customers?
Ufuk: We go to all the fairs abroad as visitors. Before going to the fair, we spend hours in front of the computer and examine their collections. We see the products before we go to the fair. When we get there, we can say, “This is very nice, this is suitable for our customer profile. We travel all over the world to bring different products to our customers. That’s why, as Seda said, they say “We have never seen these products anywhere”. Our first goal is to make our customers feel that their eyewear is being looked at when they walk outside, if we can make a friend say how beautiful your eyewear is, where did you buy them and if our customers are satisfied with the product, we have done our job properly.
Which has higher sales? Sun or optical?
Seda: We can separate this as branch and location. For this store, we can say that optical and sun sales are more or less equal. This is a 15-year-old store, so we have a long-term and loyal relationship with our customers. They have been buying eyewear here for years and they trust us. We can say that almost all of the store in Bebek is sun-oriented. As you know, it is not as old as this store. Therefore, when that place also establishes its own customer profile, if it wants to buy optical glasses, so to speak, regulars will be formed.
Do you plan to branch out elsewhere?
Ufuk: We also divide the work between Seda and me. Since Seda is in charge of the financial management of the business, she always takes more cautious and solid steps. I want it so much, and if it wasn’t for Seda’s brakes, we would have opened it already. Of course, we never have a goal of becoming a chain store with many branches. We do not want to lose the boutique store concept.
What do you think is the most important problem of the sector and what are your ideas for solving it?
Seda: There is something that we believe is very real and we are talking about it together. Not only for us but also for our other colleagues, there is the biggest problem in the competencies of our colleagues serving in the optical sector throughout Turkey. We are also included in this situation. There is no optometry in Turkey. It is actually a very good thing that the patient’s eye measurement is done and everything comes out of a single hand in a compact way. He goes to the doctor and gets a prescription. He comes here to buy glasses. Sometimes, due to economic reasons, he buys the lens from another place and the frame from another place. However, if we had Optometry, we would have the chance to follow up patients more compactly and accurately.
Ufuk: We go to the workshop, we cut the lens, we assemble it in the most suitable frame, we provide all the comfort of the customer. If I can do all this, why can’t I determine the eye number of my customer? That’s why the arrival of optometry in Turkey is what Seda and I both see as the biggest deficiency.
You have created a design brand that can compete with international brands. How is the Sauren brand progressing, how does it feel to be far above the targets?
Ufuk: Actually, neither of us expected that things would come to this. In 2017, when we received an award in the luxury segment category at the Silmo Paris Fair in France, everything changed in an instant. It was the first time a Turkish brand received such an award, which gave us a much bigger responsibility. Of course, we are working hard to maintain this and we are improving every day.
Seda: The most important reason why Sauren Eyewear is designed by Etiler Optik and used in the world and in Turkey and why brand awareness is increasing so much is our location and customer profile. When opinion leaders, celebrities and our customer base with high quality tastes come to our store, really like the products, buy and start using them, it is the best promotion. Promotion born out of customer satisfaction is the most reliable and fastest.
You were both an exhibitor and a visitor at Silmo Istanbul. We would like to hear your opinions about Silmo Istanbul from both perspectives.
Seda: As a visitor, it is a very nice and precious feeling to come together with many colleagues from Turkey and many parts of the world. As a visitor, I am happy to come and visit, stop at every booth and hug each of my friends. It is a very valuable organization where you really bring everyone together. You have 4 days to master everything at once. What’s new? Who brought what? As an exhibitor, it is much different. You guide us and make us feel at home every time. You take the burden off our backs. Thanks to you, we don’t have to travel around Turkey. At the same time, sharing these experiences with you is very sincere, real and warm.
Ufuk: I can say that Silmo Istanbul is a place of ‘Feast’ for our sector. It ensures that human relations are always vivid.
4 your eyes optical magazine will now continue as a Digital Publication. How do you evaluate this change and innovation as a storekeeper?
Ufuk: Technology is one of the things you cannot say no to in the world. If you are aware, you don’t see many people reading newspapers anymore. We even read newspapers on our cell phones. This is something that the new world offers us. We can’t go against it. If we can access everything digitally, there is no need for the magazine to be live in front of us. We can access it digitally anytime and anywhere.
Seda: It’s very innovative. We are not lagging behind the times. Thanks to you. You advertise our brands in the magazine every month. Thanks to you, we make our advertisements, and when we go digital, everyone will be able to access these interviews, even those who don’t have a magazine in their hands. One does not necessarily have to be where the magazine is located to access the magazine.
February 2023