Designer brands are very popular in recent years. Do you also receive requests from your customers in this direction?
We are constantly following designer brands closely. Since eyewear is in demand as an accessory as well as a necessity, in order to offer both together, we include the products of boutique brands that offer more original models in our store as well as worldwide designer brands that have proven themselves with their quality and design.

What are your after sales services?
As Kılıç Optik family, we aim for excellence in after-sales services. In accordance with our mission, we are always working to be indispensable for our customers with our after-sales services.

Street stores or being located in a shopping mall? What is your preference and what are the reasons?
We can better observe the diversity and intensity of our customer portfolio in high street stores. In this respect, we think that street stores have a more genuine potential. Being in a location that is easily accessible by our customers has always been our priority.

As someone who serves in the sector, what do you think about the rate and awareness of eyeglass use in our country? What can be done to increase the use of eyeglasses and who has a role to play?
The culture of using eyeglasses in our country has just started to settle. While more qualified glasses are used more widely and consciously in Europe, this situation is a little different in our country. Considering that one in every three children has a visual defect, we think that eye examinations should be performed at an early age and at more frequent intervals. Parents should be more conscious about this issue. Explaining to our customers the importance of eye health and the problems and diseases that may occur in their eyes if they do not use them in detail and informing them about the quality of glasses and lenses they should use depending on the condition of their eyes will encourage them to use glasses. This task falls to our doctors and us, the optical establishments, before anyone else.

Is the sales and training information provided within the sector sufficient? Do you organize training programs for your store employees?
It cannot be said that it is sufficient. Theoretically, we think that we are lacking in today’s developing technology. We support our employees to participate in online training programs and improve themselves.

Do you follow international optical fairs and sectoral developments abroad?
We closely follow international optical fairs and developments on the internet and social media. Because we think that fairs are of great importance for us to observe brands, collections, products, latest technologies and the latest trends.

What are your opinions and evaluations about Silmo Istanbul Optical Fair held between November 17-20, 2022?
It was a very enjoyable fair. As Kılıç Optik, we participated in Silmo Istanbul Optical Fair. It was a full fair for us. Since we have many world brands in our store, we had the opportunity to visit the stands of boutique brands with much different designs and lines. We made agreements with new brands and incorporated them to our organization. In 2023, we heard that the exhibition area will be built in a bigger area, and we think this is a very right decision. Since there is a lot of interest in Silmo Istanbul, we are glad to hear that the area will be expanded. We think the fair will get better and better in the coming years and we look forward to discovering new models and brands.

What are your views on 4 your eyes, which started to be published digitally as 2023?
We have been following your magazine with interest for years and find it very successful.  Thanks to you, we have the opportunity to discover the developments in the sector, eyewear fashion and trends soon. We think it is absolutely the right decision to go digital. Publishing your magazine in digital media will make it more accessible in today’s world. The service you provide to our sector is really valuable. As Kılıç Optik, we thank 4 your eyes family and wish you continued success.

April 2023

You are among the newcomers as a retailer. What is your strategy when competing with established stores in your location?
We do not compete with any of our colleagues. The important thing is to be aware that we, as colleagues, will understand each other’s problems the best, and to continue our business properly in respect and love. Instead of applying our strategies to our colleagues, we apply them to move ourselves forward by seeking answers to questions such as ‘how can we provide better service?’ ‘How can we better meet the demands of our patients?’. I wish all my colleagues abundant earnings in a fair way, without resorting to irregular means, being aware that we are friends.

You sell Rainbow brand lenses. Which one has high sales. Eyeglasses or contact lenses?
Rainbow brand contact lenses are, of course, our first favorite and the name of our store. Based on my experience, I try to give the right information about contact lenses to the customers who come to our store in the best way. I am honored to correct the known mistakes about this subject. Glasses and contact lenses are like our children. We are happy to offer the sale of both according to the demand of our customers. This is a difficult question because it is a matter of preference. We offer the most suitable option to our patients in line with supply and demand.

What do you think is the most important problem of the sector and what are your ideas for solving it?
When I think of the sector’s problems, I can think of only two issues. The first is the disputes arising from the advanced competition of optics in the same location. The second one is the referrals made by the doctors working in the hospitals in the location. Both problems are interconnected. Unfortunately, I see that while we are friends with a pharmacy next to us, we are like enemies with our own colleague with the optics in our neighborhood. This issue bothers me a lot. However, we all have the same goal. We all work overtime for this sector. We should think that an urgent product or information deficiency in my store can be completed by my optician colleague, not another workplace near me. We should always be tolerant to each other. We should be supportive. The second problem is a bleeding wound that I have struggled with a lot and never changed. Doctors should do their duty, the patient should go to the optical store of his/her choice and receive service from the place he/she is satisfied with. There is a ‘commercial concern’ in the guidance of the institution or doctor to whom our patients entrust their eye health. The patient should make the best decision for his/her health and budget and should not be directed.

Do you follow international fairs closely?
We participate in all fairs organized abroad, including Turkey, every year. We think that fairs are very productive for the sectors and we benefit a lot from this. First of all, seeing the products and brands exhibited in fairs and expanding our horizons provides us with a lot of knowledge in our business life.  Meeting with our colleagues at home and abroad, chatting with them, refreshing what we do not know or misinformation always benefits us in our business life. For this reason, we do not miss any optical fair as much as possible, we create the necessary time and participate.

What are your thoughts and feelings about the Silmo Istanbul Optical Fair that took place last November?
Silmo Istanbul is a source of pride for us. This fair, which takes place every year and hosts many participants from various countries of the world, is the only example that we are successful as all those who work for the sector. Following this, it is a tremendous event that we are all together as a sector, as all friends, and that we are united even if it is for four days a year. As someone who attends Silmo Istanbul every year both as an exhibitor and a visitor, I can say with peace of mind that it is an organization that guides us and makes us feel at home. Thanks to Silmo Istanbul, instead of traveling all over Turkey, we can easily access all the products we are looking for or not looking for, know or don’t know. The fair lightens the burden on us and strengthens our relationships. I recommend all my colleagues to visit Silmo Istanbul and I hope to see them among us.

As a retailer, how would you evaluate the transition of 4 your eyes optical magazine, which has once again signed the sectoral innovation, to Digital Publication?
I believe that being the only one in your field as 4 your eyes magazine and including digital on the path you have always followed with the same stability will add more to your success. I wish you continued success and I am proud to do this interview with you. May our existence and unity continue. I greet you and all your readers with love and wish that our success will continue in unity.

March 2023

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