Silhouette Buy Local wins Red Dot Award
An Austrian success partnership takes one of the world´s most coveted design awards: eyewear manufacturer Silhouette and their long-term digitalization partner Netural have won the Red Dot Award 2021 in the Brand & Communication Design category with their groundbreaking “Silhouette Buy Local” project.
Introduced in 1955 as a design innovation award, and branded with the red dot since 2000, the Red Dot Award is nowadays one of the greatest international design competitions. This year, the board received some 20,000 entries from all over the world. A jury of 24 leading experts awards red dots in three categories, and the “Silhouette Buy Local” project has made it among this year's winners.
As a leading international premium eyewear brand, Silhouette strives for excellence in every facet, including sales support. The e-commerce initiative “Buy Local” offers end customers the option to purchase optical glasses and sunglasses online, while at the same time generating sales leads for Silhouette´s stationary retail outlets. By introducing Buy Local, the Austrian brand manufacturer combines the best of both worlds in a new type of successful digital partnership.
Silhouette Buy Local - the new digital partnership
Eyewear buyers begin their journey on the Silhouette.com website with its a virtual try-on function, trying out the whole Silhouette range “live” from home. Subsequent purchases are made on a "Click & Collect" basis: Glasses ordered online are delivered to the buyer´s preferred local optician for expert adjustment and subsequent pickup. Combining a strong brand presence for Silhouette, automated sales support for partner opticians and perfect online shopping convenience for eyewear buyers, Silhouette Buy Local offers real win-win-win.
On silhouette.com, sunglasses have been available online since summer 2020. Now Silhouette introduces the first online ordering processes for optical lenses, combining total online service with professional advice and fine-tuning by local retailers. Following a successful start with opticians in Austria and Germany, successive rollouts are now scheduled internationally.
Compliments from the jury
Prof. Dr. Peter Zec, initiator and CEO of Red Dot, sees Silhouette´s award-winning project as a smart answer to the Corona crisis: “As the award winner, you have proven that you think 'outside the box'. You know how to act quickly in times of crisis and to make use of disruption to find novel design approaches. ”Netural CEO Albert Ortig appreciates the next in a long row of awards and notes that all successful digitization strategies have three things in common: the focus on the elegant solutions, the focus on perfect user experience - and the focus on real added value along the entire process chain.
Success across the board
The Silhouette Buy Local initiative is bearing rich fruit: during a test run in the German-speaking countries, it has received enthusiastic reactions from retailers and end consumers, producing such a convincing commercial success that the system is now being rolled out internationally.
