Dubai luxury retailer Rivoli brings a fine eye to its alliance with Zeiss
Zeiss Vision Store brings in AI to instantly narrow down eyewear choices for shoppers
Dubai: Want your vision tested? Then how about helping you choose an eyewear frame from among thousands of options? Within minutes?
If the answer to all of the above is a ‘yes’, then the alliance of Rivoli, the luxury retailer, and the fabled German optical lens firm Zeiss will deliver you that experience. With a touch of AI.
The partnership has so far opened two outlets – Zeiss Vision Center - where they meld eye care with eye wear, and this is where the AI part of it kicks in. The Artificial Intelligence platform will help the designated eyecare professional at the store advise the customer on the most suitable frames. And not just a handful of them either.
The AI – helped by 9 integrated cameras that form the Zeiss Visufit 1000 digital central platform - will come up with 3D images of the face. As an avatar, of course – and with which ‘thousands of frames’ can be tried on virtually. Until the customer chances upon the suitable one.
Eye care-and-wear retailing sure is changing, maybe not in the blink of an eye but fast enough. “There is so much of overlap between these, which is where the Zeiss Vision Center came into being,” said Subbaiah A.P, Director of Rivoli Vison. “The retail offering was a natural extension of the deal we entered into with Zeiss in November last year. Where Rivoli could bring in all its background in luxury eyewear retail and then pair with Zeiss’ background in optical perfection.”
The two stores that have opened as a result of the union are at Dubai Hills Mall and in Qatar’s Doha Festival City. In addition, Dubai-headquartered Rivoli Group also owns and operates eyewear retail concepts such as EyeZone, Style88 and the top-of-the-line Avanti.
“We believe that the potential from offering a combination of eyecare support and eyewear curation hasn’t been fully realised,” said Subbaiah. “There are stores that may do a bit of both, but bringing a full range of potential choices to this extent has not been done. We wanted to make that leap, and last November’s Zeiss partnership set that rolling.”