Lenskart’s Tier II stores match metro performance, store expansion shows minimal cannibalisation
Lenskart is seeing strong traction from Tier II and beyond towns, where customer uptake matches metro cities. The company says new store additions are expanding the market rather than splitting existing sales.
Lenskart is seeing strong traction from its Tier II stores, with much better throughput in these stores as compared to metro cities, as the company's value pricing and wide penetration playbook pays off.
"What we are seeing is that the availability of high-quality and professional opticians in tier two cities is relatively lower than in metros or tier one cities. At the same time, there is a larger population entering the eyewear category for the first time in these markets. For these new customers, Lenskart is the preferred choice in the majority of cases," said Peyush Bansal, CEO at Lenskart, in a post-earnings call with analysts.
In the six months ended September, Lenskart added 93 stores, taking its total store count to 791 stores in Tier II and beyond towns.
Moreover, with similar throughput as metros, these stores are also accompanied by lower rental costs as well as larger store sizes, leading to better profitability.
Lenskart maintains that its rapid store expansion is not cannibalising its sales from other stores in the area, clocking same store sales growth of 15%, consistent with the previous year. It also achieved about 20% adjusted same-pincode sales growth, which primarily indicates market share gains within existing geographies, helped by volume-driven growth.
This also pushed the company's topline growth by 21% to Rs 2,096 crore from Rs 1,735 crore in the corresponding quarter in the previous year.
"Over the last two years, cannibalisation has been minimal. When we add density to our postal code, we are not splitting the same pie. We are doubling the TAM in the postal code," added Bansal, saying that the company is in a hyperlocal business, and even a pin code is a large base for it.
The company is also banking on tapping into latent demand as the expansion of eye-testing has become central to growing the overall vision-care market rather than competing for existing users. Nearly half of all customers tested are undergoing their first-ever eye exam; it conducted 9.3 million eye tests in the first half of FY26.
During the same period, it saw its bottomline improve 19% to Rs 103.4 crore from Rs 86.3 crore, as it looks to target more than 450 net store additions by the end of this financial year.