Britain’s biggest online watch retailer, WatchShop, has added sunglasses to its portfolio.
The Aurum Holdings e-tail business already sells jewellery and other accessories alongside the largest range of watches of any UK online store.
The sunglasses division kicks off with nine brands and more than 390 styles.
Sunglasses from Ray-Ban, Nike, Lacoste, Emporio Armani, Calvin Klein and Versace are being offered immediately, with additional brands promised in the coming months.
Alex Fisher, CEO of WatchShop.com says: “This is a natural progression for us as an online retailer as we look to expand our offering to consumers looking to update their fashion wardrobes with accessories. We are really answering customer demand, our audience love the breadth of brands and styles we offer at affordable prices and sunglasses was a natural progression.”
Shifting into sunglasses is the same move made by rival Toff Group, which opened online watch boutique Watches2U.com nine years before starting Sunglasses2U.com.
Watches2U International managing director Danny Toffel told WatchPro today that he had already reacted to the WatchShop move. “Sunglasses is ridiculously competitive and I think they are going to struggle to generate the business they think they will,” Mr Toffel says. “We reacted to them doing this by adding sunglasses to Watches2u last week,” he adds.
Sunglasses2U offers around 60 brands, but only 15 brands will be listed on Watches2U because the business wants to protect its search engine optimisation position with watch brands.
