MBJ: How the solar eclipse changed one local company’s business model
A local company made at least 40 million pairs of solar eclipse glasses this year. A final count is still being tallied — and the orders just keep coming.
According to American Paper Optics’ director of marketing Jason Lewin, the new orders are coming from those who want to commemorate the August 21 total solar eclipse.
The Bartlett company was one of five American Astronomical Society-verified manufacturers that made eclipse glasses and handheld viewers that met international safety standards.
Lewin said that he did not yet have a revenue figure to share but that there was obviously a spike in the normal revenue stream, something that the company had been building up to for two years.
“Lots of time and energy — not to mention money — went into positioning ourselves to be the biggest and best eclipse glasses provider,” he said. “That planning ultimately paid off.”
The company sold bulk glasses online, but sold single sets at retailers such as Lowe’s and Walmart stores.
When Memphians got wind that their glasses were being made locally, the demand ended up necessitating an American Paper Optics solar eclipse pop-up shop at the company’s offices.
“It’s funny, we never planned to have a pop-up shop. In fact, we were against the idea of doing it all together,” Lewin said. “Being a large manufacturer, the goal was to focus on building inventory while getting the 10,000 plus individual orders out per day. A couple of months before the eclipse, we began to field calls asking if folks could come by and purchase from the facility. The e-mails and calls soon turned into 30-40 people per day stopping by our location asking if they could purchase the glasses. We quickly realized that the only thing we could do to satisfy the local consumer was to provide the pop-up shop.”
The shop opened a week before the eclipse and ran from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m. for a week. Lewin said the company had a couple thousand visitors daily.
MBJ: How the solar eclipse changed one local company’s business model
SOUL CITY USA ARCHIVE 