About Us
Located in the North East of England, Online Reading Glasses started to sell optical goods on the Internet around mid 2001 with
the objective of providing consumers with high quality eyewear at an affordable price. All of our goods are inspected and selected
so as to offer extended performance and excellent value for money.
We supply a wide range of optical goods that consist of ready-to-wear reading glasses and custom-made reading, computer
and distance glasses. Since our inception in 2001, we have developed wide experience in the optical field to the benefit of
our customers. We are here to provide clear and unambiguous answers to any queries that our customers may have. We only deal
in factual information and we attempt to assist our customers as promptly as possible.
We hope that you find the website easy to use and the information we provide helpful and clear-cut. We are constantly
attempting to further improve the facilities, services and extend our product range. With this in view, your feedback is
invaluable to us, so please do not hesitate to contact us at any time.
ABOUT US
The Start
—date
Online Reading Glasses started to sell optical goods on the Internet around mid 2001
—location
Located in the North East of England,
How it started
ORG was first considered as an idea by my brother Barry Durham in 2000, I am Clive Durham. Barry originally sold reading glasses on a market
stall in the villages and towns around Darlington in the North East of England. Because the Autumn and Winter months could be harsh in the North East,
Barry sought an alternative selling method. He came up with the idea of transferring his business to the Internet as an e-commerce site.
That’s when he involved me.
Backgrounds
Barrys background was in marketing and finance and mine was electronics and software engineering in the Defence sector. It was at this time that
I was looking for new challenges.
Back then, Internet access was primitive with dial up connection. The only way we could take payment was cheques in the post. But our first order
arrived through the website around April 2001. But cheque payment was inconvenient for customers, that had to change. The next year, I added card
and PayPal payment processing to the website. Things took off after that.
Over the following years, competition intensified, especially from organisations with massive resources compared to ours. And we were also up
against the high street chains. So we introduced products that they could not spend the time on providing. Our inertia was low compared to theirs.
We knew that we had to keep constantly revising product range and adapting to trends. This was achieved by collecting statistical data on what
customers bought and collecting feedback from customers. But we also noted other trends. When kids were on holiday from school, order numbers dropped
slightly. We concluded that it was because the adults couldn’t get access to computers. We also noted that we got a lot of orders from medics and farmers.
Professions with limited time to go shopping because of workload and location.
It was important to us that our customers could identify with someone within our business. Not have a different person deal with their purchase
every time contact was made.
From partnership to sole trader
In August 2019, Barry died and this was an emotional time for the family. It was a time for decisions, including the future of the business.
I wasn’t sure whether I could take care of both the financial and technical sides. But after considering the amount of effort and time we’d put into
the business, I decided to continue.
Objective
Rapidly responding customer service.
with the objective of providing consumers with high quality eyewear at an affordable price. All of our goods are inspected and selected so as to offer
extended performance and excellent value for money.
Motivation
Experience
We supply a wide range of optical goods that consist of ready-to-wear reading glasses and custom-made reading, computer and distance glasses.
Since our inception in 2001, we have developed wide experience in the optical field to the benefit of our customers. We are here to provide clear
and unambiguous answers to any queries that our customers may have. We only deal in factual information and we attempt to assist our customers as
promptly as possible.
We hope that you find the website easy to use and the information we provide helpful and clear-cut. We are constantly attempting to further
improve the facilities, services and extend our product range. With this in view, your feedback is invaluable to us, so please do not hesitate to
contact us at any time.
