THE CHALLENGE
Founded in 2006, SmartBuyGlasses is an online eyewear retailer that sells to consumers in more than 30 countries worldwide. The online retailer discovered that consumer behaviour differs widely from region to region. What appeals to brand-loyal consumers in Japan and South Korea was not the same as in Australia. In Australia, SmartBuyGlasses realized it needed to offer a large catalogue of products for international customers that it updated regularly.
Cross-border e-commerce requires managing inventory, product information and catalogue translations. The retailer’s product catalogues include tens of thousands of SKUs. To sell via third-party (3P) commerce, the retailer built new APIs in-house for each marketplace it wanted to sell on. This manual process required significant resources which cut into margins. Employees had to manually manage stock, listings and integrations for each channel. For instance, the SmartBuyGlasses team could only manage 30 listings per day on Rakuten Japan. As a result, monitoring and adhering to each marketplace’s changing requirements became harder to manage as SmartBuyGlasses grew.
“It was like trying to make sense of messy cables at the back of a computer,” said Bulut Tanrisever, Head of Global Marketplaces, SmartBuyGlasses. “No one could tell what was connected or where.”
SmartBuyGlasses needed a unified solution that could make its marketplaces more manageable without constantly updating or redoing tasks manually.
THE SOLUTION
SmartBuyGlasses turned to Rithum’s self-service marketplace solution to automate its multichannel selling strategy. Through Rithum, the retailer was able to expand its reach into 15 additional countries, including the US, UK, Australia and Japan. Through Rithum, the retailer was also able to begin selling in South Korea through 3P marketplaces as it does not have a direct-to-consumer website available in the region.
“We chose Rithum for its multinational coverage, ability to scale and strong support services. The platform’s extensive integrations and global presence made it the ideal solution for efficiently scaling our business across multiple regions.”
– Bulut Tanrisever, Head of Global Marketplaces, SmartBuyGlasses
SmartBuyGlasses began using Rithum’s self-service marketplace solution in 2017. Since then, the retailer has continued to grow its marketplace presence profitably by leveraging Rithum’s more than 420 marketplaces and retail sites. Rithum seamlessly integrates with SmartBuyGlasses’ internal order and warehouse management systems, providing an automated, cohesive workflow from inventory updates to orders and shipment.
Rithum’s self-service marketplace option is also easy for SmartBuyGlasses’ employees to use. There is minimal learning curve as employees do not need to have prior knowledge of how marketplace integrations work. Now, Tanrisever uses Rithum every day to check sales, assign new products, change prices and make listing changes.
“When I first entered my role, I didn’t have a technical background or know-how to use Rithum. After just a few months in the role with Rithum’s support, I can say I’ve become quite comfortable with it. I mastered the tool and can easily go live in any marketplace in 24 – 48 hours,” said Tanrisever.
When Tanrisever does need assistance, Rithum customer support provides fast responses to ensure any issues are promptly addressed.
“Rithum’s exceptional customer service and support were significant deciding factors for us. They’re always there when I need them.”
THE RESULTS
SmartBuyGlasses is now active on 15 marketplaces, primarily in the Asia Pacific region. This includes several Korean marketplaces, eBay, Rakuten Japan, Catch and Trade Me, with plans to expand to Mercado Libre and Rakuten France in the future. SmartBuyGlasses offers between 8,000 and 12,000 products in each marketplace, with eBay now accounting for 29% of its GMV. The company’s Australian marketplaces sales have also grown 100% in the last year.
“Our journey with Rithum has been incredible so far. With Rithum, we’ve been able to streamline our entire marketplace operation, allowing us to focus on growth without worrying about the backend complexity.”
– Tony Zhang, CIO and Co-Founder, SmartBuyGlasses
Before partnering with Rithum, SmartBuyGlasses sold between 3,000 and 4,000 SKUs on Rakuten Japan. In less than six months with Rithum, the company now supports between 14,000 and 15,000 SKUs, an approximate 285% increase. Increased product listings is one of the top ways SmartBuyGlasses gauges success, as it has a direct impact on store traffic, driving more sales and overall business growth.
“I can’t imagine selling on marketplaces without Rithum. It’s like trying to walk without shoes—possible, but painful. Any marketplace opportunity not supported by Rithum is a huge burden for us, so we do our best to minimise those situations. The platform is essential for making our marketplace management efficient and scalable,” Tanrisever said.
SmartBuyGlasses has also achieved wins in day-to-day productivity by saving time on manual tasks like updating listings or troubleshooting integration challenges. This gives the team more time and freedom to focus on growth and strategy.
“We’ve been so surprised at the ease with which we’ve scaled across multiple marketplaces—without constant IT support,” said Tanrisever. “The Rithum platform has made managing complex integrations and automation processes much more straightforward for our team.”
COMPANY OVERVIEW
SmartBuyGlasses, based in Hong Kong and founded in 2006, is one of the world’s largest designer eyewear e-commerce companies. They operate in more than 30 countries worldwide and offers an extensive range of eyeglasses, sunglasses and contact lenses at affordable prices.
Its mission is to help people see and be healthy regardless of their budget, which SmartBuyGlasses achieves through an integrated supply chain, close relationships with some of the world’s leading eyewear distributors, technological innovation, in-house opticians and careful consideration of its customers’ needs.