Warby Parker (NYSE:WRBY) reported second-quarter revenue of $235.5 million, up 9.8% from a year earlier, as retail sales growth, eye exam expansion and higher average order values helped offset continued softness in customer traffic and the effects of ending its Home Try-On program.
Adjusted EBITDA totaled $32.9 million, or a 14% margin, including an $11.8 million tariff refund benefit related to inventory sold during the quarter. The company said it is using tariff refunds to fund additional technology, operational, supply-chain and marketing investments ahead of the planned fall launch of its Intelligent Eyewear collection.
Retail Growth, Eye Exams and New Products
Warby Parker opened 15 net new stores in the second quarter, including its 350th location at Doral Marketplace near Miami. The company had opened 29 net new stores through the first half of 2026 and said it remains on pace toward its target of 50 openings for the full year.
The retailer ended the quarter with 352 stores across 43 states and two Canadian provinces. Blumenthal said nearly two-thirds of the U.S. population now lives within 30 minutes of a Warby Parker store. The company expects its store network to be central to the Intelligent Eyewear rollout, allowing customers to try products, obtain prescriptions, receive eye exams and access ongoing support.
Retail revenue rose 13.6% year over year. While traffic remained softer than management would prefer, Blumenthal said stores posted strong conversion, high average order values, strong units per transaction and some of the company’s highest customer satisfaction scores.
Eye exams grew more than 30% year over year and represented about 7% of revenue, compared with 6% a year earlier. Warby Parker now offers exams in about 90% of its stores. Blumenthal said the company believes exams could ultimately account for 15% to 20% of business based on industry penetration levels.
The company launched a dedicated eye-exam campaign that generated nearly 200 million impressions across television, YouTube, Reddit, social media and other channels. Warby Parker said roughly half of its existing customers are not aware that it offers exams, even though management estimates that about 75% of consumers industrywide buy glasses where they receive their exam.
Warby Parker also launched five product collections during the quarter, including Warby Parker Sport, its first performance eyewear line. The company said the collection uses lightweight nylon frames, wrapped frame designs and performance polarized lenses. Management said the product has attracted a higher mix of new customers than the broader sunglasses business and has seen adoption of progressive lenses.
E-Commerce and Customer Acquisition
E-commerce revenue was $58.7 million, down 0.3% from a year earlier. Co-Founder and Co-CEO Dave Gilboa said the decline reflected the expected, temporary effect of sunsetting Home Try-On at the end of 2025. Excluding the impact of Home Try-On, e-commerce glasses and contact-lens order volume grew in the low double digits.
Gilboa said Warby Parker shifted marketing spending in the first half away from contact-lens acquisition and toward glasses and eye exams. Contact-lens sales across the business grew in the high single digits, with contacts accounting for approximately 11% of revenue.
Active customers increased 4.1% over the trailing 12 months, while average revenue per customer rose 6.6% year over year. Management said it expected stronger active-customer growth and is prioritizing acquisition in the second half through greater marketing investments, eye-exam promotion and insurance initiatives.
Insurance penetration reached about 8%, up from 7% a year earlier, while in-network insurance business grew more than 20%. Warby Parker ended the second quarter with more than 35 million in-network lives, up from approximately 32 million last quarter. The company also said adoption of its out-of-network claim-submission tool has surpassed in-network penetration, and users of the tool have shown higher average order values.
Intelligent Eyewear Preparations
Management described Intelligent Eyewear as a new category combining Warby Parker’s optical products with artificial-intelligence capabilities. The company has said the collection is being developed with Samsung and Google and will use Gemini. Gilboa said the glasses are expected to provide about nine hours of battery life under typical usage.
Warby Parker plans to offer demonstrations across its more than 350-store fleet and allow consumers to place pre-orders later this fall. Pre-orders will help the company assess demand by product silhouette and lens type, management said. Customers generally will place orders for customized products, which will be produced through the company’s optical labs and shipped directly to them, though the company also expects to offer some products for immediate purchase.
Blumenthal said Intelligent Eyewear product margins will be slightly lower than the company’s existing products on a percentage basis because of consumer-electronics costs, but should be the same or higher in absolute dollars. CFO Adrian Mitchell said the company is making lab upgrades, quality-control improvements, inventory-system changes and loss-prevention investments to support the higher-cost electronic products.
Warby Parker is also training employees across stores, customer experience, optical labs and operations. Mitchell said many launch-related investments are one-time foundational costs, while the company will provide more detail on the longer-term operating model and expected 2027 expenses at a later date.
Guidance Reaffirmed
The company reaffirmed its full-year outlook for revenue of $959 million to $976 million, representing approximately 10% to 12% growth, and adjusted EBITDA of $117 million to $119 million. The outlook excludes revenue from Intelligent Eyewear and any potential halo effect on the core business.
For the third quarter, Warby Parker forecast revenue of $243 million to $246 million, representing approximately 10% to 11% growth, and adjusted EBITDA of $26 million to $28 million. Mitchell said the outlook reflects a difficult comparison with the prior year, continued category traffic headwinds and incremental investments before the Intelligent Eyewear launch.
The company ended the quarter with $293 million in cash and generated approximately $7 million in free cash flow, including $3.4 million in tariff-related cash collections and interest. Warby Parker said it continues to prioritize reinvestment while retaining a $100 million share-repurchase authorization.
About Warby Parker (NYSE:WRBY)
Warby Parker, Inc (NYSE: WRBY) is a U.S.-based eyewear company that designs, manufactures and sells prescription glasses, sunglasses and contact lenses through a direct-to-consumer model. Since its founding, the company has combined online and brick-and-mortar channels to streamline the customer experience, offering features such as virtual try-on technology and a home try-on program that allows consumers to sample frames before purchase.
Established in 2010 by Wharton graduates Neil Blumenthal, Dave Gilboa, Andrew Hunt and Jeffrey Raider, Warby Parker set out to disrupt the traditional optical market by controlling the entire supply chain—from frame design and lens production to warehousing and distribution.
