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Embedded payments
Grow your business
Technical resources
About Mollie
Tap to Pay on iPhone
Accept contactless payments right on your iPhone with the Mollie app
Accept payments
Embedded payments
Grow your business
Technical resources
About Mollie
Odette Lunettes
Odette Lunettes
Odette Lunettes
How Odette Lunettes grew into a global eyewear company
How Odette Lunettes grew into a global eyewear company
Ecommerce
Ecommerce
Ecommerce
“A goal without a plan remains a dream, but this one came true”
Eline De Munck
You know Eline De Munck from all sorts of things: the telenovela LouisLouise (of course!), Qmusic, the legendary youth channel JIM… But ten years ago, she took on a very different challenge, together with director Bob Geraets. They shared a dream, worked out a plan, and launched Odette Lunettes. An eyewear brand that approaches things very differently from others. Rebel and digital.
"When I was presenting on TV", Eline De Munck begins, "I always wore glasses. Something that viewers recognized me by. A true fashion accessory, almost like a jewel. Bob, who was the editor-in-chief at JIM at the time, kept getting emails from viewers asking where they could buy my glasses… So we thought: what if we launched our own eyewear brand?"
That was the beginning of Odette Lunettes.
You know Eline De Munck from all sorts of things: the telenovela LouisLouise (of course!), Qmusic, the legendary youth channel JIM… But ten years ago, she took on a very different challenge, together with director Bob Geraets. They shared a dream, worked out a plan, and launched Odette Lunettes. An eyewear brand that approaches things very differently from others. Rebel and digital.
"When I was presenting on TV", Eline De Munck begins, "I always wore glasses. Something that viewers recognized me by. A true fashion accessory, almost like a jewel. Bob, who was the editor-in-chief at JIM at the time, kept getting emails from viewers asking where they could buy my glasses… So we thought: what if we launched our own eyewear brand?"
That was the beginning of Odette Lunettes.
You know Eline De Munck from all sorts of things: the telenovela LouisLouise (of course!), Qmusic, the legendary youth channel JIM… But ten years ago, she took on a very different challenge, together with director Bob Geraets. They shared a dream, worked out a plan, and launched Odette Lunettes. An eyewear brand that approaches things very differently from others. Rebel and digital.
"When I was presenting on TV", Eline De Munck begins, "I always wore glasses. Something that viewers recognized me by. A true fashion accessory, almost like a jewel. Bob, who was the editor-in-chief at JIM at the time, kept getting emails from viewers asking where they could buy my glasses… So we thought: what if we launched our own eyewear brand?"
That was the beginning of Odette Lunettes.
What makes Odette Lunettes different?
“We offer unique, but also very wearable designs with an edgy touch at a fair, affordable price. What makes our glasses edgy? For example, a combination of colors you don’t see very often. The frames always have to radiate a bit of sexiness and the shapes shouldn’t be too ordinary. So we tend to go for oversized.”
“We are somewhat of a rebellious lover brand,” Bob Geraets continues. “We always try to communicate tongue-in-cheek. Ultimately, everything we do has to be different from what other independent eyewear brands do.” Ten years after the launch, you can find their glasses at no less than 750 opticians in 30 countries. In Flanders, Odette Lunettes has five stores in prime locations.
What makes Odette Lunettes different?
“We offer unique, but also very wearable designs with an edgy touch at a fair, affordable price. What makes our glasses edgy? For example, a combination of colors you don’t see very often. The frames always have to radiate a bit of sexiness and the shapes shouldn’t be too ordinary. So we tend to go for oversized.”
“We are somewhat of a rebellious lover brand,” Bob Geraets continues. “We always try to communicate tongue-in-cheek. Ultimately, everything we do has to be different from what other independent eyewear brands do.” Ten years after the launch, you can find their glasses at no less than 750 opticians in 30 countries. In Flanders, Odette Lunettes has five stores in prime locations.
What makes Odette Lunettes different?
“We offer unique, but also very wearable designs with an edgy touch at a fair, affordable price. What makes our glasses edgy? For example, a combination of colors you don’t see very often. The frames always have to radiate a bit of sexiness and the shapes shouldn’t be too ordinary. So we tend to go for oversized.”
“We are somewhat of a rebellious lover brand,” Bob Geraets continues. “We always try to communicate tongue-in-cheek. Ultimately, everything we do has to be different from what other independent eyewear brands do.” Ten years after the launch, you can find their glasses at no less than 750 opticians in 30 countries. In Flanders, Odette Lunettes has five stores in prime locations.
Digitization is the key
“What have we learned over the past years?” Bob responds. “That to grow (cost) efficiently, you need the right people with the right knowledge on board, but at the same time, you must focus on digitization. In our very first pop-up store, I was still manually creating invoices in Excel, right at the cash register. If we wanted to grow bigger, we had to handle things more efficiently. So digitizing, with a platform. Eventually also with payment solutions from Mollie, but now I’m ahead of the curve.”
“We did face a problem though: the digital platform we needed didn’t exist. At least not tailored to the activities of eyewear brands. So we had it built ourselves. Today, our platform combines solutions for our back and front office, tools for automating marketing… but also some unique features, because we sell both directly to consumers and through other opticians. All processes are maximally digitally connected for maximum efficiency.”
The digital platform is also constantly evolving. Eline says: “For example, to make our new consumer protection plan possible. If customers buy glasses with the protection plan and lose them, they can purchase a new pair at a discount. But for that, the platform has to keep track that you bought glasses with a protection plan.”
Digitization is the key
“What have we learned over the past years?” Bob responds. “That to grow (cost) efficiently, you need the right people with the right knowledge on board, but at the same time, you must focus on digitization. In our very first pop-up store, I was still manually creating invoices in Excel, right at the cash register. If we wanted to grow bigger, we had to handle things more efficiently. So digitizing, with a platform. Eventually also with payment solutions from Mollie, but now I’m ahead of the curve.”
“We did face a problem though: the digital platform we needed didn’t exist. At least not tailored to the activities of eyewear brands. So we had it built ourselves. Today, our platform combines solutions for our back and front office, tools for automating marketing… but also some unique features, because we sell both directly to consumers and through other opticians. All processes are maximally digitally connected for maximum efficiency.”
The digital platform is also constantly evolving. Eline says: “For example, to make our new consumer protection plan possible. If customers buy glasses with the protection plan and lose them, they can purchase a new pair at a discount. But for that, the platform has to keep track that you bought glasses with a protection plan.”
Digitization is the key
“What have we learned over the past years?” Bob responds. “That to grow (cost) efficiently, you need the right people with the right knowledge on board, but at the same time, you must focus on digitization. In our very first pop-up store, I was still manually creating invoices in Excel, right at the cash register. If we wanted to grow bigger, we had to handle things more efficiently. So digitizing, with a platform. Eventually also with payment solutions from Mollie, but now I’m ahead of the curve.”
“We did face a problem though: the digital platform we needed didn’t exist. At least not tailored to the activities of eyewear brands. So we had it built ourselves. Today, our platform combines solutions for our back and front office, tools for automating marketing… but also some unique features, because we sell both directly to consumers and through other opticians. All processes are maximally digitally connected for maximum efficiency.”
The digital platform is also constantly evolving. Eline says: “For example, to make our new consumer protection plan possible. If customers buy glasses with the protection plan and lose them, they can purchase a new pair at a discount. But for that, the platform has to keep track that you bought glasses with a protection plan.”
No more manual reconciliation
“In our physical stores, until recently, we still worked with different payment systems,” Eline continues. “That is to say: each shop was linked to a different bank account, with a separate payment terminal. So we received several streams of payments that we couldn’t automatically match to invoices — what in accounting is called reconciliation. We couldn’t integrate the payment system data from our stores into our digital platform. So we had to do it manually, which is a huge task, especially as you open more and more stores.”
Until one day in 2024. Bob: “The Dutch IT company that keeps developing our digital platform pointed out that Mollie now also offers solutions for offline payments in physical stores, like payment terminals (or from May: accepting payments with smartphones as terminals, tap to pay). A solution that integrated perfectly with our digital platform. So we gradually switched to Mollie in our physical stores. Something that saves our accountant a lot of time today: reconciliation is now much easier.”
For online payments in Odette Lunettes’ webshops for consumers and opticians, Eline and Bob’s company initially used Shopify e-commerce software. “But three years after launch, we built our own platform with Mollie integration.”
No more manual reconciliation
“In our physical stores, until recently, we still worked with different payment systems,” Eline continues. “That is to say: each shop was linked to a different bank account, with a separate payment terminal. So we received several streams of payments that we couldn’t automatically match to invoices — what in accounting is called reconciliation. We couldn’t integrate the payment system data from our stores into our digital platform. So we had to do it manually, which is a huge task, especially as you open more and more stores.”
Until one day in 2024. Bob: “The Dutch IT company that keeps developing our digital platform pointed out that Mollie now also offers solutions for offline payments in physical stores, like payment terminals (or from May: accepting payments with smartphones as terminals, tap to pay). A solution that integrated perfectly with our digital platform. So we gradually switched to Mollie in our physical stores. Something that saves our accountant a lot of time today: reconciliation is now much easier.”
For online payments in Odette Lunettes’ webshops for consumers and opticians, Eline and Bob’s company initially used Shopify e-commerce software. “But three years after launch, we built our own platform with Mollie integration.”
No more manual reconciliation
“In our physical stores, until recently, we still worked with different payment systems,” Eline continues. “That is to say: each shop was linked to a different bank account, with a separate payment terminal. So we received several streams of payments that we couldn’t automatically match to invoices — what in accounting is called reconciliation. We couldn’t integrate the payment system data from our stores into our digital platform. So we had to do it manually, which is a huge task, especially as you open more and more stores.”
Until one day in 2024. Bob: “The Dutch IT company that keeps developing our digital platform pointed out that Mollie now also offers solutions for offline payments in physical stores, like payment terminals (or from May: accepting payments with smartphones as terminals, tap to pay). A solution that integrated perfectly with our digital platform. So we gradually switched to Mollie in our physical stores. Something that saves our accountant a lot of time today: reconciliation is now much easier.”
For online payments in Odette Lunettes’ webshops for consumers and opticians, Eline and Bob’s company initially used Shopify e-commerce software. “But three years after launch, we built our own platform with Mollie integration.”
What does the future hold?
“We want to keep growing safely, as a scale-up company,” Bob summarizes. “That could mean more shops… For example, we’re preparing to open physical stores in the Netherlands. But we also want to do more business with opticians abroad. I would find it a shame if we become too corporate. We have to stay agile enough to seize every opportunity, as much as possible.”
“Definitely, we must stay very hands-on,” Eline concludes. “Never be afraid to handle whatever needs to be done in the company at that moment. But at the same time, play to your strengths, because that’s where you add the most value. If I have one piece of advice for anyone nurturing an entrepreneurial dream: first think carefully about what your goal is and how you will achieve it. Because a goal without a plan remains a dream. And once your plan is set: jump! That’s how our dream came true.”
What does the future hold?
“We want to keep growing safely, as a scale-up company,” Bob summarizes. “That could mean more shops… For example, we’re preparing to open physical stores in the Netherlands. But we also want to do more business with opticians abroad. I would find it a shame if we become too corporate. We have to stay agile enough to seize every opportunity, as much as possible.”
“Definitely, we must stay very hands-on,” Eline concludes. “Never be afraid to handle whatever needs to be done in the company at that moment. But at the same time, play to your strengths, because that’s where you add the most value. If I have one piece of advice for anyone nurturing an entrepreneurial dream: first think carefully about what your goal is and how you will achieve it. Because a goal without a plan remains a dream. And once your plan is set: jump! That’s how our dream came true.”
What does the future hold?
“We want to keep growing safely, as a scale-up company,” Bob summarizes. “That could mean more shops… For example, we’re preparing to open physical stores in the Netherlands. But we also want to do more business with opticians abroad. I would find it a shame if we become too corporate. We have to stay agile enough to seize every opportunity, as much as possible.”
“Definitely, we must stay very hands-on,” Eline concludes. “Never be afraid to handle whatever needs to be done in the company at that moment. But at the same time, play to your strengths, because that’s where you add the most value. If I have one piece of advice for anyone nurturing an entrepreneurial dream: first think carefully about what your goal is and how you will achieve it. Because a goal without a plan remains a dream. And once your plan is set: jump! That’s how our dream came true.”
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