Give one example each of data, information, and knowledge for Warby Parker (1.5 points). Specifically describe types of meaningful information that can be produced from data and how knowledge can be used to improve performance? (1.5 points)

MIS201 - Spring 2020 Warby Parker Warby Parker is an e-commerce company that specialized in selling eye frames at an affordable price, yet stylish in design. With relatively low eyewear prices, Warby Parker was able to enter an industry dominated by Luxottica Group who produced more than 80% of the major eyewear brands such as Prada, Chanel, Ray- Ban, Vogue, and Oakley. Such a monopolistic position enables Luxottica to be a price maker, setting the industry prices artificially high, ranging from $300-$600 per frame. In contrast to Luxottica, Warby Parker became the designer of the frames, and worked closely with Chinese manufacturers to create their products. They eliminated the middleman and directly sold their products to and interacted with customers through e- commerce. Hence, Warby Parker was able to cut down on costs and transfer costs savings to customers in the form of low prices. On April 2015, Warby Parker was valued $1.2bn, becoming one of the few firms to reach a $1 billion valuation without going public. Warby Parker aims to be "a life-style brand offering value and service with a social mission." This is evident in the value they provide customers in terms of the quality stylish retro glasses, yet at an affordable price averaging at $95. At the same time, they create a unique customer experience through their website where shoppers can buy the frames. Customers have the option to try 5 pairs of frames through their home try-on (HTO) program available on their website before making a purchase. Customers using the HTO program receive emails that provide them with the selection of frames they chose for HTO, and add to cart button and a "fast track" check out from their email inbox to continue the payment process. The fast track option has helped the conversion rate from HTO emails increase by 28%. Warby Parker connects their brand with philanthropy through "buy a pair, give a pair" program, where Warby Parker donates a pair of glasses to their nonprofit partners for every pair purchased. Warby Parker largets the millennial demographic who want to try new things, seek fashionable items, yet at an affordable price. These customers seem to be "proud of Warby Parker, and want to share the company's mission with friends and family." As a result, 50% of sales are influenced by word of mouth. Additionally, Warby Parker encourages customers to share their HTO frames through social media, and reminding them of using #Warby Home TryOn or #Warby Parker as a hashtag ad the HTO box, emails, and their social media accounts such as Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and Facebook. The HTO program enables Warby Parker to understand their customers' preferences, creating a richer source of data. Warby films a short video of people, usually their employees, wearing the glasses, upload it to YouTube, and retweet or email the link to the customer asking about the product. Also, this allows customer service representative to provide the customer feedback on Twitter Warby Parker started its ecommerce business by utilizing an ERP system that was sold as a package to run online stores, facilitating the company's speedy market entry. This system enabled them to integrate and retrieve data in the simplest form. However, the amount and sources of data grew with the company. Warby Parker had data coming from their website, the emails they sent to and received from customers, phone calls, home try on programs, prescriptions, eye doctors, social media, and storefronts. As a result, Warby Parker took a drastic decision to redesign its data architecture. It employed automation of data retrieval process through business intelligence tools and dashboards such as "Looker" that help to increase the efficiency of its business and improve customer experience and insights. For example, Warby Parker utilizes big data from web log via Amazon Redshift Database that enables employees to make use of the data to answer business questions and improve customer service. Data are made accessible to employees regardless of location and position, so whether the employee was a CEO, store manager, an associate, or an IT staff, they all are able to make use of the rich data available to help the customers or make statistical inferences or even predict demand. Warby Parker realizes that competing on scale is not enough to prevent new entrants from acquiring market share. In order to maintain competitive advantage, it should continue to focus on innovative product and service design and continue to develop their offering to match the demand of millennial customers, in particular, due to their low switching costs