Exclusive: National Vision CEO on traffic, ticket growth and the digital shift

Investing.com – On the surface, National Vision’s second quarter results may look counterintuitive: store traffic fell, yet comparable sales rose, margins expanded, and adjusted EPS grew 40% year over year.

A closer look, however, shows why: a deliberate push toward a slightly different client mix, major e-commerce initiatives, store segmentation programs, even at the cost of slightly lower traffic.

Investing.com had a chance to speak with the company’s CEO Alex Wilkes to get a better idea of what the company has been working on and what investors should expect next.

Traffic is weaker, but client spending is strong

Despite a 4.9% decline in store traffic, National Vision grew Q2 comparable sales by 2.2% thanks largely to 7.1% increase in average ticket. According to Wilkes, the headline traffic number doesn’t tell the full story:

“In Q2, lower-value transactions were pressured, including the entry bundle customer, but we delivered positive momentum with higher-value transactions, including with managed care customers,” he said, noting that “near-term traffic does not fully reflect the progress we are making across customer mix, managed care, premium products and digital execution.”

Managed care traffic remained positive, while mix-driven ticket growth accelerated during the quarter.

Wilkes also pointed to data showing National Vision gaining share and outperforming the broader category in exam volume, even despite the disruption from the company’s e-commerce replatform.

“The fact that we are gaining share and outperforming the category in exam volume according to the latest Vision Council data is evidence that our strategy is working,” he said.

Still, the company’s traditional value-conscious customers are behaving differently. National Vision’s own analysis showed that some are waiting roughly two additional weeks between visits.

Wilkes says that the intentional push toward higher-spending clients does not mean the company is abandoning its traditional positioning.

“Affordability and trust remain central to who we are and how we operate,” he said. “The majority [of our customers] are middle-income consumers who are value-oriented, practical and looking for quality eye care and eyewear they can trust.”

“The strategy is doing exactly what it was designed to do: preserve our foundation in access, value and trust while building a broader, more durable growth model,” Wilkes argues.

Ticket has more room to grow

Lower traffic and growth driven almost exclusively by higher client spending pose an obvious question: how much higher can the ticket go? Wilkes says there’s plenty of room.

“We see meaningful runway ahead because the ticket growth is coming more from mix than from price,” he explains, noting that it “is exactly what we want to see.”

Customers are choosing more branded frames, premium lenses and higher-value products rather than simply paying more for the same basket.

“Customers are not simply trading up for the sake of trading up; they are choosing products and services that better meet their vision, health and lifestyle needs,” Wilkes said.

He also notes that National Vision’s average ticket remains below the wider optical category, leaving significant room for growth as premium products become a larger part of the mix.

Still, Wilkes acknowledged there is “expected pressure on overall traffic.”

“We do not view traffic in isolation,” he said. “The objective is to drive healthier, more profitable growth through better conversion, stronger mix and deeper customer relationships.”

Over time, he expects traffic to become a more meaningful contributor again.

“As the strategy scales, new capabilities come online and we accelerate new store growth, we expect traffic to stabilize and become a more balanced contributor to growth.”

Why rising inventory is not a bad sign

Notably, the company’s inventory has continued to climb sharply year over year, extending a trend that began in the first quarter.

Wilkes says the increase is deliberate and largely tied to National Vision’s store segmentation strategy.

The company is building five distinct America’s Best store profiles, with assortments tailored more closely to local demand, while also preparing a similar evolution at Eyeglass World.

“Don’t think of the inventory growth as just more product,” Wilkes said. “It’s a very intentional investment in getting the right assortment in the right stores for the right customers,” including carrying more premium and branded products relative to lower-cost private-label inventory.

The structure of National Vision’s supply chain, Wilkes argues, limits the markdown risk with backstock held mostly in centralized labs serving the entire chain rather than sitting in individual locations.

“If a SKU doesn’t fit the go-forward plan, we can shift it into a different segment rather than rely on markdowns,” he said.

National Vision expects inventory growth to moderate through the remainder of 2026 as it reaches the levels required to support the segmented store model.

The e-commerce disruption can turn into a tailwind

The company’s e-commerce replatform was one of the biggest concerns following Q1 after it temporarily disrupted paid search, social signals and eye-exam bookings. Wilkes says that issue is no longer a concern.

“The replatform created a short-term disruption that is now behind us, but strategically it was a major milestone,” he said, stressing that it wasn’t a simple website upgrade.

“It gives us the opportunity to move us from a legacy digital experience to a unified commerce foundation that can connect the exam, prescription, product selection and purchase journey at scale.”

Millions of customers engage with National Vision’s brands online and the company can now connect those interactions with physical stores, prescriptions and its doctor network.

Wilkes says the new platform can become a major competitive advantage: “We believe we can create an optical retail experience that is very difficult for pure-play e-commerce or traditional retailers to replicate.”

The payoff, he argues, should increasingly come through customer acquisition and retention rather than simply avoiding another disruption.

“That is where the tailwind comes from: better acquisition, better conversion, stronger retention and a more personalized customer experience over time.”

Focus is on operational progress

National Vision delivered a solid Q2, raised its full-year adjusted operating income outlook and spent $20 million repurchasing shares, yet the stock has remained under pressure.

Asked what the market may be missing, Wilkes was candid: “We are focused on the long term and controlling what we can control.”

“Adjusted operating margin [was] up 140 basis points, adjusted EPS up nearly 40% year over year, and we raised full-year AOI guidance while still putting $20 million to work buying back stock,” he said, adding that the company also “finished a major ecommerce overhaul, launched a rebranding effort for Eyeglass World, and introduced a new premium lens from Nikon Eyes and are implementing store segmentation — both of which are performing well too.”

In his view, the individual initiatives increasingly add up to a broader change in the economics of the business: a higher-value customer mix, better product assortment and more operating leverage.

“Those are tangible proof points that the strategy is working,” Wilkes said.

“Our focus is on continuing to execute and build a more durable, higher-value optical retail platform over time.”

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