Blog
Notes on running an optical shop in India — billing, GST, stock, and the things that only show up behind the counter.
GST and money ·
Half of Every Optical Bill Is Part-Paid: 1,348 of 2,883 Orders
1,348 of 2,883 orders took an advance and left a balance — steady at 45–49% for four years. What that breaks in the day close, the GST date and the customer conversation.
GST and money ·
UPI Passed Cash at an Optical Counter in 2026: 2,883 Bills, Four Years
Cash fell from 58.6% of bills to 37.3% while UPI rose to 52.0% — four years of real bills from one Indian optical shop, and what it changes at the counter.
Customers and recall ·
Recall: 2,173 Customers Are Due, and Exactly Two Have Ever Been Reminded
21.8% of customers ever come back, and they place 32% of the orders since January 2025. Meanwhile 2,173 customers carry a recall date and two have ever been sent a reminder.
Stock and buying ·
Dead Stock: 4,571 Frames, About 800 Orders a Year, and No Date to Prove Which Ones Are Dead
4,571 frames and sunglasses on the shelf against roughly 800 orders a year - close to six years of cover. Half the units hold a fifth of the money, and the two dates that would say which are dead were never recorded.
Optical retail operations ·
Lab Job Tracking: Your Lab Is Not Why the Customer Waits Six Days
Across 87 spectacle jobs, the average wait from order to collection was 8.6 days. The lab accounted for 43% of it. The other 57% was the shop's own — 2 days before the job was even sent, and 3 days of finished spectacles sitting on a shelf.
GST and accounts ·
GST Return Filing for an Optical Shop: The Two-Rate Problem
A frame is taxed at 18% and the lens inside it at 5% — 76% of spectacle bills carry both. What you file and when, the three rules that changed in 2025, and the five mistakes that bring notices.
Optical retail operations ·
Optical Shop Profit Margin in India: What 163 Frames Show
The median frame margin is 60% and barely moves with price — but the average discount consumes 85% of what the frame earned, and most shops cannot calculate their lens margin at all.
Optical retail operations ·
WhatsApp for Your Shop: What's Legal, What Gets You Banned
The difference between the WhatsApp Business app, a bulk sender and the real Business Platform — what each costs, what gets a number banned, and the 1 October 2026 change that turns "your order is ready" into a billable message.
Optical retail operations ·
Optical Shop Bill Format: A Real GST Invoice, Field by Field
What the law actually requires on an optical shop's tax invoice, which fields you can skip, and the four optical-specific lines no generic template has — with a free print-ready template.
Optical retail operations ·
Opening an Optical Shop in Maharashtra: The Licence Almost Nobody Mentions
Stocking contact lenses needs a medical device sale registration from the FDA — Form MD-42, ₹3,000, and a qualified person who need not be an optometrist. Plus what the Shops Act, GST and the optometrist rules actually say, with the parts nobody can verify marked as such.
Optical retail operations ·
Prescription Records: 68% of Our Customers Were Overdue and We Could Not See It
What an optical shop should capture on every prescription, what happens when it doesn't, and the one field we recorded on 0.6% of records that we should have captured every time.
Optical retail operations ·
Optical Shop Software in India: A Buyer's Guide From Behind the Counter
The four things generic billing software cannot do for an optical shop — multi-rate GST invoices, lens stock by power and index, prescription records, and lab job tracking — plus the seven things to make a vendor demonstrate before you pay.
Optical retail operations ·
Optical ERP or Generic Billing Software? An Honest Comparison
Where Vyapar, MargBooks and myBillBook genuinely work for an optical shop, where they stop, and the four tests that decide which one you need — from someone who sells one of them.
Optical retail operations ·
GST and HSN Codes for Optical Shops: Frames, Lenses, Contact Lenses and Solutions
The current HSN codes and GST rates every optical retailer in India needs — including the frames question sources disagree on, and how to bill a frame and lens together without landing on 18%.
Optical retail operations ·
Lens Inventory for an Optical Shop: What 4,619 Eyes Say About What to Stock
Real power distribution from four years of prescriptions in one Indian optical shop — 85% of eyes sit in a narrow band, and half a percent are beyond ±4.00. Why lens stock is a matrix, not a list of SKUs.