Warby Parker (WRBY) Q3 2026 Earnings Call: Markteinführung intelligenter Brillen und Guidance

Wichtigste Erkenntnisse

• Warby Parker verzeichnete im dritten Quartal 2026 einen Umsatz von 244,7 Millionen US-Dollar, ein Plus von 10,4 % im Jahresvergleich. Der stationäre Einzelhandelsumsatz stieg um 12,4 %, während der E-Commerce-Umsatz um 4,8 % auf 61,7 Millionen US-Dollar zulegte.
• Das bereinigte EBITDA erreichte 28,6 Millionen US-Dollar, wobei sich die Marge um 10 Basispunkte auf 11,7 % verbesserte. Die bereinigte Bruttomarge weitete sich um 40 Basispunkte auf 54,6 % aus.
• Das Unternehmen grenzte seine Umsatzprognose für das Gesamtjahr auf 966 bis 976 Millionen US-Dollar ein, was einem Wachstum von 11 % bis 12 % entspricht. Die Prognose für das bereinigte EBITDA verbleibt bei 117 bis 119 Millionen US-Dollar.
• Vorbestellungen für Intelligent Eyewear beginnen am 12. November, wobei erste Auslieferungen für Mitte Dezember erwartet werden. Das Management rechnet damit, dass das Produkt bis zu 1 Prozentpunkt zum Jahresumsatzwachstum und mehrere Prozentpunkte zum Wachstum im vierten Quartal beitragen wird.
• Die Zahl der Sehtests legte um 30 % zu und die versicherungsbezogenen Erlöse stiegen um 22 %. Die In-Network-Versicherungsdurchdringung erreichte 8,4 % nach 7,4 % im Vorjahr.
• Warby Parker eröffnete im dritten Quartal netto 12 neue Filialen und 41 seit Jahresbeginn, womit das Filialnetz auf insgesamt 364 Standorte anwuchs. Das Unternehmen liegt weiterhin im Plan, im Gesamtjahr 2026 insgesamt 50 neue Filialen zu eröffnen.

Wichtige Finanzdaten

Die Zuwächse bei der Bruttomarge spiegelten niedrigere Zölle, Versandoptimierungen, Effizienzsteigerungen in den optischen Laboren sowie eine verstärkte Nachfrage nach Gleitsichtgläsern und weiteren Glasveredelungen wider. Diese Vorteile wurden teilweise durch das margenschwächere Augenoptikgeschäft sowie den negativen operativen Hebeleffekt bei den Raumkosten neuer Filialen gedämpft.

Die bereinigten SG&A-Kosten stiegen als Anteil am Umsatz vor allem infolge höherer Vergütungen im Einzelhandel, administrativer Ausgaben und gestiegener Technologiekosten. Niedrigere Marketingausgaben als Prozentsatz des Umsatzes federten diesen Anstieg teilweise ab.

Geschäfts- und operative Entwicklung

Einführung von Intelligent Eyewear

Warby Parker wird am 12. November die Preise und die vollständige Intelligent-Eyewear-Kollektion vorstellen. Kunden können das Produkt zunächst in 65 Filialen testen; in der darauffolgenden Woche soll die Einführung im gesamten Filialnetz von über 360 Standorten erfolgen. Erste Kundenauslieferungen sollen Mitte Dezember beginnen.

Das Management rechnet damit, dass Produktion und Absatz im Verlauf des Jahres 2027 spürbar hochgefahren werden. Das Unternehmen steuert den Vertrieb selbst und hat die Kapazitäten in seinen optischen Laboren in Sloatsburg (New York) und Las Vegas (Nevada) erweitert, um Korrektionsgläser für das Produkt fertigen zu können.

Laut Management wird Intelligent Eyewear aufgrund der fortschrittlichen Computertechnologie preislich über herkömmlichen Brillen liegen. Die prozentualen Bruttomargen dürften sich voraussichtlich von konventionellen Brillen unterscheiden, wenngleich Korrektions-, photochrome sowie Sonnengläser vergleichbare Margen wie bestehende Produkte aufweisen sollten. Das Unternehmen konzentriert sich dabei auf den absoluten Bruttogewinn in Dollar je Bestellung.

Filialen, Augenoptik und Versicherungen

Die Zahl der Filialen von Warby Parker erreichte nach 12 Netto-Neueröffnungen im Quartal 364 Standorte. Konversionsraten und durchschnittliche Bestellwerte blieben solide, die Kundenfrequenz in den Filialen blieb jedoch hinter den Erwartungen des Managements zurück.

Sehtests, die mittlerweile in über 90 % der Filialen angeboten werden, legten um 30 % zu. Das Unternehmen beschäftigt mehr als 500 Augenärzte und Optometristen und investiert weiterhin in moderne Bildgebungsverfahren sowie sein proprietäres elektronisches Patientenaktensystem.

Die Versicherungserlöse stiegen um 22 %, während das In-Network-Geschäft um über 20 % zulegte. Über In-Network-Pläne kann Warby Parker mehr als 35 Millionen Menschen versorgen. Das Management betrachtet Versicherungen als wesentliche Chance zur Kundengewinnung, da versicherte Kunden anfangs tendenziell mehr ausgeben, häufiger Gleitsichtgläser wählen und öfter wiederkehren.

E-Commerce und Produktsortiment

Das E-Commerce-Wachstum beschleunigte sich auf 5 %, nachdem im ersten Halbjahr 2026 noch ein Rückgang von 2 % verzeichnet worden war. Bereinigt um das eingestellte „Home Try-On“-Programm legte das Online-Bestellvolumen für Brillen und Kontaktlinsen im hohen einstelligen Prozentbereich zu.

Das Unternehmen führte im dritten Quartal fünf Kollektionen ein und startete am 5. November seine Zusammenarbeit mit Rare Beauty. Für Dezember ist eine zweite „Warby Parker Sport“-Kollektion geplant. Warby Parker Care, ein kostenpflichtiges Schutzprogramm ab 20 US-Dollar, wurde im September eingeführt.

Managementprognose

Der Ausblick beinhaltet einen Beitrag von Intelligent Eyewear von bis zu 1 Prozentpunkt zum Jahresumsatzwachstum und mehreren Prozentpunkten zum Wachstum im vierten Quartal. Umsatzerlöse werden erst bei Auslieferung der Produkte und nicht bereits bei Eingang der Vorbestellungen verbucht.

Das Management erklärte, dass die Prognose noch keinen Ausstrahlungseffekt (Halo-Effekt) auf das Kerngeschäft durch die Kundenfrequenz von Intelligent Eyewear berücksichtigt. Die Annahmen für das vierte Quartal enthalten einführungsbezogene Betriebskosten, darunter zusätzliches Personal in Filialen und Laboren, Investitionen in die Marke sowie Werbeausgaben.

Risiken und Beobachtungspunkte

• Das Management bezeichnete den Optikmarkt als uneinheitlich, mit schwachem Mengenwachstum in der Kategorie, geringerer Kundenfrequenz und erhöhtem Druck auf Selbstzahler.
• Die Geschäftsentwicklung verlangsamte sich in der zweiten Septemberhälfte leicht, wenngleich sich diese Verlangsamung laut Management im weiteren Verlauf wieder abschwächte.
• Intelligent Eyewear wird im Jahr 2026 nur ein begrenztes Auslieferungsfenster haben, was den kurzfristigen Umsatzbeitrag trotz der erwarteten Vorbestellphase einschränkt.
• Die Markteinführung birgt Umsetzungsrisiken im Hinblick auf die Produktakzeptanz, Kundendemonstrationen, die Produktionsskalierung, den Personalbedarf und die Laborkapazitäten.
• Da es sich um ein Produkt der Unterhaltungselektronik handelt, dürfte Intelligent Eyewear voraussichtlich ein anderes prozentuales Bruttomargenprofil als herkömmliche Brillen aufweisen.
• Der freie Cashflow wurde durch einführungsbezogene Investitionsausgaben (CapEx) und den Zeitpunkt von Partnererstattungen beeinflusst.

Wichtigste Punkte aus der Analysten-Fragerunde

• Hochlauf von Intelligent Eyewear: Die kurzfristige Priorität des Managements liegt auf der Produktakzeptanz und dem Kundenerlebnis in den Filialen. Produktion und Auslieferungen sollen im Jahresverlauf 2027 zunehmen, detaillierte Volumenprognosen nannte das Unternehmen jedoch nicht.
• Marketingunterstützung: Warby Parker plant zur Markteinführung seine bisher größte Kampagne. Von den zuvor erörterten 75 Millionen US-Dollar an partnerfinanzierten Erstattungen stehen noch mehr als 50 Millionen US-Dollar zur Verfügung. Zudem wird erwartet, dass Google langfristig in die Bekanntheit der Produktkategorie investiert.
• Kannibalisierung und Cross-Selling: Das Management geht davon aus, dass die meisten Kunden von Intelligent Eyewear das Produkt parallel zu herkömmlichen Brillen nutzen werden. Die Einführung könnte zudem die Nachfrage nach Sehtests, Kontaktlinsen, Korrektionsgläsern und versicherungsbezogenen Käufen unterstützen.
• Filialwirtschaftlichkeit: Für die Durchführung von Vorführungen könnte zusätzliches Personal erforderlich sein; diese Personalkosten sind in der Prognose für das vierte Quartal berücksichtigt. Das Management sieht sein Filialnetz und das geschulte Fachpersonal als entscheidende Vorteile bei der Markteinführung an.
• Nachfrage im Kerngeschäft: Das Management führte die branchenweit schwachen Absatzzahlen zum Teil auf den Druck durch gestiegene alltägliche Lebenshaltungskosten auf die Verbraucher zurück, was die Ersatzbeschaffungszyklen für Brillen und Kontaktlinsen verlängern könnte. Laut Warby Parker blieb die Kundenbindung stabil, während Kundenfrequenz und Neukundengewinnung stärker unter Druck gerieten.

Vollständiges Transkript der Telefonkonferenz

Vollständiges Transkript der Telefonkonferenz

Ausführungen des Managements

Operator

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Warby Parker Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call.

[Operator Instructions]

I will now hand the conference over to Jaclyn Berkley, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Jaclyn Berkley

Thank you, and good morning, everyone.

Here with me today are Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa, our Co-Founders and Co-CEOs; alongside Adrian Mitchell, our Chief Financial Officer.

Before we begin, we have a couple of reminders. Our earnings release and slide presentation are available on our website at investors.warbyparker.com.

During this call and in our presentation, we will be making comments of a forward-looking nature. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied as a result of various risks and uncertainties.

For more information about some of these risks, please review the company's SEC filings, including the section titled Risk Factors in the company's latest annual report on Form 10-K.

These forward-looking statements are based on information as of November 5, 2026, and except as required by law, we assume no obligation to publicly update or revise our forward-looking statements.

Additionally, we will be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures are in addition to and not a substitute for measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. A reconciliation of our non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable U.S. GAAP measures can be found in this morning's press release and our slide deck available on our IR website.

And with that, I'll pass it over to Dave to kick us off.

David Gilboa

Thank you, Jaclyn, and good morning.

Throughout 2026, we've made significant investments in our most important long-term growth initiatives while continuing to execute against the core business. In the third quarter, we delivered revenue growth of 10.4% and adjusted EBITDA above our guidance even as we lapped our strongest revenue growth and highest margin expansion of last year.

We delivered this level of profitability while balancing a number of investments and initiatives across the business, and we're continuing to focus on opportunities that we believe can drive stronger top line growth in the years ahead.

We're already seeing progress across several of these areas. We've opened 41 net new stores year-to-date ahead of last year's pace, further expanding the reach of our brand and holistic eye care offering.

E-commerce growth accelerated to 5%, its strongest quarterly growth since we sunset home try-on, while eye exams and insurance grew 30% and 22% year-over-year, respectively. These are areas we've been investing in for years, and we're encouraged by the momentum we're seeing as they become increasingly meaningful contributors to our growth.

We're also introducing newness to our assortment, including today's launch of our collaboration with Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez, which enables us to reach new audiences. And we're continuing to invest behind the next generation of opportunities that will expand our addressable market and accelerate our growth profile over the long term.

We're quickly approaching one of our most anticipated milestones. One week from today, we'll begin accepting preorders on our first Intelligent Eyewear collection with initial customer deliveries beginning mid-December. In anticipation of launching preorders, starting today, we invite you to visit our website and schedule a demo at the closest Warby Parker store, so you can experience Intelligent Eyewear for yourself. Demos start next week.

Over time, we believe Intelligent Eyewear will become a significant driver of both revenue growth and profitability for Warby Parker, creating a step function change in our business. What makes this moment so remarkable is the extraordinary pace of AI innovation and how quickly it's becoming part of people's everyday lives. In partnership with Google and Samsung, we plan to be at the forefront of that movement.

We're living through one of the most significant technology shifts in our lifetimes. Desktop computers brought computing into our homes, smartphones put the Internet in our pockets, and we believe glasses will be the next major computing form factor.

Up until now, most interactions with AI have taken place through a phone or a computer screen, forcing our attention away from the real world. Intelligent Eyewear has the potential to change that, bringing technology into our lives in a much more human way, allowing us to look up and stay connected to the world around us.

And we're only at the beginning of what's possible. This first collection is an important step with much more to come as we advance our multiyear product road map. As we prepare for launch, our near-term focus is on getting these glasses into customers' hands, building awareness and giving people the opportunity to experience Intelligent Eyewear for themselves. Looking ahead to 2027, we anticipate a rapid acceleration in growth as we meaningfully scale Intelligent Eyewear production and sales.

Throughout this year, our financial outlook has excluded revenue from Intelligent Eyewear. We now have greater visibility into the timing of initial customer deliveries this holiday, which is reflected in our updated guidance. Based on our year-to-date results and current trends in the core business, we're narrowing our full year revenue growth guidance to 11% to 12%, including a modest contribution from Intelligent Eyewear given the limited delivery window.

As a reminder, we recognize revenue when products are delivered to customers, not when orders are placed. We expect Intelligent Eyewear will transform Warby Parker's growth profile beginning in 2027, marking the start of a much larger multiyear growth opportunity for our business.

Today, we'll share more about our Intelligent Eyewear launch plans before walking through the drivers of third quarter performance and the progress we're making against our strategic priorities. First, on Intelligent Eyewear. Since the start of this year, our top priority has been to deliver an exceptional product and customer experience while building the foundation to scale this category over time.

Neil, Adrian and I just returned from Nashville, where we brought together nearly 700 Orbi retail leaders and optometrists for our annual One Vision Summit. It is one of our favorite events of the year. We always leave inspired and energized by our teams, and this year was no exception.

Much of this year's summit was dedicated to Intelligent Eyewear. Our team spent time continuing to explore the product and its growing range of functionality, learning how to introduce it to different types of customers and preparing to deliver a remarkable demo experience in our stores. We highlight this as an example of why we're uniquely positioned to deliver this product and expand this new category.

From the beginning, we believe that our team members who are responsible for our leading customer satisfaction would be a core competitive advantage in this category alongside our beloved brand, eyewear design expertise, vertically integrated optical labs and our omnichannel approach.

Culture and technology have been central to how we've served customers since day 1, helping us attract passionate tech-forward employees who have grown with us over the years. Our stores operate very differently from other optical shops and traditional consumer electronics retailers.

Our teams are accustomed to managing appointments, waitlist and high foot traffic, guiding customers through complex purchases, explaining different lens options and enhancements and working closely with our doctors throughout the customer journey. We believe that a combination of hospitality, product expertise and clinical knowledge will be especially important as we help customers navigate an entirely new category.

One of the most encouraging things we saw at this year's summit was the enthusiasm for getting these glasses into customers' hands. The more time our teams spend with the product, the more use cases they discover and the more possibilities they see. It's a reminder of the opportunity ahead of us, both with this first collection and the products and experiences we'll introduce in the years to come.

Across the company, our teams have been hard at work pouring over every detail to prepare for launch from designing immersive spaces and engaging in-store demos to training our retail teams and building seamless online shopping experiences. Behind the scenes, we're expanding capacity in our labs, along with the technology and systems needed to support this new category. And we're getting ready to launch our marketing campaigns, including new commercials that we can't wait to share.

Next Thursday, November 12, we'll unveil our full Intelligent Eyewear collection, including pricing and customers will be able to preorder their frames for the first time. They'll be able to experience the glasses firsthand in 65 stores next week before we quickly expand demos across our full fleet of more than 360 locations the following week. Demos will also be available at our new immersive pop-up at Broadway and Bond Street in Soho.

This first collection is an important milestone, but we view it simply as the starting point of what we believe will be a much larger opportunity over time. We expect production and customer deliveries to build throughout 2027 as we scale the category and continue advancing our multiyear product road map.

And now I'll pass it to Neil to review the drivers of Q3.

Neil Blumenthal

Thank you, Dave.

Alongside the launch of Intelligent Eyewear, we remain focused on scaling our omnichannel business and delivering exceptional customer experiences. In Q3, we continued to expand our retail footprint, grow eye exams and introduce new products and services to better serve our customers.

We opened 12 net new stores during the quarter, bringing our total to 364. We've now opened 41 net new stores year-to-date ahead of last year's pace and remain on track for 50 openings this year, our most ever. Our growing retail presence continues to make Warby Parker more accessible to customers while positioning us well for the introduction of Intelligent Eyewear.

Across retail, we've continued to see strong conversion and higher average order values. At the same time, traffic continues to be softer than we'd like. Looking more broadly, industry data shows a softer unit growth across eyewear categories with greater pressure on cash pay consumers. We're seeing some of these dynamics in our business even as customers who shop with us convert at healthy rates and spend more per order.

One way we're working to drive more customers into our stores is by growing exams. With eye exams now available in over 90% of our stores, growing awareness of this offering has been a major focus this year, and we're pleased with the progress we're making.

In July, we launched a new marketing campaign, highlighting our comprehensive eye care services and eye exams grew 30% year-over-year in Q3. We're incredibly proud of the more than 500 doctors on our team, and we're continuing to invest in technology that helps them deliver exceptional patient care.

Advanced imaging tools give our doctors greater visibility into eye health, helping them identify potential issues earlier, while our proprietary electronic health record system streamlines workflows so they can spend less time on documentation and more time with patients. Together, these investments are helping us deliver consistent, high-quality clinical care as we scale.

We've also added newness to our assortment, introducing 5 collections during the quarter, including our collaboration with filmmaker Spike Jones, a long-time friend of the brand. The collection brought back 5 iconic frames from our archives, while our broader fall assortment introduced new styles and shapes that have resonated particularly well with younger consumers.

We've driven strong assortment productivity by building on our best-selling styles with new colors while continuing to introduce fresh designs that resonate with customers. We launched Warby Parker Care in September, our first paid protection program and have been encouraged by early adoption. Starting at just $20, this highly requested offering gives customers added peace of mind with 1 year of coverage for accidental damage, scratches and everyday wear and tear.

And just today, we announced a collaboration with Rare Beauty, our first major collection with a beauty brand. There's a natural connection between beauty and eyewear, both of which are forms of personal style and self-expression. The collection reimagines some of our best-selling frames and colors inspired by Rare Beauty signature soft pinch liquid blush with prices starting at $95.

We're also partnering with global pop group Katseye on the campaign, introducing Warby Parker to new audiences at the intersection of fashion and beauty.

Following the successful introduction of Warby Parker Sport earlier this year, we're launching our second collection of performance eyewear in December. We've been encouraged by the response to our first collection, and we're looking forward to building on that momentum with new styles later this year.

Turning to e-commerce. Revenue growth accelerated to 5% in Q3, up from negative 2% in the first half of 2026. With the headwind from the home try-on sunset diminishing and set to fully roll off at the end of this year. Excluding home try-on, online glasses and contact sales order volume grew in the high single digits. We've seen healthy momentum in online glasses throughout the year, supported by our intentional shift in marketing spend from contacts to glasses.

Our third strategic priority is driving brand awareness and customer acquisition, including capturing vision insurance spend. In the third quarter, active customers grew 3% over the trailing 12 months, while average revenue per customer increased 6.7% year-over-year. We're pleased with the consistent growth in average revenue per customer, supported by eye exams and higher penetration of progressive and other lens enhancements.

As expected, based on industry unit growth trends this year, active customer growth moderated in the quarter and as we lapped our highest quarterly growth last year. We're seeing consistent retention from returning customers and our biggest opportunity remains attracting new customers to the brand. We are trending to a positive inflection in the trailing 12-month active customer growth in the fourth quarter, even before a meaningful contribution from Intelligent Eyewear.

We're also preparing for a significant increase in marketing spend in Q4 with major campaigns launching alongside Intelligent Eyewear preorders on November 12. We expect this increased visibility to introduce Warby Parker to new audiences, drive awareness of our broader offerings and support customer acquisition over time.

As we think about reaching more customers, insurance remains a significant opportunity for growth and one of the biggest differences between Warby Parker and the broader optical industry. Approximately 70% of U.S. adults who recently purchased eyewear used vision insurance. And for many, their benefits determine where they get their eye exams and subsequently purchase glasses.

We're seeing healthy growth among our insured customers, while cash pay customers have been more impacted by the broader softness in the category. This year, we've made meaningful progress in making it easier for customers to use their insurance benefits at Warby Parker. We saw over 20% growth year-over-year in our in-network business with in-network insurance penetration reaching 8.4%, up from 7.4% a year ago.

Today, Warby Parker can serve over 35 million people through in-network insurance plans. And for anyone with out-of-network benefits, our automatic claim submission tool now makes filing for reimbursement seamless for the customer. We're encouraged by the adoption we're seeing.

We believe there's significant runway to broaden access to Warby Parker and capture a greater share of the overall vision care market. We've spent years investing in the infrastructure, systems and customer experience to make insurance a more seamless part of shopping with us.

Insured customers are among our most valuable, spending more on their initial purchase, selecting progressive lenses at higher rates and returning more frequently over time. As we make it easier for more people to use their benefits at Warby Parker, we believe insurance can become a much larger driver of customer growth.

And now I'll hand it over to Adrian to cover our financial results and guidance.

Adrian Mitchell

Thanks, Neil. Good morning, everyone.

Before diving into the numbers, I want to recognize the tremendous amount of work that's gone into this year. We've been preparing for the launch of Intelligent Eyewear while continuing to invest in and manage our core business through a challenging industry backdrop. I'm proud of how our teams have navigated these priorities, balancing disciplined execution every day with strategic investments that position us to scale this new category in 2027 and beyond.

With that, I'll walk through our third quarter results and our outlook for the remainder of the year. Let's start with the third quarter revenue. Third quarter revenue was $244.7 million, up 10.4% to last year and within our guidance range. Retail revenue increased 12.4% year-over-year and e-commerce revenue was $61.7 million, up 4.8% year-over-year.

Turning to gross margin. In the third quarter, adjusted gross margin was $133.6 million or 54.6% of revenue, 40 basis points above last year. The increase in gross margin was primarily driven by reduced tariffs, customer shipping optimizations, optical lab efficiencies and increased penetration of progressives and other lens treatments. These benefits were partially offset by deleverage from growth in our eye care business, which has a lower margin than glasses and in fixed expenses related to occupancy costs, which grew faster than revenue as we opened 12 net new stores.

Now shifting to SG&A. As a reminder, adjusted SG&A excludes noncash costs like stock-based compensation expenses, noncash charitable donations and nonrecurring expenses. Third quarter adjusted SG&A expenses were $120.8 million or 49.4% of revenue, 70 basis points higher than last year, primarily driven by retail compensation and corporate expenses, including higher technology costs. The increase was partially offset by lower marketing spend as a percent of revenue.

Marketing expense in the quarter was $29.5 million or 12.1% of revenue, down 100 basis points year-over-year. As Neil shared, we expect marketing activities to increase around the Intelligent Eyewear launch this quarter. Third quarter adjusted EBITDA was $28.6 million. As a percent of revenue, adjusted EBITDA was 11.7% or 10 basis points above last year.

Now shifting to capital allocation. We ended the third quarter in a strong cash position of $288 million. We continue to prioritize reinvestment in the business while maintaining optionality through our $100 million share repurchase authorization.

Free cash flow during the quarter was impacted by investments related to launching Intelligent Eyewear, including higher capital expenditures to prepare our retail stores and optical labs for the launch as well as the timing of partner reimbursements.

In October, we also invested $5.6 million in an optical lens technology company and committed to funding research and development of new lenses and new lens technologies over the next 2 years. This reflects our continued focus on innovation and supports our multiyear Intelligent Eyewear product road map.

Now let's turn to our outlook for 2026. As we approach year-end, we're taking a prudent approach to our fourth quarter outlook, reflecting current trends in the core business and now including a modest contribution from Intelligent Eyewear. At the same time, we're preparing for significant growth opportunities in 2027 and beyond as we scale Intelligent Eyewear.

Our guidance includes up to 1 percentage point contribution to full year revenue growth and several percentage points to Q4 revenue growth from Intelligent Eyewear, along with related launch and operating expenses.

For the full year 2026, we're narrowing our prior guidance and now expect revenue of $966 million to $976 million, representing approximately 11% to 12% year-over-year growth. Adjusted EBITDA of $117 million to $119 million, which equates to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 12.2% and 130 basis points of expansion year-over-year at the midpoint of our range.

Turning to the fourth quarter. We're guiding to revenue of $243 million to $253 million or growth of approximately 15% to 20% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA of $26 million to $28 million or a 10.9% adjusted EBITDA margin at the midpoint of the range.

With that, I'll now pass it back to Neil for closing comments.

Neil Blumenthal

Thank you, Adrian.

It's been an incredibly busy few months across Warby Parker, and I want to thank our entire team for their tremendous work that's gone into preparing for this launch.

For Warby Parker, the launch of Intelligent Eyewear expands both what our glasses can do and the role we can play in our customers' lives. It gives existing customers new reasons to engage with us and new customers another reason to discover our brand. This first collection begins a multiyear product road map, and we see a meaningful long-term opportunity to build on it as the technology advances and the category grows.

We're just days away from welcoming customers into our stores to demo the product. We hope you'll be one of them. Don't forget to book your Intelligent Eyewear demo on our site. Thank you for your time this morning. We couldn't be more excited for what's ahead.

With that, operator, please open the line for Q&A.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Anthony Chukumba with Loop Capital Markets.

Fragen und Antworten

Anthony Chukumba

I'm really looking forward to getting my preorder in. I guess first question, just -- any commentary in terms of the cadence of sales over the course of the third quarter? And I guess just as a quick follow-up, any early indication on fourth quarter?

Neil Blumenthal

Thanks, Anthony. What we saw was some consistency throughout the year, frankly, we're operating in an uneven optical environment. We did see a slight decel in September, which has since moderated. We're operating in an environment where there is a little bit of dislocation, which gives us the opportunity to take more market share.

So when we look at industry data, the little growth there is tends to come from price and units are down at our competitors. So as we take market share, we think of it as something that we can take from a dollars perspective, but more importantly, we can take it from a units and customers' perspective.

So we're able to take advantage of our traffic in our stores where we're seeing high levels of conversion and some of our highest AOV. We're seeing continued strength in our customer satisfaction and similarly, strength in e-commerce as we sunset our home try-on program.

So this presents us with an opportunity now in Q4 as we double down on marketing with some really exciting launches. Today, we launched our collaboration with Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. This is our first collaboration with a beauty brand. We think that there's an inherent tie between beauty and optical and that this is part of your morning routine and core to your identity, frankly.

So we have some amazing styles that we customize to match Rare Beauty's sort of favorite soft pinch liquid blush. We're really excited to let the world know about this. This collaboration will be available across all of our stores. And then in select stores, there will also be samples of the soft pinch liquid blush. So we couldn't be more excited. And then, of course, with the launch of Intelligent Eyewear, you'll see our largest campaign ever launch next week.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Brooke Roach with Goldman Sachs.

Brooke Roach

Neil, Dave, Adrianne, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the capacity of how many demos and the opportunities that you have to get additional customers into your store this holiday season as you launch Intelligent Eyewear. How did you get to the assumptions for about 1 point of contribution for Intelligent Eyewear to your guidance for this quarter? And how should we be thinking about the opportunity to scale that into next year?

And then, Adrian, just one quick clarification. Are you assuming any halo effects on your base business within the guide from the Intelligent Eyewear traffic within your updated results?

David Gilboa

Thanks, Brooke, and apologies for the technical difficulties earlier. I'll start with a question around Intelligent Eyewear.

And the most powerful thing we can do to introduce this product is to put them on people's faces as we've been wearing the products themselves, as we've been starting demos internally. We just get remarkable feedback, and it's a product that you really have to try to understand its capabilities. And also, we continue to get remarkable feedback around how light and comfortable the product is.

And so we're really excited to enable people to sign up for demos starting today and to roll them out to all of our stores over the next couple of weeks. We really view our retail footprint of more than 360 stores as a major advantage here where we can control the experience and enable the vast majority of the population to have easy access to try these products. And so yes, over the next couple of weeks, we're excited to roll these demos out and are anticipating to have a very busy holiday season.

In terms of the contribution to revenue this year, it will be modest, just given that customer deliveries will begin in mid-December. So there are only 70 days left in the year. We're anticipating a pretty robust preorder period before then and then for production and sales to scale meaningfully in 2027.

Right now, our priorities are really to introduce this product in the right way to enable people to try the product, to deliver the customer experience that we know is inherent around introducing an entirely new category and new devices that people have not worn before and believe we're really equipped -- well equipped to do that given our store footprint and the capabilities of our team that is used to handling complex customer and patient interactions that is tech-forward and that has consistently delivered the best customer experience in our category.

Adrian Mitchell

Brooke, to answer your question, our guidance for the balance of the year, it does not include any halo from Intelligent Eyewear. We are taking a prudent approach to the guidance because we simply recognize that there will be unknowns as we're pursuing this new product launch of this scale. But do keep in mind that our modest approach would assume several points of growth in the fourth quarter and up to 1 point of growth for the full year, driven by the impact of Intelligent Eyewear.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Mark Altschwager with Baird.

Mark Altschwager

Sticking with the Intelligent Eyewear topic, I was hoping you could give us a bit more perspective on the ramp there. Just with deliveries starting mid-December, production building through 2027, what are the gating factors on supply as you move through the first half of next year? And how should we think about the pace of deliveries relative to preorders?

And then, Adrian, on the guide, EBITDA reaffirmed after the Q3 beat, implied Q4 margin around 11%. Can you just unpack a bit how much of that reflects onetime launch costs versus the Q4 marketing step-up versus any considerations on the margin on the glasses revenue in the quarter?

Neil Blumenthal

Thanks, Mark. Yes, we're -- as we've mentioned time and time again, so excited about this product launch. And every day, we're finding sort of new ways to use these glasses. I mean, just on my walk to the office today, I passed by a house that was for sale and looked up how much it costs, the size of the house, how many bedrooms.

I don't think I'm going to tell my wife about this particular house. But I also had an opportunity to prepare for the day, understanding what meetings I had, my external meeting outside of the office, how long it would take me to get there, whether I walked or took a taxi. But most importantly, I was able to do all of this by looking up and enjoying this beautiful fall day and actually seeing some of the foliage on my way to the office.

We think as soon as people get into our stores and demo this, and this will be available in 364 stores across the country which will have multiple demo stations. We know that people are going to fall in love with this product. We'll also have special brand immersive experiences, which we've been testing and we find that the feature that gets the most oohs and aahs is live translation. So we've also been preparing some of our multilingual staff members to be able to do this in person, whether our team members speak Spanish or Polish or Korean.

So we'll be working hard to generate a lot of demand. And our primary focus, though, this quarter is really on achieving product acceptance and perfecting that customer experience, right? Next year is really about scaling up production. So this year, right, we'll have a couple of weeks of delivery. We recognize revenue once those products are received by our customers. And we're expecting significant growth from Intelligent Eyewear next year. We're not providing specifics at this time, but look forward to sharing more on the combined business in February.

Adrian Mitchell

Mark, just to answer your question around EBITDA, the approach we've taken to the guidance is to maintain as much flexibility to be able to respond to any potential additional needs or investments as we encounter activities as we go through launch this year.

As you know, year-to-date, we've had a combination of ongoing and onetime investments in launching Intelligent Eyewear, but now we're beginning to pivot more to the operating expenses as we get to post launch. Some of that will include staffing in stores, staffing in our labs, investments in brand, investments in media, all of which are reflected in our guidance. But we are very encouraged and very excited to enter this new chapter as we enter the fourth quarter and enter into next year.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Dana Telsey with Telsey Group.

Dana Telsey

As you think about the intelligent glasses, what is the pricing going to look like? And how do you think of at all cannibalization with existing glasses?

And then just on the stores and you think about -- you mentioned how you're training the associates, new stores, is it square footage size changing? Is the number of labor costs of the store changing? How do you see that? And just as you move forward into 2027, overall, new collections have been very successful for you. Are you seeing any change in the number of new collections or type of style?

David Gilboa

Thanks, Dana. Starting with your questions around Intelligent Eyewear, we'll be sharing pricing in the full collection next week. So more to come very shortly there. But at a high level, our philosophy will be the same as it's always been with every product that we offer, including our existing eyewear and collections in that we want to deliver exceptional value for high-quality products.

And we believe these are really remarkable products that will be able to do things that other competitive products can't. They're going to look great. They're going to be comfortable. And -- we believe that, that value will be really inherent in how we price these products.

We're also going to give our customers lots of choice in terms of not only the style of the frames themselves, but also the lenses that they choose. These are -- will be designed for prescription from day 1. We'll also enable people to select a range of sun lenses, photochromics and make them their own.

And we believe that the majority of our -- of customers of these products will we'll wear them alongside traditional eyewear. That's how we've been using them ourselves. So while Intelligent Eyewear has become my primary pair of glasses, for example, I still have a number of other glasses that I use from time to time, and we're expecting that to be the case here.

We're also anticipating that Intelligent Eyewear customers, many of them will seek eye exams at our stores. Some of them they purchase contacts alongside this new category of products. And so we are anticipating that this is going to enable us to attract many new customers to the brand who will also be interested in the other products and services that we offer.

Neil Blumenthal

And then, Dana, to respond to your question about stores, we're going to learn a lot in the next few weeks as we're focused on product acceptance and the customer journey. And like everything at Warby Parker, so we learn, become expert at it and then scale.

Our -- one of our main competitive advantages are our stores and our amazing team members that staff those stores and serve those customers. And we're accustomed to high-volume stores, high-traffic stores. We've built systems that enable us to scale, whether it's our point of sale that we call a point of everything, and we nickname it Poe for short after Edward Allen Poe because of the literary heritage of the brand and because this is much more than a point of sale. It's literally a point of everything and enables us to serve our customers and our patients in a differentiated way from the entire industry.

So those tools and those team members will ensure incredible customer experiences for Intelligent Eyewear. All of our associates are being trained on the functionality of this product and how to demo it. And that's something that we've been working on the last couple of months. And again, something that we think we have unique capabilities.

Our team members self-select to come to Warby Parker because we're a tech-enabled brand, because we have great technology in our stores, whether that is a retail adviser, an optician or an optometrist, right, who leverages some of our homegrown systems like our own electronic health records platform that we launched earlier this year.

In fact, when you walk into our stores, often either in the middle, there's a round reference desk or in the back, there's a regular style desk, which is modeled after a reference desk in a library where you go to ask questions and get answers to how to navigate the library and find a particular book or whatever knowledge that you seek.

And this construct, right, inspired by libraries because of the literary heritage of the brand because the name Warby Parker comes from 2 early Jack Kerouac characters that we discovered in the New York public library serves us when we're introducing a new product like this where we know there's going to be lots of questions. And we have the physical space for it. We have the mentality for it. Those reference desks were also inspired by Apple's genius bar. And literally, we've been spending 16 years perfecting it for this exact moment.

Now might we staff a little bit higher. So that way, we can administer these demos, Absolutely. And we baked in those labor costs into this quarter's guidance. We also have the advantage of a large sum of capital in the form of reimbursements from our partners that we can use to defray some of these costs as this program gets to scale.

Moving to your next question on collections. Yes, our new collections are super successful, and we're so excited about the ones that we're launching this quarter, but also have seen a ton of success in completely new products for us like our sport line that we launched earlier this year on which we'll be launching some additional styles in December.

This is a new category for us that is really additive. We don't see any cannibalization, right, because it's a completely different use case, but we do see high AOVs because one thing that enables us to do, which is unique in the category is provide affordable, high-performance prescription sunglasses, right, for sport. So you're going to see us continue to expand that collection as well.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Janine Stichter with BTIG.

Janine Hoffman Stichter

With the higher marketing on Q4, curious how much of that is Intelligent Eyewear versus other initiatives? And can you give us any update on the marketing that won't show up on the P&L? How much you have left of the $75 million that was funded by Google and how much of that will be deployed in Q4?

And then just, Adrian, as we think about the core business, it feels like you've been very focused since you joined about finding ways to drive better profitability and efficiency just as the environment stays choppy. Maybe can you share some of the opportunities you're most excited about?

Neil Blumenthal

Thanks for the question. From a marketing perspective, you're going to see marketing as a percent of revenue roughly be in line where we feel that our investments in marketing like our collab with Rare Beauty, for example, drives traffic and benefits the Intelligent Eyewear launch. Similarly, investments in our Intelligent Eyewear launch will no doubt have impact on brand awareness and driving traffic to our stores in general.

But what's not captured in sort of marketing as a percent of revenue is that incremental investment that will be reimbursed by our partners. And again, we're launching our largest campaign ever across multiple channels, the highest numbers of commercial that we've ever launched at a single time. So we're pretty excited here. In terms of how much is left in the reimbursement, it's the vast majority, over $50 million of that $75 million.

Adrian Mitchell

Janine, just building on Neil's comment in answering your question. As we've gone through the year, there's been quite a bit of choppiness. As Dave brought up a little bit earlier, the second half of September was a little bit softer than we had anticipated. We also recognize that the category for really approaching 2 years now has had continued traffic and unit growth headwinds, and we're certainly not immune to that. But we've certainly reflected those challenges within our guidance.

In terms of what we're really excited about, we're incredibly excited about the marketing campaign that we spoke to earlier. The commercials are fantastic, and there's a whole host of things that the team will be bringing to the market. Rare Beauty collaboration launching today also excites me as the CFO. And as we spoke about a little bit earlier, some really fantastic product launches, particularly as you think about the extension of sports as more of some of the things that we're very excited about.

As we think about the rest of the year, we're just, again, being prudent with our guidance. We have a number of activations that are happening. But again, we just want to be prudent given the backdrop, but also the excitement we have about what's ahead of us.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Robby Ohmes with Bank of America.

Robert Ohmes

I think maybe a follow-up just on eye exam and the in- and out-of-network insurance awareness. Can you -- and I might have missed it, but just how that -- did that improve a lot in the third quarter would be kind of the first question.

And then given the launch of Intelligent Eyewear and everything, what -- how much could that help eye exam awareness and insurance penetration? Would love to get your thoughts on that for fourth quarter, but also your thoughts on what that could do in 2027 to really help you guys offset, I guess, the weaker industry units and things that you're talking about.

David Gilboa

Yes. So we're excited by the progress that we're seeing in both eye exams and in enabling our customers and patients to use their insurance benefits with us. And in Q3, in spite of some of the category headwinds, we saw a pretty strong growth in both of those parts of the business. Eye exams grew 30% year-over-year. Insurance was up 22% year-over-year, and that doesn't include the customers who are using their out-of-network benefits with us, and we've worked hard over the last year to make it much easier for people to use their in- or out-of-network benefits with us.

We believe that there's still massive opportunity in both of these areas. We're significantly underpenetrated in terms of the percentage of our customers who get an eye exam with us as opposed to getting their exam elsewhere. We're also significantly underpenetrated in terms of insurance usage relative to the rest of the category. We're pleased with the progress that we're making with existing insurance partners. We continue to see stronger penetration of those carriers, the longer that we're in network with them, and that remains a big opportunity for us.

As we launch Intelligent Eyewear, we believe that this is going to bring lots of new customers to us. It's going to cause people that have not shopped with Warby Parker before to book demos, to come into our stores, to understand that we offer eye exams that may not -- those patients who may not have considered us previously. And while they're in our store or on our website, they'll also learn how easy it is to get value from their in or out-of-network benefits. And so we view all these opportunities as synergistic and believe that they'll continue to drive growth across the business.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Boone with Citizens JMP.

Andrew Boone

I wanted to go back to marketing and follow up on that line of question. What are the expectations from Google as a partner to also support the line? How should we think about the broader halo effect of what they are trying to do on their end as the benefits Warby?

And then I'd love to come back to the gross profit margin question. Understood we'll get pricing soon. But is there any way that we should be thinking about gross profit margins as we start to model this out for '27?

David Gilboa

Thanks, Andrew. Yes, we're excited about our own campaigns that were launched. These are going to be some of the most significant marketing investments we've ever undertaken as a business and the creative and the content really highlights the performance of these products, the capabilities of the products in a very worthy way. And so we're excited to share the commercials and other creative shortly.

Google is also really excited about this category, and they're committed over -- both at launch and over the long run to make significant investments in building awareness. And so there's going to be a lot more to share starting with the preorder period, but this is truly a committed long-term relationship where both organizations will make significant investments over time.

And on the gross profit profile of these products, and we'll share pricing next week. You'll find that these are very advanced complex computing devices, and so they'll be priced higher than our traditional eyewear. And what we're really focused on is generating gross profit dollars per order, and we believe that we'll be set up to generate meaningful gross profit dollars that will flow through down to EBITDA and free cash flow generation.

The margin profile on a percentage basis for consumer electronics is different than traditional eyewear but what we're focused on is total gross profit dollars. We are also expecting that a significant percentage of our orders will involve prescription lenses, photochromics, sun lenses that have margins that are comparable to our existing products.

Operator

Your final question comes from the line of Dylan Carden with William Blair.

Dylan Carden

Really appreciate that. Just 2 things for me. One, how should we think about distribution here? Are you totally in control of distribution of this product as it relates to sort of taking preorders? Or will Samsung and Google be able to ship on their own? And then just what to make of units still being so weak this far into the cycle? I'd just love to hear some thoughts on that.

Neil Blumenthal

Thanks, Dylan. Yes, we're a vertically integrated brand. And just as we control the distribution of our core products, our glasses, our contacts, our eye exams, we control the distribution of Intelligent Eyewear.

One of the things that we've been investing in this year is increasing the capacity and the capability of our 2 optical labs in Sloatsburg, New York and in Las Vegas, Nevada to enable us to fulfill prescription lenses into Intelligent Eyewear to serve customers quickly in the highest quality manner.

If we sort of look across -- to your second question, if we look across the industry, what do we make of weak units? I think it's reflective of the state of the consumer in the country that's seeing pressure from higher prices, whether that's gas or grocery prices and that can elongate the purchase cycle for products like glasses and contacts.

I think we're fortunate in that we provide tremendous value to our customers and patients. So we are seeing consistency in our own retention where we're seeing sort of impacts from the macro is really around traffic and new customers, and we expect some of the new collections and products like Intelligent Eyewear to be significant growth drivers for the industry and a bright spot.

Operator

Thank you for your questions. This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.