To the outside observer, my glasses look straight out of a Warby Parker ad. Only when you pull them off do you see the brand name: EyeBuyDirect.com. Yep, those Wayfarer-style glasses, with the glossy black-and-yellow tortoiseshell pattern, were purchased online -- for less than $40 after taxes. And that's including prescription lenses.

The prices were so affordable that I bought three different pairs a year later ... for a total of $103.71. There are other online options too. Zenni Optical has bare-bone frames for $6.95 a pop, and great deals can also be found at the self-explanatory 39DollarGlasses.com. There are even international options, such as French startup Lunettes Pour Tous, where you can get glasses for as little as 10 euros ($11). "This is a line of people for a line of product where everybody has the same goal: high volume, low cost, low customer interaction," says Nashville optician Rebecca Taylor, clinical spokeswoman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology.