Optical Store Software: the System for Opticians RiVedi

An optical store isn't a shop like any other. You sell frames like a retailer, but you keep refractions and medical histories like a clinic, you order lenses that are one-off pieces rather than coded stock items, and every year the Sistema Tessera Sanitaria (the Italian Health Card System) asks you to account for twelve months of work. Serious optical store software has to hold all of this together — without making you keep a notebook next to the keyboard.

RiVedi is our software for opticians and optometrists, and we built it with real opticians, starting from the points where the day actually jams up: the job bag stuck in the lab, the lens ordered with the wrong axis, the recall nobody sent. It isn't a generic system with a few extra fields for optics: it's designed from day one for the optical store. Here's what it does, feature by feature — and if you'd rather see it than read about it, the RiVedi demo is here.

Sistema Tessera Sanitaria without evenings lost in January

The most dreaded moment of the year for an optician is submitting healthcare expenses to the Sistema Tessera Sanitaria. With software for opticians that doesn't handle it well, come January you find yourself reconstructing twelve months of sales from memory, deciding one by one which expenses are deductible and how they should be coded.

RiVedi works the other way round. The expense classification — deductible or not, the AD/AA coding — is decided at the counter, on the sale line, while the customer is in front of you and you know exactly what you're selling them. And when you submit, RiVedi hands you back the protocol number: if something didn't go through, you see it right away, not in January of the following year. Sistema TS stops being a fire to put out and goes back to being something that takes care of itself. See how it works, in a demo.

Your customers' clinical data, compliant and secure

A refraction — the optometrist's exam —, a medical history, an attached clinical report aren't simply "customer data": they are special categories of personal data under Article 9 of the GDPR — the same category as a hospital's data. An optical store is retail and a healthcare setting in the same square metre, and the right optics and optometry software has to treat them accordingly.

In RiVedi, clinical data is encrypted field by field, with a dedicated key — not just "the disk is protected", which is a different thing. Permissions are role-based, so you can show a shop assistant the job bag while keeping the clinical record closed. Every access stays logged: if one day you have to prove who opened what, the record is there. And the data sits in Europe — a Frankfurt data centre, inside the European Union — with everything set out in the contract.

A lens is a matrix, not a code on a shelf

This is where the difference shows between a generalist system adapted to optics and true practice management software for opticians. A generalist thinks in SKUs: one item, one code, one price. But a lens is a matrix — sphere, cylinder, axis, index, coating — and the combinations run into the tens of thousands. Modelling it as a stock item means losing half the information along the way.

RiVedi treats the lens for what it is. Everything else follows from that: the lab order goes out with the right data — no more wrong axis paid for twice — the job bag has the real states of the work, not just "open" and "closed", and the stock list tells you what you actually have, frames included. The notebook next to the keyboard disappears. See the lens matrix, in a demo.

All in the cloud, open from wherever you are

RiVedi is cloud optical store software: your data doesn't live on the shop computer, with the risk that a breakdown or a theft carries it off. You log in from any workstation — the second till, a second store, your sofa on a Sunday evening — with the same information, always up to date.

Backups and updates are on us, not on you: you don't have to remember to save anything or install versions. And when you open a second store you don't start from scratch — it's the same software, the same customers, the same stock, seen from one more place.

Recalls and WhatsApp that bring the customer back in

The eye-exam recall is one of the most concrete ways an optical store has to bring a customer back — and one of the most neglected, because nobody does it by hand. RiVedi sends reminders from a registered business WhatsApp number, with approved templates: messages actually arrive, they stay with the shop even when the assistant changes job, and you don't end up doing marketing from someone's personal phone.

Consent is managed per channel: a customer who wants the appointment reminder but not the promotion can have exactly that. It's not etiquette — it's the difference between a recall that works and a spam report. See the approved templates, in a demo.

Try it on your own case, in twenty minutes

RiVedi is the optical store software that does what an optical store does every day: it submits to Sistema TS and hands you the protocol, keeps clinical data compliant, treats the lens as a matrix, follows you into the cloud from every workstation and brings customers back in. The best way to understand it is to see it on your own work, not on paper.

In the demo we show you the protocol coming back, the lens matrix and the permissions on the record — and we give you the number for your case, that day, all in. Twenty minutes. Book the RiVedi demo.

Frequently asked questions about optical store software

What is the best optical store software?

There's no single "best" in the abstract: there's the right one for an optical store — the one that handles the Sistema Tessera Sanitaria well, protects clinical data in line with Article 9, treats the lens as a matrix and follows you into the cloud from several workstations. RiVedi is built around these four things, and the quickest way to assess it is a twenty-minute demo on your own real case.

How much does optical store software cost?

It depends on the number of workstations and on what you actually need: migrating your history, the number of users, modules. That's why the right price is the one worked out on your store, not a generic list price. In the demo we give you the number for your case, that day and all in, with no quote that lands after three meetings.

Does software for opticians need to handle the Sistema Tessera Sanitaria?

Yes, and it's one of the most important features. An optical store sells deductible healthcare expenses and has to submit them to Sistema TS every year. Good software for opticians classifies the expense at the counter, at the point of sale, and on submission hands you back the protocol number, so you know it went through. RiVedi does exactly this.

Is refraction data health data?

Yes. A refraction, a medical history, an attached clinical report are special categories of personal data under Article 9 of the GDPR — the same category as a hospital's data. They have to be protected accordingly: in RiVedi they're encrypted at field level, with role-based permissions and logged access, on a data centre inside the European Union.

Is RiVedi suitable for optometrists too?

Yes. RiVedi is software for optics and optometry: the refraction and the optometric exam are handled as health data under Article 9 — a record encrypted field by field, role-based permissions, logged access — and stay linked to the sale and the lens order. An optometrist working in an optical store finds the clinical side and the commercial side in the same system, with no double entry.

Is a vertical optical store system better than a generalist one?

Vertical. A generalist system thinks in items and codes, but a lens is a matrix of parameters — sphere, cylinder, axis, index, coating — and a job bag has many more states than "open" and "closed". Software designed for optics models these things from day one; a generalist makes you handle them by hand, on the same old notebook.

Is RiVedi cloud optical store software?

Yes. RiVedi runs in the cloud: you log in from any workstation with data always up to date, backups and updates are handled by us, and when you open a second store you work on the same system without starting over.