As a vertically integrated company, Luxottica designs, manufactures, distributes, and retails its eyewear brands through its own subsidiaries.

[5][6] It is, since October 2018, a subsidiary of EssilorLuxottica, which arose out of a merger between the Italian company and the French ophthalmic optics corporation Essilor.

Del Vecchio quickly acquired numerous businesses in the pursuit of vertical integration, buying distribution companies rapidly and signing its first designer licensing agreement with Giorgio Armani.

Luxottica retails its products through stores that it owns, predominantly LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut, Pearle Vision, Target Optical, and Glasses.com.

In addition to licensing prescription and non-prescription sunglasses frames for many luxury and designer brands including Chanel, Prada, Giorgio Armani, Burberry, Versace, Dolce and Gabbana, Michael Kors, Coach, Miu Miu and Tory Burch,[8] the Italian corporation further outright owns and manufactures Ray-Ban, Persol, Oliver Peoples, and Oakley.

[13] Del Vecchio began his career as the apprentice to a tool and diemaker in Milan, but he decided to turn his metalworking skills to making spectacle parts.

[17] In 1967, he started selling complete eyeglass frames under the Luxottica brand, which proved successful enough that by 1971 he ended the contract manufacturing business.

[17] Luxottica later increased its presence in the retail sector by acquiring Sydney-based OPSM in 2003, Pearle Vision and Cole National in 2004.

[26] On 1 September 2014, a new organizational structure was announced, composed of two co-CEOs, one focusing on market development and the other overseeing corporate functions.

"[34] On 1 October 2018 the new holding company EssilorLuxottica was founded, resulting in combined market capitalization of approximately €46.3 billion as of the date of the merger announcement.

[45] With its merger with Essilor in 2018 the company owns Coastal/Clearly, an online contacts and glasses retail giant bought in 2014 that ships to over 200 countries beside its original North American market.

Luxottica owns not only a large portfolio of brands (over a dozen[53]) such as Ray-Ban and Oakley but also retailers such as Sunglass Hut, Lenscrafters and Oliver Peoples, the optical departments at Target, and (formerly) Sears, as well as key eye insurance groups including the second largest glasses insurance firm in the US, EyeMed.

In October 2018, Luxottica and Essilor merged into a single company, EssilorLuxottica, which now occupies nearly 30% of the global market share and represents almost a billion pairs of lenses and frames sold annually.

It has used a variety of techniques, including compelling retailers to drop suppliers and making imitations of competitor's products.

[59] In 2019, LensCrafters founder E. Dean Butler spoke to the Los Angeles Times, admitting that Luxottica's dominance of the eyewear industry had resulted in price markups of nearly 1,000%.