As tracked by GfK, consumers are spending 3 percent more on contact lens in five key Asian markets
In China, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, the spending capacity of a consumer has increased by over three per cent in the first eight months of this year and from January to August 2016 for contact lens. The combined contact lens sales totaled over USD 622 million, according to recent GfK point of sales report.
The biggest contact lens market, Korea, accounted for 45 percent of the total in value terms, and was also the key growth engine with nearly seven per cent increased sales revenue. Malaysia and China also grew, at four and three per cent respectively.
“This region’s contact lens market has maintained its healthy single digit growth thanks to recent developments in multifocal and toric lenses and growing consumer acceptance,” said Guan Kai Soh, Regional Manager for Optics at GfK.
Overall sales rose by 22 percent for multifocal lens and 9 percent for toric. Sales of daily and weekly/monthly contact lenses improved by over five percent each.
GfK insights revealed similar trend in every single market tracked, with increases in the market share of daily-use lenses resulting in decreases in conventional contact lens segments.
“APAC is a high growth, diversified and competitive market,” said Gianni Cossar, Global Director, Optics and Eyewear at GfK.
“Manufacturers have been concentrating their efforts to promote speciality lenses in the recent year, with much success. In spite of the higher prices of these type of lenses, a growing number of users are recognizing the advantages and benefits they offer and are more willing to pay a higher price for the assurance of better vision care for their eyes”, highlighted David Mackenzie, Regional Lead, APAC Healthcare.
“Our optician partners face unique challenges and require value-added market intelligence to support their business decisions. We have been expanding to meet their needs and are now fully operational in seven Asian markets. We recently started rolling-out our Fit-Audit program for contact lenses. Fit-Audit is an innovative tool which integrates GfK point-of-sale analytics with more in-depth analysis on the consumer side. For many years the market has benefited from favourable macroeconomic conditions. Now the marketing is evolving, with new challenges requiring in-depth intelligence,” anticipates Guan Kai Soh, Regional Manager for Optics at GfK.
