According to the research conducted by The Vision Council, the vision care industry growth in the US during the year 2017 shows a positive trend
Total revenue generated by the vision care industry during the 2017 calendar year grew to $40.38 billion – an increase of 0.1% compared to 2016 industry revenues. The number of adults using vision correction continued to grow in 2017, rising to 192.4 million, an increase of more than 2.5 million adult users over 2016.
Due to the continual increase in the American adult population, as well as a movement back to vision correction usage among key demographics, there have been absolute increases in usage rates for most types of eyewear in the United States of America.
Increase in eyeglass usage
Increase in eyeglass usageEyeglasses accounted for the largest share of the vision correction market (55.4%) representing $22.39 billion, growing by 0.6% over the past 2 years. During the 12 month-ending periods of December 2017, Rx eyeglass usage increased significantly, up 2.2% or 3.5 million adult users, thanks in part to the decrease in people needing vision correction and not doing anything about it (down by 3.1% to 12.6 million). The recent increase in eyeglass usage can be traced to this decline in the “squinter” population, as well as an increase in people with managed vision care benefits, improvements in the US economy and the decline in LASIK / refractive surgery procedures.
During the 24 month-ending periods of December 2017, the strongest optical markets were over the counter readers, up 3.4% to $895 million, and contact lenses, up 7.5% to $5.01 billion. Contact lens sales increased most among all major markets mostly due to an increase in their usage in the US adult population, which saw an increase of 1.1 million new additional users. All other markets are currently growing at a moderate rate over the past couple of years, except for LASIK surgery which was observed to be down 9.2%.
The independent side of the optical industry is by far the largest component of the U.S. vision care industry—generating $18.44 billion in revenues during the 12 month-ending periods December 2017. When compared to dollar revenues from two years ago, the independent side of the industry was up by 2.4% in total; with growth over the past year tapering off slightly from the previous year. During the past year, the independents have seen just a slight increase in aggregate revenue (about $171M to be exact—0.9% growth in sales) with an ophthalmic frame, contact lenses and OTC reading glasses revenue increasing the most over the past year.
During the 12 month-ending periods of December 2017, sales of optical products (eyeglasses, readers, sunglasses and contact lenses) generated $32.49 billion in sales at the retail level through all outlets and channels. $1.97 billion of those sales originated from the Internet through direct online purchase activity.
2017: The year for eyeglasses?
The research estimates that 2017 was the sixth calendar year for which more than $1 billion worth of optical products were bought over the internet. The dollar totals from online optical sales for the 12 month-ending periods of December 2017 were up 5.1% over last year’s online sales revenues and up by 100% over 2011’s online sales revenues. While prices for online products have increased slightly over the past two years (1%-2%) most of the increase in revenue was driven by an increase in volume unit sales and an increase in the number of online purchase transactions.
39.8% of the revenue from online optical sales comes from the sales of contact lenses. Contact lenses is the most established online optical market in the U.S. It should be noted, though the number of online contact lens sales transactions and the amount of online contact lens dollar revenue increases by 8% to 10% per year, online sales of contact lenses are not growing as fast as online sales of plano sunglasses, ophthalmic frames, Rx lenses or even over the counter reading glasses.
About 4.4% (or 3.29 million pairs) of all eyeglass lenses and frames purchased in the U.S. during the 12 month-ending periods of December 2017 were purchased online over the Internet. Sales of online plano sunglasses have also grown steadily over the past few years. During the 24-month period of December 2017, online plano sunglass sales have increased by 12% in units and by 12.5% in dollar value—faster and stronger than total plano SG sales in the U.S. Currently, about 7.2 million pairs of plano SG were sold directly online over the Internet during the 12 month-ending period of December 2017—about 6.9% of all plano SG sales during the period.
As for the smallest online optical market, over the counter readers, 4.5 million pairs of readers worth almost 70.5 million were sold online during the 12 month-ending periods December 2017.
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Highlights:
* The number of adults using vision correction continued to grow in 2017, rising to 192.4 million, an increase of more than 2.5 million adult users over 2016.
* Online sales of contact lenses are not growing as fast as online sales of plane sunglasses, ophthalmic frames, Rx lenses or even OTC reading glasses.
* 2017 was the sixth calendar year for which more than $1 billion worth of optical products were bought over the Internet.
* 39.8% of the revenue from online optical sales comes from the sales of contact lenses.
