Vision correction industry reports increase in US sales, eye care coverage
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The vision correction industry saw sales revenue increase by 16.5% the first quarter of 2021 over 2020 as well as an increase of 196.8 million adults with any vision correction, according to a press release from the Vision Council.
“The Q1 results indicate that the growth trends the Vision Council started observing in late 2020 have continued into early 2021 as many consumers continue to make eye wear purchases after postponing them during the early months of the pandemic,” Steve Kodey, senior director of industry research at the Vision Council, said in the release.
The industry earned $11.58 billion in sales revenue, despite a 7.2% decline in the vision care market from March 2020 to March 2021, according to the press release.
The company’s data comes from its quarterly research reports called VisionWatch that collect data on consumer behavior, the eye care market and “key market and product category statistics,” according to the release.
VisionWatch also reported a 22.7% increase in online sales for eye wear during the period ending March 2021. Similarly, online sales for eyeglasses increased by 33% in the same period. According to the press release, there was a slight increase in the usage of over-the-counter readers and prescription sun wear throughout the year, but a decline in prescription eyeglasses and plano sunglasses.
The report also covers data on Managed Vision Care (MVC) coverage within the U.S. While there was a 3.2% decline in covered lines compared with March 2020 data, MVC usage overall is growing as more adults are “utilizing those benefits more than ever before,” the company said in the release.
“Furthermore, increasing vaccination rates and growing comfort levels among the consumer population as it relates to returning to a physical retail environment have led to increasing sales of optical products among brick-and-mortar retailers,” Kodey said.