NEW YORK--The eyewear/eyecare industry’s consolidated revenues--including dollar sales of key optical products as well as eye examination fees--declined by just 0.1 percent during calendar 2007. That left the total vision care market’s volume of $28,577.8 million for last year virtually even with the prior year’s $28,603.1 million in revenues, according to VisionWatch, the ongoing survey of 100,000 U.S. consumers annually, conducted by Jobson Medical Information and the Vision Council of America.


   
Source: VisionWatch - a study conducted by
Jobson/VCA Total Annual VisionWatch Sample Size: 100,000 consumer respondents per year (ages 18+) Readers Data is for the 12ME (months ending)
December 2005, 12ME December 2006, and the
12ME December 2007
Source: VisionWatch - a study conducted by
Jobson/VCA

Dollar sales of both ophthalmic frames and spectacle lenses showed little change last year from 2006’s total volumes; frame sales rose just 0.4 percent for the year, while lens sales fell by the same amount. Showing the strongest gain in U.S. dollar sales in 2007--up 14.2 percent--was the Rx reader category.

Just over 43 percent of U.S. residents aged 18 and older had an eye examination during the 12 months ended Dec. 31, 2007; that’s down from the 44.3 percent who
had exams during calendar 2006, but up from the 41.5 percent of Americans 18+ who had eye exams during 2005.


Among industry’s key product categories, frame dollar sales were also virtually flat, rising just 0.4 percent in the 12 months ended Dec. 31, 2007, according to the VisionWatch data. Lens dollar sales dipped by the same amount last year, coming in just 0.4 percent below 2006’s industry lens revenues.

Among other vision-care products, non-prescription readers showed the largest dollar sales gain among the VisionWatch survey respondents, with dollar sales rising by 14.2 percent during 2007. Contact lens dollar sales were up 3.4 percent for the year, while dollar sales of non-Rx sunglasses increased by 1.6 percent in calendar 2007.

   
Source: VisionWatch - a study conducted by
Jobson/VCA
Source: VisionWatch - a study conducted by J
obson/VCA

Frame dollar sales rose by 0.4 percent to $8,071.2
million in 2007 vs 2006; of that, independent optical retailers and ECPs captured a 44.5 percent share,
while sales through optical chains represented 33.7 percent of the U.S. market in dollars in 2007.
Mass merchants held 10.6 percent of last year’s
frame market.

Sales of spectacle lenses slid by 0.4 percent last year, compared to 2006, to $7,629.2 million. Independents
also saw their share of lens dollar sales decline in
2007, to 46.3 percent; optical chains and mass merchants, on the other hand, had increases in
their lens market shares over 2006.


The two eyecare categories that suffered declines in revenues last year were eye exams, down by 1.4 percent in the 12 months ended Dec. 31, and refractive surgery, whose revenues dipped 5 percent for the year. (The VisionWatch data indicates that 43.1 percent of U.S. adults aged 18 and over had an eye exam last year, down from 44.3 percent during 2006.)

 

Source: VisionWatch - a study conducted by Jobson/VCA


With a 1.6 percent increase in dollar sales over 2006,
the U.S. sunglass market reached $2,196.5 million in 2007. Independents saw their market share of plano
sun dollar sales increase last year; optical chains,
mass merchants and department stores also had
share gains in sunwear.

Looking at dollar sales of specific product categories within the vision-care market, the VisionWatch survey indicates that independent optical retailers’ and eyecare professionals’ share of industry dollar sales decreased in the key frame and spectacle lens markets in 2007, while increasing in plano sunwear and contact lenses; independents’ share of industry dollar sales remained unchanged in 2007 in non-Rx readers.

In U.S. frame sales, independent retailers and ECPs captured 44.5 percent of the total $8,071.2 million dollar volume last year, down from their 45.1 percent share of frame dollar sales in 2006. Optical chains held 33.7 percent of the 2007 frame market in dollars, up from 32.3 percent the prior year, while the mass merchants’ share rose from 10.5 percent in 2006, to 10.6 percent of frame dollar sales in 2007. Department store optical departments held just 4.9 percent of dollar sales in frames last year, down from 5.6 percent in 2006. In the lens category, 46.3 percent of the year’s $7,629.2 million in U.S. industry dollar sales was done through independents, down from 48 percent of total sales in the prior year. Another 33.1 percent of last year’s lens dollar sales went through optical chains, up from their 32.1 percent share in 2006; mass merchants held a 12.4 percent share of U.S. lens dollar sales in 2007, up from 11.8 percent the previous year. Department store optical departments saw their share of lens dollar sales edge up to 5.1 percent, from the 5 percent share they held in both 2006 and 2005.

As for specific types of lenses sold, among those VisionWatch survey respondents who purchased lenses during 2007, 22.4 percent said they bought AR-coated lenses (up from 21.7 percent who bought AR during 2006), while 15.5 percent of the respondents reported purchasing photochromic lenses last year, compared to 15.1 percent of VisionWatch respondents in the previous year.


   
Source: VisionWatch - a study conducted by
Jobson/VCA
Source: VisionWatch - a study conducted by
Jobson/VCA

The non-Rx readers category soared 14.2 percent in dollar sales in 2007 over 2006, to $643.7 million. Of
those dollar sales, independent retailers and ECPs
held a 4.8 percent share; optical chains took 6.8
percent. The leader was the grocery/drug/mass merchant/convenience store segment, with 75.4
percent.

Contact lens sales totaled $2,448.7 million last year, up 3.4 percent, compared to 2006. Independents held 38.1 percent of CL dollar sales in 2007, followed by “other” retailers with 22.4 percent, mass merchants with 21.4 percent and optical chains with 18.1 percent of CL
dollar sales.


Independent retailers and ECPs saw their share of the $2,196.5 million in dollar sales of plano sunglasses increase last year to 11.8 percent, vs. their 10.5 percent share of the sunwear dollar market in 2006. Optical chains had a 7.1 percent share of the total 2007 sun market in dollars, up from 7 percent in 2006; grocery/drug/convenience/variety/mass merchant outlets held a 25.7 percent market share, up from their 25.1 percent share of sunwear dollar sales in 2006. The lion’s share of sales in this category continued to be through “other” types of retail outlets, which held 48.2 percent of plano sunglass dollar sales in 2007, although that share declined from their 50.3 percent in 2006.

Independents retained the top share of dollar sales of contact lenses last year; the total CL dollar volume in 2007 rose 3.4 percent to $2,448.7 million. The independents’ share of that market rose slightly to 38.1 percent last year, up from their 38 percent share of CL dollar sales in 2006. Optical chains’ CL market share dropped to 18.1 percent of total dollar volume last year, down from an 18.5 percent share in 2006; mass merchants’ share of CL dollar sales in 2007 remained even with the prior year at 21.4 percent of the total. The “other” retail category, which includes online CL sales, also saw a slight market-share increase to 22.4 percent of the total CL dollar volume, from 22.1 percent in 2006.

Of the $643.7 million in U.S. sales of non-Rx readers during 2007, dollar sales through independent optical retailers and ECPs represented 4.8 percent of that total, the same market share as the prior year. Optical chains’ share of the reader market’s dollar sales fell to 6.8 percent in 2007, vs. a 7.1 percent share in 2006; grocery/drug/convenience/mass merchant stores still held the largest share of dollar sales in readers, at 75.4 percent, but that share was down from their 78.1 percent slice of the dollar-sales pie for readers.  --Cathy Ciccolella