Contact Lenses and Solutions in Canada

2020 IMPACT

With consumers spending longer periods of time at home during lockdown, demand for contact lenses significantly declines due to monetary and health concerns, in addition to limited usage

The need to wear and purchase contact lenses in Canada was seriously undermined in Q2 2020 due to the response to COVID-19 on a number of levels. Due to various lockdown measures introduced by the government from mid-March including physical distancing and a clear message urging citizens to remain at home, including working, and only leaving the house for essential purposes such as groceries and medical supplies, many local consumers reduced their usage of contact lenses, instead relying on spectacles that they already owned to wear for various activities around the home.

Increasingly consolidated competitive landscape amongst contact lens producers in 2019

The competitive landscape of contact lenses became increasingly consolidated in 2019, as Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Canada strengthened its leadership of the category due to its wide product portfolio under the popular daily disposable lenses under the Acuvue umbrella brand, with Acuvue Oasys 1-Day recording a particularly strong performance, gaining value share and recording double-digit current value growth. This product has been designed for sufferers of astigmatism, and is a daily disposable contact lens with numerous proprietary design improvements.

E-commerce gains momentum in 2020 as a viable distribution channel for contact lenses due to COVID-19

Optical shops in certain areas of Canada were only permitted to remain open to offer urgent eye care, while opticians in most other regions offered reduced operating hours following a statement made in March 2020 by The College of Opticians of Ontario (COO), which advised opticians in the province to “suspend all non-essential in-person patient care” with all casual eyewear sales banned. This was in addition to the fact that many local consumers relied on their spectacles for use around the home as the government urged the public to only venture outside when absolutely necessary.

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