Spectacles in the US

2021 DEVELOPMENTS

As pandemic restrictions lift, eye exams and new spectacle purchases resume

As a result of store and optometrist closures and other restrictions to in-person services, economic constraints, and shifting consumer needs amid the pandemic brought on by significantly increased time spent at home, spectacles recorded its sharpest sales decline in recent history in 2020. However, the category began a promising recovery in the early-to-mid months of 2021 in most states, as the success of the vaccine rollout and subsequent re-openings across the US began to usher in a return to many activities, including in-person work and schooling, in addition to more typical operating procedures at optical shops and other store-based retailers, to help accelerate the recovery of spectacles in the US.

Telehealth for vision care expands despite pushback from ECPs

While all have begun to recover in 2021, spectacles saw significant sales declines across categories in 2020. Although consumers’ needs for spectacle frames, spectacle lenses, and readymade reading glasses for medical reasons did not diminish amid the pandemic, restrictions to in-store services at ECP offices and optical shops prevented many consumers from getting eye exams, thus preventing their subsequent purchases of new spectacle frames and spectacle lenses as well.

EssilorLuxottica continues to lead spectacles across subcategories

Spectacles in the US remains dominated by large, multinational eyewear groups, with the largest among them, EssilorLuxottica SA, commanding over a third of market share in spectacle frames, spectacle lenses, and readymade reading glasses combined in 2020, while its closest rival commanded a single figure market share. In readymade reading glasses, EssilorLuxottica-subsidiary FGX International Inc’s Foster Grant brand maintained its dominant position, with the brands’ distribution across almost all drugstores and hypermarkets across the US, in addition to e-commerce, enabling it to command a significant share of category sales.

PROSPECTS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Spectacles will record swift recovery as in-person optical services normalise

While a multitude of factors, including store and optometrist closures, have restricted spectacles sales during the COVID-19 pandemic throughout 2020 and 2021, the medical necessities of readymade reading glasses, spectacle frames and spectacle lenses, as well as consumers’ increasing awareness of and concern for eye health and proper eye care in recent years, will aid the category in making a swift recovery over the coming months and years, national and international pandemic restrictions are increasingly lifted. In current value terms, spectacles is expected to recover to 2019-level value sales by 2022, with readymade reading glasses, spectacle frames, and spectacle lenses all expected to recovery completely by that year.

Brands will have to meet diverse consumers with unique value propositions

While contact lenses in the US primarily appeal to a demographic aged from the late-teens to the late-30s, thanks to both their appearance and convenience, Spectacles are popular among consumers of all ages. While their functional purpose of providing vision correction is important to all consumers who require prescription spectacle lenses, younger consumers are far more likely to choose spectacle frames based on brand or style, in order to make their glasses not only a medical device, but also a key fashion accessory, with some consumers purchasing multiple pairs of prescription frames of different brands and styles throughout the year in order to update their outfits.

As e-commerce continues to grow, brands and retailers overhaul investments

In addition to capabilities such as virtual try-on, which brands and retailers including Warby Parker, Zenni, EyeBuyDirect, and SmartBuyGlasses have all launched on their websites and mobile applications in recent years to replicate the experience of trying-on multiple spectacle frames and readymade reading glasses while a consumer is at home or on the go, spectacle frames players are developing a multitude of technologies to help ease the process of buying prescription and non-prescription eyewear online. For example, smartbuyglasses.