By dba Staff
Total retail prescription lens prices were up 4.6 percent during the 12-month period from July 1, 2012, to June 30, 2013, when compared to the same period a year prior, according to The Vision Council's latest VisionWatch statistics. That represents an increase of $6.18 per pair. Lens prices have been increasing for about 3.5 years now, with prices climbing sharply over the past six quarters, according to the report. In addition, total Rx lens prices during the June 2013 period were higher than they were before the recession started, up by 7 percent when compared with prices from the 12-month period ending June 30, 2008.
Lens prices were up the most among independent ECP retailers (+6.3 percent), which was mostly the result of a rise in prices for existing products but also influenced by an increase in sales of higher quality, higher priced lens products such as free-form digitally surfaced progressive addition lenses, high index lenses and premium anti-reflective lenses, the report stated. Prices have increased for single vision, multi-focal and progressive lenses, with multi-focal prices rising the most (6.1 percent) during the 12-month period ending June 2013, after declining slightly for a few years.
Prices for anti-reflective lenses and photochromic lenses were also up over the past year, with anti-reflective lenses seeing the largest increases (5.9 percent) due to a rising number of high index lenses and progressive lenses being sold with AR, according to the VisionWatch statistics. While prices of progressive lenses have increased significantly over the past year (+5.3 percent), they had also been increasing steadily for the past few years, even during the recession. Retail prices for progressive addition lenses are up by almost $30 per pair when compared to 2008.
The Vision Council's VisionWatch statistics are based on a large-scale consumer research study that interviews a demographically balanced sample of more than 110,000 American adults every year.
|
|
Source: The Vision Council's VisionWatch Second Quarter 2013 U.S. Optical Market Overview and Outlook for the one-year period from July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013. |
Back to Newsletter