Page 10 - envision-01-2023

ONLINE OPTICAL

SALES SOAR

TO NEW

HEIGHTS

Cover Story

By Evra Taylor

hen eyeglasses designers began per cent increase in online spending across all
selling online to Canadians, it categories. 2
would have been impossible
to predict that a product so What does this mean for the optical industry? The
Wseemingly personal, requiring pandemic-related shift from in-person to online
the human touch of a hands-on shopping sales isn’t a new phenomenon. However, with
experience would achieve the stellar numbers the need for social distancing and remote work,
we’re now seeing. it has certainly been partially responsible for
the increase. According to The Vision Council,

As the world has moved to online sales, the 22 per cent of adult consumers purchased

optical industry has moved with it. Retail eyeglasses online in 2017. That figure more
Insider states that, according to an International than doubled in 2020, with 44 per cent of adults
Trade Commission report, in 2020 total buying, or at least browsing, eyeglasses online. 2
e-commerce retail sales in Canada were $3.82
billion, and that a whopping 72.5 per cent of Optical companies’ development of new tools
Canadians were e-commerce users. That number to aid shoppers in their online purchasing
1
is expected to rise to 77.6 per cent by 2025. A decision-making process has also played a part.
1
recent McKinsey report says that in the U.S. One of these tools is virtual try-on technology.
the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a 15 to 30 While it isn’t new, and has actually become

8 / JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2023 / www.ENVISIONMAGAZINE.ca /