In August the GfK Consumer Confidence Index measure of economic confidence among UK consumers achieved a marginally positive measure of +1. This reflected a slight increase in the proportion of consumers holding a positive economic sentiment from the neutral measure achieved in June.1 In truth, however, the index has entered a stable period with readings for all of the past five months within a range of -1 (plus or minus 2) following a significant improvement in economic sentiment over the previous year.
In our last update for Optician we stated how against this more positive economic backdrop the optical categories tracked by GfK had remained stable, with sales value marginally down -0.1 per cent between the second quarter of 2013 and the second quarter of 2014. However, within this we saw a shift away from spectacles, with spectacle frame value down -3.7 per cent over the same period, and towards contact lenses which saw sales values increase by 5.4 per cent. In this edition we will look more closely at the contact lens fitting trends seen over this time of growth for the product group.
Over the year to the second quarter of 2014 GfK’s contact lens fittings panel tracked a total of just over 2.75 million GB contact lens fitting appointments. Of these, 77 per cent of appointments resulted in the patient being retained in the brand of lenses they were previously wearing, while 12 per cent of appointments resulted in a contact lens patient switching to an alternative brand of lenses. The smallest proportion of appointments, 11 per cent of the total, saw new or lapsed patients being initially fitted with a contact lens. These new patient fits are of course crucial to maintaining market growth as they are the appointments which result in the pool of contact lens wearers increasing. The positive news is that the proportion of total fitting appointments taken by new patients having an initial fit has increased to this level from 10 per cent of the total in the two previous years.
When comparing the patients being newly fitted with contact lenses to the total, we can see two significant differences. Firstly, while at a total level we see a 35-65 per cent split between appointments attended by male and female patients, when focusing on the appointments for new patients we see this split level somewhat to 39-61 per cent. There could be two reasons for this, either (a) we are now witnessing a higher proportion of males entering the contact lens market than seen before and so we get the higher figure of 39 per cent of new patient fittings attended by males, or (b) once in the contact lens market females are more frequently attending follow-up appointments and so when looking at a total level we see females accounting for a higher proportion of appointments than when focusing only on new fittings.
Also, when comparing the ages of those patients having their initial fitting with the total, we see all age groups under 45 accounting for a higher proportion of new fits than total fits. In particular, patients aged under 35 account for 53 per cent of new contact lens fitting appointments compared with 41 per cent of total appointments. This is extremely encouraging for the market as it means that a high proportion of these new contact lens wearers have the potential to remain as contact lens customers for a greater time. It also highlights the opportunity to acquire new contact lens clients is likely to rest with a slightly different demographic than a practice’s current contact lens customer base, more often younger and more often male.
Data quoted covers mainland GB opticians only.
References
1 GfK NOP (on behalf of the European Commission). For further information contact Paul York, account manager, optics, GfK0870 603 8186, paul.york@gfk.com, www.gfk.com/uk, www.twitter.com/gfk_en