In focus: Sector loses cash and custom as buyers find fault with fit

With all the current challenges opticians face in the retail market, well-fitting glasses and sunglasses shouldn’t be one of them, but new research has estimated that poor fitting eyewear costs opticians and eyewear retailers a staggering US$26bn (£19.9bn).

British 3D capture firm Fuel3D’s, Delivering a Fitted Experience in Eyewear report, has taken an in-depth look at the relationship between fit and buyer experience ‘through the lens of the consumer’ and the data has highlighted some alarming issues.

The first of its kind study polled 4,536 adult spectacle and sunglass wearers in the UK and US and showed that more than one in four adults (28%) struggled to find eyewear that fit. As a result, more than half (55%) left practices and eyewear stores empty handed, leaving an estimated US$26bn worth of uncaptured revenue in the $100bn global eyewear market.