TSO Network Update -February 2018

February 2018 l 21 Marketing & Advertising Culled from our exclusive (and extensive) EB research of eyecare professionals throughout 2017, our roundup of 8 key market trends can help you chart your business’s course for 2018 and beyond. What a year 2017 turned out to be. Where the new normal was anything but normal and the crystal ball was cloudy, at best. Fortunately for the optical market, however, it doesn’t take a clairvoyant to see that some clear trends are emerging. What it does take is ongoing, insightful research, and that’s where EB comes in. Throughout the year, we conduct surveys on the business of optical, what’s trending in every product category, and, most important, what you are experiencing. The result? Our informative and incisive Annual Market Trends Study. From that, we pinpoint the market’s Top 8 Trends for 2018 to help you plan for and profit from what’s ahead. 2018’s 8 Mega Market Trends When it comes to perceived threats, managed care reigned supreme until 2016, when online competition topped the bad-boy list. Today, 45% of ECPs say online sellers remain their knottiest nemesis. To compete with online sellers: 57% of ECPs say they discount products more often. 24% have lowered prices overall. 21% offer more BOGO promotions #2 Rx SUNWEAR Prescription sunwear experienced a huge jump in 2017. Nearly half of the ECPs surveyed (43%) tagged it as their fastest-growing category. That’s up an impressive 14 percentage points from just a year earlier. WHAT IS ECPs’ ONE FASTEST-GROWING CATEGORY? 43% Rx SUNWEAR (up from 29% in 2016) A testament to ECPs’ selling smarts, 52% of those surveyed report second-pair sales are up. Though Rx sunglasses continue to top the most-offered list of second-pair options, 74% of ECPs say they’re now offering more Rx frames than previously as a second-pair option. #1 ONLINE COMPETITION #3 BLUE GOES BIG Blue-light-filtering products continue to gain speed when it comes to outpacing the rest of the specialty eyewear field. Between 2015 and 2017, these products jumped 13 percentage points nationwide and an impressive 27 points in the Northeast. Blue light product sales now surpass sunwear sales in some of the practices we surveyed, especially in the South. One reason for its explosive growth is that ECPs surveyed now report offering blue-light-filtering protection to an average of 50% of patients. That’s up from 41% in 2016. continued on next page