Eyewear Market Trends and Forecast
The future of the global eyewear market looks promising with opportunities in the online and offline retail industries. The global eyewear market is expected to reach an estimated $183 billion by 2030 with a CAGR of 4% from 2024 to 2030. The major drivers for this market are an upsurge in demand for prescription spectacles and contact lenses due to increases in vision impairments, growing geriatric population, and rising exposure of younger generation to smartphones and computer, leading to vision problems.
Eyewear is crafted from various raw materials depending on the frame type. Acetate frames use cellulose acetate derived from cotton or wood pulp, offering flexibility and vibrant color options. Metal frames typically utilize stainless steel, titanium, or alloys for durability and lightweight properties. For luxury eyewear, materials like buffalo horn, wood, or precious metals are employed for exclusive designs. Lenses are predominantly made from polycarbonate or glass, chosen for impact resistance and optical clarity. The price of eyewear varies significantly based on brand prestige, materials used, and design intricacy. Designer brands and luxury eyewear command higher prices due to exclusive materials and craftsmanship. In contrast, mass-market brands and online retailers offer more affordable options using materials like acetate or metal alloys. Competition among manufacturers and retailers drives price competitiveness, influencing factors include design innovation, brand reputation, and technological advancements such as lens coatings and UV protection.
• Lucintel forecasts that the spectacles will remain the largest segment over the forecast period due to growing population suffering from vision problems, increasing awareness regarding eye healthcare, and growing number of users of smartphones and computers. Lucintel predicts that the sunglasses segment is expected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period due to changing fashion trends and increasing awareness regarding harmful effects of UV rays on the eyes.
• Within the global eyewear market, offline will remain the largest distribution channel over the forecast period the forecast period due to increasing consumer preference towards after sales services and ease to make a choice of eyewear products.
• APAC will remain the largest region and it is also expected to witness the highest growth over the forecast period due to growing awareness about eye healthcare, increase in population of vision deteriorates with ageing, and rising disposable incomes further accelerating the eyewear market growth in this region.
Country wise Outlook for the Eyewear Market
Major players in the market are expanding their operations and forming strategic partnerships to strengthen their positions. Below image highlights recent developments by major eyewear producers in key regions: the USA, Germany , China, Japan, and Italy.
Emerging Trends in Eyewear Market
Emerging trends in the eyewear market shaping its future applications and market dynamics:
• Blue Light Blocking Glasses: With increased screen time, thereÄX%$%Xs a growing demand for eyewear that protects against blue light emitted from digital devices to reduce eye strain and improve sleep quality.
• Shift Towards Minimalist and Lightweight Designs: Consumer preferences are shifting towards minimalist frames and lightweight materials like titanium and thin acetates, offering comfort and style.
• Development of Smart Contact Lenses: Development of smart contact lenses with capabilities such as monitoring glucose levels for diabetic patients, providing vision correction, and even displaying augmented reality information.
• Fashion-Tech Collaborations: Collaboration between fashion brands and technology companies to create high-tech eyewear that combines style with advanced functionalities like fitness tracking and augmented reality.
• Biometric Authentication: Integration of biometric sensors into eyewear for secure authentication, allowing users to unlock devices or access sensitive information with facial recognition technology.
A total of 195 figures / charts and 153 tables are provided in this 323-page report to help in your business decisions. Sample figures with some insights are shown below.
Recent Developments in the Eyewear Market
Recent developments in eyewear market which highlights ongoing innovations and advancements across different sectors:
• Smart Eyewear: There is a notable trend towards smart eyewear integrating advanced technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Companies like North (now owned by Google) and Vuzix are pioneering smart glasses for applications ranging from enterprise use to consumer entertainment and healthcare.
• Blue Light Protection: With increased digital screen time, thereÄX%$%Xs growing demand for eyewear that blocks blue light to reduce eye strain and improve sleep quality. Brands like Felix Gray and Warby Parker have introduced stylish blue light blocking glasses catering to this consumer need.
• Sustainable Materials: Environmental sustainability is a key focus, with brands opting for eco-friendly materials such as recycled plastics, bio-based acetates, and bamboo. Companies like Sea2See and Proof Eyewear are leading the way in sustainable eyewear production.
• Customization and Personalization: ThereÄX%$%Xs a rise in demand for customizable eyewear options, including personalized frame designs, lens prescriptions, and fit adjustments. Brands like OWNDAYS and Lenskart offer online customization tools and in-store services for a tailored eyewear experience.
• Health Monitoring Features: Innovations include eyewear embedded with health monitoring capabilities such as heart rate monitoring, blood oxygen level tracking, and UV exposure measurement. This integration aims to enhance user wellness and provide real-time health data.
• Fashion-Tech Integration: Collaboration between fashion brands and tech companies is driving the development of fashionable yet functional eyewear. Examples include luxury brands partnering with technology firms to create stylish smart glasses that blend aesthetics with advanced functionalities.
Strategic Growth Opportunities for Eyewear Market
There are several strategic opportunities for growth in the eyewear market driven by changing consumer preferences, technological advancements and demographic trends. Here are some of the key growth opportunities in the eyewear industry:
Technological Advancements
• Smart Eyewear: The inclusion of technology into eyewear such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to perform other functions beyond eyesight correction. Smart glasses for health monitoring, navigation and communication have gained popularity.
• Advanced Lens Technologies: Development of lenses with superior performance characteristics like anti-reflective coatings, blue light filtering, and photochromic properties improves visual comfort to suit consumer’s specific needs such as digital device usage as well as UV protection.
Demographic Trends
• Aging Population: Increase in age-related vision impairments like presbyopia leads to demand for multifocal lenses and progressive eyewear solutions. Focus on senior-driven eyewear is on comfort, durability and ease of application.
• Fashion and Style Trends: Increasing fashion consciousness coupled with a desire for customized products has fueled stylishness and trendiness in frames for eyewear. The participation of celebrities and fashion designers often heightens brand appeal while attracting younger consumers
Lifestyle and Wellness Focus
• Sports and Outdoor Activities: With more people taking part in sports activities or outdoor recreational activities, there is a need for specialized products such as sunglasses with polarized lenses that reduce glare or impact-resistant goggles used while playing various games
• Blue Light Protection: As use of digital devices increases so does demand for spectacles that filter out blue light thus reducing eye strain plus preventing future harmful impacts from blue light.
Expansion in Emerging Markets
• Asia-Pacific and Latin America: Rapid urbanization, rising disposable incomes & evolving lifestyles drive huge potential sales volumes across emerging markets; growth strategies that focus on local tastes & affordability will improve market penetration.
• E-commerce and Omnichannel Strategies: Online platforms plus digital marketing techniques can increase company outreach especially in regions with growing internet coverage and progressively digital transactions.
Sustainability and Ethical Considerations
• Environmentally Friendly Materials: With the growing awareness among consumers about sustainability, demand for eco-friendly eyewear materials such as recycled plastics, bio-based acetates, and sustainable wood frames has been on rise.
• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): The brand reputation is enhanced by emphasizing ethical manufacturing practices, fair labour standards and transparent supply chains while attracting ethical consumers.
Healthcare Integration and Telemedicine
• Vision Care Services: Collaborating with healthcare providers as well as optometrists can help increase market reach through provision of vision screenings, telemedicine consultations or prescription eyewear services.
• Remote Vision Testing: The development of technology that allows remote vision testing enables individuals to ascertain their visual acuity while at home leading to accurate prescriptions hence easy acquisition of spectacles
Personalized Customer Experience
• Customization and Personalization: To enable customer satisfaction alongside loyalty offering personalized eyewear solutions like frame colors that are customizable, lens options or fitting adjustments would be ideal.
• Virtual Try-On Technologies: By using virtual try-on tools coupled with augmented reality applications customers will be able to see how they look with different styles of eyewear prior to making any purchase thereby reducing returns resulting from online shopping experiences.
Eyewear Market Driver and Challenges
Drivers of Eyewear Market:
1. Vision Correction Needs: The need for eyeglasses to correct vision caused by short-sightedness (myopia), long-sightedness (hypermetropia) and/or presbyopia, which is age-related loss of near vision, are the main factors that influence the demand for lenses.
2. Fashion and Style Trends: Therefore, fashion awareness among people has increased leading to a preference for designer frames as well as trendy eye wear accessories. This means that celebrities, fashion designers and trends in social media have also influenced this industry.
3. Demographic Factors: This calls for glasses used specifically for reading and multifocal contacts other than sunglasses needed for vision correction by an aging population globally. Younger demographics contribute to market growth through style adoption with lifestyle eyewear consciousness.
4. Technological Advancements: Lenses made from high index plastics or polycarbonate, anti-reflective coatings as well as scratch-resistant lens coatings including titanium frames and memory metals have enhanced comfort aspects such as fit and usability of these products.
5. Health Awareness: A rising number of individuals are becoming more aware about their eyesight and the importance of protecting it from Digital screens & UV rays , thus increasing demand for specialty glasses like blue light blocking tinted glasses or sunglasses with UV protection.
6. E-commerce and Digitalization: Furthermore, online retail channels are expanding while digital marketing strategies are helping consumers buy eyeglasses easier on their fingertips at any time they wish it done. Online experience is also being improved through home trial programs together with virtual try-on technologies.
Challenges faced in Eyewear Market:
1. Price Sensitivity: Frames, Lenses & Coatings make up the cost of eyewear; hence low income earners in developing countries who cannot afford them can be hindered from purchasing them due to financial barriers.
2. Competitive Market Landscape: Differentiation can only occur when innovation takes place, reputation built around the brand, customer service offered as well as marketing approaches. This is mainly due to the presence of competition in the market for eyewear manufacturers.
3. Changing Consumer Preferences: Being highly fashion sensitive, such rapidly changing consumer preferences necessitate an agile approach when designing goods while also managing inventories and creating those unique marketing strategies necessary for responding to future demands.
4. Counterfeit Products: On the same note, counterfeit glasses can imperil people’s lives thus tainting a company’s image. As such they include mechanisms meant to safe-guard brands alongside upholding intellectual ownership rights against sale of sham sunglasses.
Eyewear and their Market Shares
In this globally competitive market, several key players such as EssilorLuxottica, Carl Zeiss, Johnson & Johnson, Bausch and Lomb, Marchon, etc. dominate the market and contribute to industry’s growth and innovation. These players capture maximum market share. To know the current market share of each of major players, contact us by email at helpdesk@lucintel.com.
Companies in the market compete on the basis of product quality offered. Major players in this market focus on expanding their manufacturing facilities, R&D investments, infrastructural development, and leverage integration opportunities across the value chain. With these strategies eyewear companies cater increasing demand, ensure competitive effectiveness, develop innovative products & technologies, reduce production costs, and expand their customer base. Some of the eyewear companies profiled in this report include.
• EssilorLuxottica
• Carl Zeiss
• Johnson & Johnson
• Bausch and Lomb
• Marchon
These companies have established themselves as leaders in the eyewear industry, with extensive product portfolios, global presence, and strong research and development capabilities. They continually strive to enhance their market positions through strategic partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, and product innovations.
The market share dynamics within the eyewear are evolving, with the entry of new players and the emergence of innovative eyewear. Additionally, collaborations between material suppliers, manufacturers, and end-users are fostering technological advancements and expanding market opportunities.
Eyewear Market by Segment
The eyewear market is segmented by product type, distribution channel, end-user, material, and region. Key product types include prescription glasses, sunglasses, and contact lenses, with further sub-segmentation into fashion and sports eyewear. Distribution channels encompass online and offline retailers, including optical stores, department stores, and e-commerce platforms. End-users range from children to adults and elderly individuals, with customization options available.
This eyewear market report provides a comprehensive analysis of the marketÄX%$%Xs current trends, growth drivers, challenges, and future prospects in all major segments. The report offers insights into regional dynamics, highlighting the major markets for eyewear and their growth potentials. The study includes trends and forecast for the global eyewear market by product type, distribution channel, gender, and region as follows:
Eyewear Market by Product Type [Value ($M) and Volume (Million Units) from 2018 to 2030]:
• Spectacles
• Contact Lenses
• Sunglasses
Eyewear Market by Distribution Channel [Value ($ Million) and Volume (Million Units) from 2018 to 2030]:
• Offline Channels
• Online Channels
Eyewear Market by Gender [Value ($ Million) and Volume (Million Units) from 2018 to 2030]:
• Men
• Women
Eyewear Market by Region [Value ($ Million) and Volume (Million Units)from 2018 to 2030]:
• North America
o US
o Canada
o Mexico
• Europe
o United Kingdom
o Germany
o France
o Italy
o Spain
• APAC
o China
o Japan
o India
• ROW
o Brazil
Features of the Global Eyewear Market
Market Size Estimates: Global eyewear market size estimation in terms of value ($M) and volume (Million Units) shipment.
Trend and Forecast Analysis: Market trends (2018-2023) and forecast (2024-2030) by various segments.
Segmentation Analysis: Global eyewear market size by product type, distribution channel, gender, and region in terms of value.
Regional Analysis: Global eyewear market breakdown by North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World.
Growth Opportunities: Analysis of growth opportunities in different by product type, distribution channel, gender, and region for the global eyewear market.
Strategic Analysis: This includes M&A, new product development, and competitive landscape of the global eyewear market.
Analysis of competitive intensity of the industry based on Porter’s Five Forces model.
If you are looking to expand your business in eyewear or adjacent markets, then contact us. We have done hundreds of strategic consulting projects in market entry, opportunity screening, due diligence, supply chain analysis, M & A, and more.
FAQ
Q1. What is the eyewear market size?
Answer: The global eyewear market is expected to reach an estimated $183 billion by 2030.
Q2. What is the growth forecast for eyewear industry?
Answer: The eyewear market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4% from 2024 to 2030.
Q3. What are the major drivers influencing the growth of the eyewear market?
Answer: The major drivers for this market are an upsurge in demand for prescription spectacles and contact lenses due to increase in vision impairments, growing geriatric population, and rising exposure of younger generation to smartphones and computer, leading to vision problems.
Q4. What are the major product types for the eyewear market?
Answer: Spectacles, contact lenses, and sunglasses are the major product types of eyewear.
Q5. What are the emerging trends in the eyewear market?
Answer: emerging trends, which have a direct impact on the dynamics of the industry, include blue light blocking glasses, shift towards minimalist and lightweight designs and development of smart contact lenses .
Q6. Who are the key eyewear companies?
Answer: Some of the key eyewear companies are as follows:
• EssilorLuxottica
• Carl Zeiss
• Johnson & Johnson
• BAUSCH and LOMB
• Marchon
• Fielmann
• Alcon Vision
• Hoya
• Safilo
Q7.Which will be the largest eyewear distribution channel segment in the 2024-2030?
Answer: Lucintel forecasts offline will remain the largest distribution channel segment over the forecast period due to increasing consumer preference for aftersales services and the ease to choose eyewear products
Q8: In eyewear market, which region is expected to be the largest in the next five years?
Answer: APAC will remain the largest region, and it is also expected to witness the highest growth over the next five years.
Q9. Do we receive customization in this report?
Answer: Yes, Lucintel provides 10% customization without any additional cost.
This report answers following 11 key questions
Q.1 What are some of the most promising growth opportunities for the global eyewear market by product type (spectacles, contact lenses, and sunglasses), distribution channel (offline and online), gender (men and women), and region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World)?
Q.2 Which segments will grow at a faster pace and why?
Q.3 Which region will grow at a faster pace and why?
Q.4 What are the key factors affecting market dynamics? What are the drivers and challenges of the global eyewear market?
Q.5 What are the business risks and threats to the global eyewear market?
Q.6 What are the emerging trends in this eyewear market and the reasons behind them?
Q.7 What are some changing demands of customers in the eyewear market?
Q.8 What are the new developments in the eyewear market? Which companies are leading these developments?
Q.9 Who are the major players in the eyewear market? What strategic initiatives are being implemented by key players for business growth?
Q.10 What are some of the competitive products and processes in the eyewear market, and how big of a threat do they pose for loss of market share via material or product substitution?
Q.11 What M&A activities did take place in the last five years in the global eyewear market?
for any questions related to eyewear market or related to eyewear companies, spectacles market, sunglasses market, contact lenses market, men glasses market, women glasses market, offline eyewear market, online eyewear market, eyewear competitors, eyewear market size, eyewear market share, eyewear market analysis, and eyewear market size, write lucintel analyst at email: helpdesk@lucintel.com. we will be glad to get back to you soon.