FILE Covid-19 and the optical sector: Impact & consequences

Covid-19 is still here. However, in two years, many things have changed. Our approach to the disease and its developments in particular. Far from public debates, the optical industry, like many others, has been hit hard. The impact and consequences of Covid-19 on the optical industry have initiated a profound transformation. Autopsy of an ongoing phenomenon.

Lockdowns: from closed to essential

The health crisis that started in 2020 is of course the lockdowns that followed one after the other in France (three in one year). With one notable difference. The first lockdown, we remember, was the most marked. Very limited outings and a short list of essential businesses. Among the latter, opticians. However, given the urgency of the situation and the shortage of protective equipment, many will be closed. They offer services via click and collect or drive. But also by appointment.

We understand then, there will be a before and after lockdown. Above all, despite the right to remain open, opticians are noticing that the public is not there. In the early days, people only go out for emergencies and basic necessities. The consequences of Covid-19 will have repercussions on the optical sector as on all other sectors.

For any company, the blow is harsh. Especially since two other lockdowns will follow. Less strict, but which will leave a lot of uncertainty and the conviction that a need to reorient is important.

Solutions to get back on your feet

To achieve this, opticians and manufacturers will sometimes demonstrate originality, often agility. The mask first of all is a real problem for eyeglass wearers. Anti-fog products have exploded. All-inclusive kits are even being given promotional campaigns never seen before for optical accessories. This is the case of the Zeiss Vision anti-fog kit which will be available in the Paris metro. But the thinking goes further than the possibility of making additional sales.

Indeed, this problem calls into question priorities while exacerbating the contradictions of the optical sector. While we see the most sophisticated equipment flourishing on the market, smart glasses and high-tech optics at the forefront, the lenses have not yet integrated anti-fog treatment?

Of course. And even since 2011. But this is a segment that has been very little used. Covid-19, once again, is changing the situation. Optics by appointment is one of these consequences. The impact of digitalization, the use of teleworking, has made it possible to support these solutions so as not to be left waiting with arms crossed.

Making an appointment online, for the retailer, allows them to have better visibility of their activity. In addition, the promotion of online optical tests, while not as relevant as those of a specialist, has the merit of keeping in touch with their customers.

A recovery in the form of a rebound

The crisis has had other collateral effects on the sector. Business closures and multiple restrictions on travel or family gatherings have forced users to make choices. Since it was becoming complicated to travel, why not prioritize other spending items?

Glasses are one of them. And then, faced with the uncertainty of how the situation will evolve, and the risk of seeing other administrative closures or shortages of raw materials, we are making sure that the whole family is better equipped.

Spending much more time at home, particularly in front of screens, has played a major role in customers' approach to risks. Anti-blue light treatments have become even more important.

All these factors have led to a considerable rebound in the optical sector . Logically, it is glasses that have led to this rebound, while contact lenses and sunglasses have remained behind. The fact of going out less, here again, has played a role.

Eco-responsible optics have a role to play

We have seen the materialization, especially in the early days of the crisis, of a strong questioning of our lifestyles. Public opinion, increasingly sensitive to environmental issues, could only note the beneficial effects of a virtual halt in the production of industrial goods. But also of the significant drop in the use of transport networks.

Optical manufacturers who already had this fiber in them, saw this as an opportunity to strengthen their values. Market ecology then took another turn. Although it still has many steps to take, eco-responsible optics is no longer a niche segment, but rather an imponderable of the sector.

Faced with this approach, there is a need to go against the usurpers. Highlighting one's ability to use renewable materials is useless if they have to be imported from the other side of the world. Using a local or responsible label is not necessarily a guarantee of quality, as the rules are sometimes incongruous.

Indeed, it is possible to obtain certain labels while having manufactured only one element of a frame according to its criteria. The health crisis will have helped to create a new horizon for players who integrate responsible ecological and social values.

For the moment, if awareness is well present, government steps are lacking to push manufacturers and traders to fully integrate these elements into their commercial and production chains. The optical industry can be one of the drivers, as it has become aware of the problem.

The health crisis has, as a whole, redefined the foundations of trade. The consequences of Covid-19 on the optical industry have been numerous. If we must expect to have to live with the virus, let us hope that this experience does not remain without consequences in the face of the rules that can impact, upwards or downwards, a sector of activity. But nothing is less random.