There’s no question that premium priced frames help maximize profit margins.  High-end products can provide a significant contribution to your bottom line, especially when properly understood and presented to the patient demographics most likely to consume them. If you’re interested in expanding your premium frame sales, or even just looking to understand the market for these high-end products, this article will provide insights into the premium frame market share and consumer profile.

We’ve analyzed over 13 million frame transactions.*  The results suggest that great opportunities exist in several premium categories across your frame boards. We’ll break those opportunities down by demographic and price point.

TOP TIERS

We started by defining the entry point for “premium” frames. We determined that the top 10% (also called the 90th percentile) of all frame sales start with a $319 price point. That means 90% of all frames sold have a list price lower than $319, and frames above $319 can be considered premium or “luxury.” We can break it down further, with the top 5% (95th percentile) starting at $389 and the top 3% (97th percentile) at $450.

UNITS v. DOLLARS

It’s important to know what the financial impact of the top 10% of frame sales is. While they are “only” 10% of the frame units, they actually represent more than 21% of the total frame revenue (in list price dollars). If you scale it up to look at the top 5% of units (frames over $389), those account for 12% of those list revenue dollars, and the peak 2.5% of list price sales represent 6.6% of all frame dollars. So even though it’s a relatively small number of frame units, they can have a seriously positive impact on the overall revenue. This suggests that there are good financial reasons to carry frames in these price points, even if they are not the “bread-and-butter” options that most of your patients choose.

WHO’S BUYING?

Exploring some of the demographics of premium frame buyers, females account for 10.7% share of units priced $319 and over, and 22% of list dollars. Conversely, male share of units and dollars for frame list prices $319 and up drop to 8.9% and 18.7% respectively. 

By age, those under 20 have the smallest share of premium frame purchases: 5.1% of units and 12.7% of dollars, whereas the 40-59 age group buys the largest share: 12.6% of units and 24.1% of dollars.  These insights should help you start to think about shifting your frame-board management and sales strategy. The greatest opportunity exists with females aged 40-59. Knowing this can inform conversations with frame reps, and help you to think about not only how you’re arranging your frame boards, but sales strategy as well.

BY LOCATION

Aggregating the transactions by ECP location we learn what share of practices emphasize premium frame assortments. In fact, 4.6% of locations feature and excel at selling frames at premium price points as their average list frame price is $319 or more. A small number of practices (0.5%) push the premium limit and average $450 list per frame sold. What are they doing to push these limits? What could you be doing? 

TAKE AWAYS

$319 defines the premium frame segment (90th percentile) and females aged 40-59 are the most likely consumers for higher priced frames.  This is a great starting point – think about how you approach patients who fall into this demographic and strategize. We also learned that less than 5% of practices have average frame sales at or above this price point – why not join them? 

*Data sampled from 13 million transactions in 2600 locations in the United States between January, 2019 and March, 2022.