Use These Two KPIs to Grow Your Contact Lens Business

Contact lenses are too often an afterthought in optometric practices. With online competition and shrinking margins, some wonder whether the effort is worth it. However, a strong contact lens program is worth the effort as it drives patient loyalty and dependable recurring revenue. Two KPIs in particular can transform your contact lens business: annual supply capture rate and contact lens sales by modality.

When measured and optimized, these metrics reveal not only the strength of your sales process but also the health of your patient relationships. Let’s explore what they mean, why they matter and how you can track and improve them—plus the role daily disposables play in boosting both patient outcomes and practice profitability.

ANNUAL SUPPLY CAPTURE RATE

What is it?

Annual supply capture rate measures the percentage of your contact lens patients who purchase a full year’s supply of lenses directly from your practice.

Annual Supply Orders ÷ Total Contact Lens Orders = Annual Supply Capture Rate

For example, if you see 100 contact lens patients in a month and 40 of them purchase a year’s supply, your annual supply capture rate is 40%.

Why It Matters

Revenue Stability: Annual supply purchases represent larger, upfront transactions, smoothing out cash flow.
Patient Compliance: Patients with a year’s supply on hand are less likely to stretch lenses and are more compliant overall.
Reduced Leakage to Online Retailers: Patients who leave with only one or two boxes often turn to third parties for refills. A year’s supply keeps them in-house.
Loyalty & Retention: Annual supply patients tend to return consistently for exams, as they know when they’re due for their next order.
Staff Costs: When a patient orders an annual supply, there is a one-time practice cost in placing that order. If a patient places four orders throughout the year for smaller supplies, your practice cost increases by that amount. Multiply this by a typical patient flow in a busy office, and you’ll see how annual supplies cut down on staff work and improve efficiency.

Improving Annual Supply Capture

Measure first: Most systems can generate reports on lens orders, breaking down annual versus partial supplies. Your distributor or manufacturer can also help with this data.

The assumptive sale: We assume that every patient is purchasing an annual supply, every time.
Incentives: Offer rebates, bundled discounts or perks like free shipping on annual orders.
Team alignment: Train front desk and optical staff to reinforce the benefits and handle objections. Utilize your reps in helping—they are great with roleplaying!
Make it easy: Simple quote the cost for an annual supply (after any vision plan contributions). Don’t confuse patients with too many supply choices.
Stop asking “How many?”: This is an absolute no-no for me. When we ask patients “how many” lenses they want to purchase, they’ll almost always default to the smallest quantity.

Even a modest bump—from 35% to 50%—can translate into tens of thousands of dollars in annual revenue growth.

CONTACT LENS SALES BY MODALITY

What Is It?

Modality mix tracks the proportion of your contact lens sales by replacement schedule: daily disposable, biweekly, monthly, toric, multifocal or specialty.

(Units Sold of a Modality ÷ Total Units Sold) × 100 = % of Sales by Modality

For example, if 70% of your fits are monthly lenses and only 20% are daily disposables, you have a huge opportunity to increase your daily disposable lens category and boost profitability. Read how you can use them as a retention strategy here.

Why It Matters

Profitability: Daily disposables deliver higher margins per patient when purchased as annual supplies.
Patient health and compliance: Daily wearers have lower rates of infections, better compliance and fewer dropout issues.
Practice differentiation: Offering a strong portfolio of daily disposables, multifocals and toric lenses positions your practice as cutting-edge.
Part-time wear: Daily disposable lenses are perfect for part-time wear. This can increase your per patient revenue by adding contact lenses for a glasses-only wearer or improving your optical capture rate for contact lens wearers.

Improving Sales by Modality

Measure first: Generate monthly reports by modality from your distributor, rep or PMS. Compare your mix against industry averages—are you underperforming in daily disposables or multifocals?
Lifestyle questions: During exams, ask about screen use, travel, allergies or sports/hobbies—one-day lenses often fit these needs perfectly.
Actions matter: Don’t just talk about the technology—put them on the patient’s eyes. Send patients home with them to experience the difference themselves.
Upgrade conversations: Position newer modalities as “better for your eyes” rather than “more expensive.”
Marketing and education: Highlight the convenience and health benefits of dailies in email campaigns, social media posts and in-office signage.
Just do it: Eye care professionals often shy away from presenting daily disposable lenses to their patients for fear they will balk at the cost. Explain the benefits and watch adoption climb.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Practices grow when we start measuring metrics, analyzing our business and making key changes for improvement. By measuring annual supply capture rate and tracking sales by modality, you gain actionable insights into both patient behavior and practice performance.

If annual supply capture is low, focus on doctor-driven recommendations and clear incentives. Listen to how front desk and optical staff present (or don’t!) the annual supply and spend valuable time on training.
If your modality mix is skewed toward older, lower-margin lenses, invest in staff training and patient education around one-day lenses. And take advantage of your reps’ expertise.

Both KPIs are easy to track, straightforward to communicate with staff and directly tied to profitability. Most importantly, they support better patient outcomes—because when patients wear the right lenses consistently, they’re healthier, happier and more loyal to your practice.

For more on contact lenses, read “Go Big by Going Small” here.

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