Consumers looking to buy contact lenses online would do well to compare prices. A survey of prices by the European Consumer Centre reveals significant differences in prices as well as shipping and handling charges.
The European Consumer Centre has compared the prices of contact lenses in online stores. The survey included the Finnish retailers Instrumentarium, Nissen, Visionshop and Piilarinet, the Swedish retailers Netlens, Lensbuddy and LensOn, the Dutch retailer Lensway and Planetvision, which is registered in Luxembourg. The prices of daily and monthly contact lens brands found in most online stores were chosen for comparison.
Buying contact lenses online requires that the buyer has visited an optician for an eye examination and received a prescription for contact lenses. The prescription itself does not need to be sent with the order to the online store, as customers only need to submit their contact lens prescription details. Ordering contact lenses online also requires that the buyer gets re-examined by an optician at regular intervals. Ordering online from the Finnish stores Instrumentarium and Nissen is only available to customers who have visited their physical store in person and received a user id for the online service. The other online stores surveyed do not operate traditional brick-and-mortar stores at all.
Online stores generally indicate contact lens prices per box. Some of them quote prices for a pair of lenses, which is equivalent to the price of two boxes. Boxes generally contain 30, 90 or six lenses.
Most contact lenses were cheapest at the Planetvision online store. The highest lens prices were quoted by the online stores of Instrumentarium and Nissen.
Disposable contact lenses are used only once, after which they are discarded. The prices of disposable lenses can vary greatly between different online stores. For instance, the price of a box of 90 Dailies Aqua Comfort Plus lenses by Ciba Vision, which was offered by each of the online stores surveyed, ranged from 52.90 euros to 93 euros. The lens with the lowest price was Focus Dailies All Day Comfort by the same manufacturer, sold in a box of 90 lenses for 36.90 euros by Planetvision. The most expensive lens was Johnson & Johnson’s 1-Day Acuvue Moist, which was offered for a price of 99 euros for a box of 90 lenses by Instrumentarium.
Monthly lenses are primarily sold in boxes of six lenses. The cheapest of the monthly lenses surveyed was Soflens 59 by Bausch & Lomb, sold at the Planetvision online store for 15.90 euros. The most expensive monthly lens was the Purevision Multifocal, a multifocal contact lens also manufactured by Bausch & Lomb. The price for that brand was 182.40 euros at Visionshop. Multifocal lenses and toric lenses for correcting astigmatism were the most expensive out of the brands surveyed.
Shipping and handling charges ranged from 2 euros to 7.90 euros depending on the online store. Delivery times ranged from one day to approximately one week. Delivery may take longer for lenses which are not in stock. All products could be returned within a period of 14 days. Most orders could be paid via online banking, by credit card or against an invoice. Some online stores also offered a cash on delivery payment option.
The survey was conducted by collecting price information on the retailers’ Internet websites in November 2008. Each of the retailers listed have websites in Finnish.