you’ve got a lot on your plate. Merchandising, sell-through, returns, managed care, patient retention, marketing, social media, online competitors, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, no doubt your list goes on…

While your time is clearly limited (and decidedly precious), you may still want to know what your peers (and independent ECP competitors) are up to. Time for secret shopping or local market research? Probably not.

So, we decided to do the heavy lifting for you. Starting on page 60 of this issue, our annual Market Trends Report lays out the coveted specifics of what eyecare professionals are selling—and how their businesses are faring—in each region of the country.

Get the lowdown on everything from which U.S. regions have the strongest optical sales to each area’s best-selling frame styles and lens designs, the fastest-growing specialty category (i.e. Is it blue light or sunwear?), and what ECPs are doing with frame pricing (up or down) and their social media efforts.

To balance all this key market intel, we also present a fashion-focused roundup of the top “Femme Fatale” women’s frame styles that your patients will clamor for this fall (page 48). Plus, add 20 cool + wild vision facts to your arsenal with our Vision 101 column on page 34, and see ECPs’ fav emojis for social endeavors on page 1.

Erinn Morgan
Editor-in-Chief + Editorial Director
Eyecare Business