Optimize Your Optical Health Product Shipping Journey with Purolator’s Safe, Fast and Sustainable Deliveries

The demand for optical health products in Canada is on the rise

Did you know that the demand for optical health products in Canada is booming? The Canadian population is rapidly aging and as people get older, they’re more likely to experience vision impairments, generating more demand for products like spectacle lenses, contact lenses and functional eyewear. In fact, by 2025, the Canadian eyewear market is projected to generate a revenue of USD $3.83 billion, with spectacle lenses, or prescription glasses, accounting for a large portion of this figure. But eye health is not their only concern, as Canadian customers also demand more eco-friendly eyewear solutions.  

While this could be a great opportunity to expand your optical store or e-commerce business throughout Canada, shipping optical health products has unique challenges. Eyewear is fragile, and shipping high-value optical goods often requires careful handling. On top of that, Health Canada has regulations for prescription lenses for both eyeglasses and contact lenses. There’s also the growing pressure from consumers demanding more sustainable shipping, but at the same time they want their eye opticals delivered as fast as possible. That’s a lot to handle on your own, which is where the right shipping partner can help your business rise to the occasion.  

By partnering with a carrier who is experienced in handling specialized cross-border shipments and has a strong commitment to sustainable logistics, your optical health business will be positioned to thrive and grow across Canada, while also easily overcoming the hurdles of shipping high-value optical goods. 

• The Canadian eyewear market is projected to generate a revenue of USD $3.83B by 2025, with an annual growth rate of 2.87% until 2029. Source: Statistica
• The largest market segment in Canada is spectacle lenses, with a volume of USD $1.60B in 2025. Source: Statistica
• 33% of Canadian consumers are willing to invest extra in sustainable eyewear. Source: Emergen Research

Key Takeaways:

What qualifies as an optical health product in Canada?

In Canada, optical health products encompass a variety of items that cater to eye care and vision correction. These products range from prescription eyeglasses and contact lenses to optical devices used for vision correction or eye health maintenance. Prescription eyeglasses and lenses, in particular, are classified as optical health products and are subject to regulations set by Health Canada, meaning they must comply with the appropriate import and export rules, customs paperwork and regulatory inspections. 

However, not all optical health products in Canada fall under this category. Let’s break it down: 

• Prescription eyeglasses, contact lens and medical equipment lens: Optical products used for the purpose of correcting vision impairments, or for testing eye health in an optician’s clinic, are generally considered optical health products. 

• Decorative contact lens: These products aren’t usually prescriptive, and are mostly used for decorative purposes to change the shape or colour of a person’s eyes. However, Health Canada still categorizes cosmetic lenses as optical health products. Wearing any kind of contact lens, regardless of whether it’s prescriptive or not, comes with the potential health risk of eye scratches, infections and allergic reactions. 
• Sunglasses, functional and non-prescription eyeglasses: Non-prescriptive eyewear is used for a variety of reasons. For example, sunglasses are commonly used for sun-protection, manual labourers wear safety goggles to protect their eyes, some people wear blue light spectacles for better sleep and others use non-prescription glasses for fashion or cosmetic purposes. None of these items are considered optical health products, and so don’t fall under Health Canada’s regulations. 

Learn more about the supply chain considerations for shipping medical devices to Canada. Download whitepaper.

How can optical health businesses surpass the five challenges of shipping eyeglasses in Canada?

The truth is, shipping optical health products across Canada can get complicated. You need to ensure your fragile products are delivered without damage and comply with regulatory requirements if necessary, while also meeting your customers’ demands for sustainability and fast shipping. If you’re not careful, you’ll be spending more time agonizing over logistics rather than focusing on what you do best: growing your business.  

That’s why working with a shipping provider like Purolator is so important. The right partner has the experience and infrastructure to take the hassle out of optical health logistics, handling any shipping hurdles with ease while you can focus on your business.

Here are five common challenges faced by optical health businesses when shipping eyeglasses—and how Purolator addresses each one. 

Challenge 1: Shipping fragile products

Most products that contain glass parts are considered fragile when shipped, and eyeglasses and lenses are no exception. Eye opticals are highly susceptible to damage, such as lens scratches and breaks or if the frame gets bent during transit. Fragile products like these require special attention and care in packaging and handling to avoid costly losses and reshipments.

Purolator’s solution:

Our closed-loop network ensures that your optical health products are handled by trained professionals at every step of the shipping process with no hand-offs to third parties. We also offer guidelines on secure packaging for fragile shipments like eyeglasses, and special handling services to safeguard delicate products, reducing the risk of damage during transit. 

Challenge 2: Regulatory compliance

When you’re shipping prescription lenses or decorative contact lenses, you’ll need to navigate Health Canada’s regulatory and customs requirements. Health Canada has strict standards for optical health products, and your business must ensure that your products pass relevant quality assurance inspections. Failing to meet optical product compliance in Canada could result in fines or delays at the border.   

Purolator’s solution:

With over 30 years of cross-border shipping expertise, you can count on Purolator to  guide you on regulatory requirements in Canada. Our customs compliance experts offer valuable guidance to help you ensure your paperwork is completed correctly, minimizing the risk of delays or customs rejections. 

Challenge 3: Sustainability

Whether you’re selling optical health products to opticians, retailers or directly to consumers, failing to adopt sustainable shipping practices might make it difficult to keep up with the competition. Customers want to feel good about the products they’re buying, and that includes knowing that their eyewear was delivered using low-carbon shipping options.  

Purolator’s solution:

Purolator is committed to reducing the environmental impact of all our logistics operations. With low-carbon shipping options like electric vehicles (EVs), and a focus on green initiatives throughout our shipping facilities, we’ll help your business align shipping practices with sustainability goals, making Purolator a greener choice for eyewear deliveries.

Challenge 4: Returns and exchanges

Whether it’s due to incorrect prescriptions or customer preferences, returns and exchanges are a common part of the optical health product industry. However, handling these returns can be tricky, especially for fragile items that require special care during shipping. And if the returns process inconveniences your customers, like forcing them to print labels or spend too much time travelling to a drop-off point, then that might put them off from making further purchases.

Purolator’s solution:

Our label-free return options simplify the process for customers, making returns easier and less time-consuming. With over 3,000 access points across Canada, your customers have convenient drop-off locations for returns, helping to streamline the process and take the headache out of returns.

Challenge 5: Shipping speed and tracking

With the rise of online shopping, customers now expect optical health products to be delivered quickly and reliably, especially when dealing with time-sensitive items like replacement lenses or urgent orders. Real-time tracking and fast delivery are no longer luxuries; instead, they’re now the standard that most e-commerce customers expect.

Purolator’s solution:

We offer expedited shipping options like Purolator Express® to help you deliver optical products as quickly as the next day.† For even more urgent orders, our Mission Critical service guarantees that your shipments arrive as fast as possible. When it comes to tracking and delivery customization, Purolator Your Way offers complete visibility throughout the shipping journey while offering features like Photo Proof of Delivery (POD) to give your customers peace of mind that their package has arrived at exactly the right place, at the right time.

Discover the best shipping practices for optical products with the right logistics partner

How do you know you’ve found the right logistics partner? A good logistics provider understands why reliability is so important for the optical health industry. Whether you’re shipping eyeglasses, prescription contact lenses or functional eyewear, choosing a partner who knows what it takes to ship your eyewear quickly to every corner of the country, while also guiding you on regulatory compliance and keeping damages and delays to a minimum is essential.  

Purolator’s specialized shipping solutions are designed to provide an ideal experience for your optical health business, whether you’re shipping B2B or fulfilling consumer orders. Our expertise, nationwide reach and commitment to customer service make it the ideal shipping partner for optical health businesses in Canada.

Find out more about Purolator’s optical transport solutions in Canada. Learn more.

Ship optical health products across the border without delays

While making sure your prescription eyewear and contact lenses comply with Canadian quality assurance regulations is your business’ responsibility, that’s only one half of the equation when it comes to getting your optical health products across the border. The other half is your shipping partner, who needs to understand customs compliance in Canada thoroughly to help ensure your products cross the border without delays. 

Purolator’s extensive cross-border shipping experience and international logistics solutions make us the ideal partner for handling such shipments. With a deep understanding of Canadian optical health product regulations, Purolator ensures that prescription eyewear and contact lenses are processed smoothly through customs:  

• Our regulatory compliance experts stay on top of changing customs regulations. They can assist you with documentation and can help confirm whether your products meet Canadian requirements before you start shipping, avoiding costly delays at the border 

• All optical health products are labelled with our digital healthcare indicator. When scanned, your package will be prioritized in our system, ensuring that your optical products are treated with the utmost care while we keep your items on the move. 

• Our vast network throughout Canada allows importers to ship optical products to any part of the country with ease, even to the most remote regions.  

Ship with confidence knowing that your optical health products will cross the border with ease and be handled carefully before reaching their destination. 

How Purolator helped Clearly deliver 50,000+ orders during off-hours

As a leading Canadian e-commerce retailer of contact lenses and glasses, Clearly partnered with Purolator to enhance their last-mile delivery service and improve their overall customer experience. While they offered an exceptional customer experience online, Clearly needed help with making sure that experience remained consistent once a product was sent out for delivery. Purolator proved to be a reliable partner, improving their overall customer satisfaction with more reliable last-mile deliveries and flexible options like evening and weekend shipments. 

• More than 50,000 orders were delivered during evenings and weekends. 
• Clearly’s customer satisfaction skyrocketed due to Purolator’s personalized last-mile delivery services. 
• The integration of SMS notifications for tracking boosted user experience and engagement. 

Minimize the risk of damage for fragile and high-value optical goods

When you’re shipping eyeglasses and lenses without the right packaging or special handling experts, the risk of damage is high. This risk increases when shipping over long distances or through multiple handling points. The more times a shipment is loaded and unloaded, the higher the chance of damage. A shipment may be dropped during loading, or reloaded in a way that covers label alerts for special handling. The possibility of damage is even higher if a shipment moves between carriers, since different providers may have different rules when it comes to handling fragile shipments—or perhaps not prioritize avoiding shipment damage. Damaged products don’t just put a dent in your costs, they harm customer trust, relationships and your brand image.  

Purolator minimizes the risk of damage by utilizing a closed-loop network. That means your optical products are handled exclusively by our trained professionals at every stage of the shipping process, with no hand-offs or transfers to other carriers at any point of the journey. Additionally, we offer customized packaging solutions. If you know your items are extremely delicate, we can come up with a packaging solution to protect your optical items and keep the chance of damage to a minimum. Not only do we prioritize getting your goods from point A to B, but you can also count on us to deliver eyewear in good condition. 

Discover how Purolator provided a customized shipment plan and tailored package to securely ship a special item for the Toronto Zoo. Watch the video.

Deliver optical goods quickly and with clear visibility for online customers

With the rise of e-commerce, fast, reliable shipping has become a key differentiator for many online businesses, as customers now expect their orders to be delivered quickly and with complete tracking visibility. When it comes to shipping optical health products, many customers require their eyewear urgently. They may need prescription glasses or contact lenses quickly due to urgent vision needs or for replacing lost or broken eyewear. The only problem: Fast shipping gets expensive very quickly. Trying to meet customer expectations while balancing costs can be tricky. But you can rely on Purolator to have a solution.   

So how does Purolator help you manage costs while keeping your shipments on time? Let’s break it down: 

• If you’re looking for speed, our fastest shipping solutions like Mission Critical and Purolator Express® ensure the quick delivery of your optical products to satisfy urgent customer demands. 
• With advanced tracking systems, Purolator provides real-time visibility, allowing your customers and your business to monitor the status of orders.  
• When it comes to managing transport costs, we use route optimization to keep delivery times short while also keeping costs efficient. Additionally, the world-class automation at our National Hub enables faster sorting, ensuring that your optical goods reach their destination as quickly as possible. 
• Your eyewear products fall under our healthcare shipping allowances, which means your shipments are prioritized throughout our network. 

Enable simple returns and sustainable solutions for eye opticals 

Sometimes, optical products like prescription glasses and contact lenses need to be returned or exchanged because of wrong prescriptions or similar issues. At the same time, your customers are increasingly willing to invest in sustainable products and eco-friendly logistics.  

Ready to solve two problems at once? By partnering with Purolator, your reverse logistics becomes an opportunity for growth while also meeting consumer demand for sustainable practices: 

• Customer-friendly returns: We offer convenient, label-free return options, making it easier for customers to return optical products with minimal hassle. This makes returns more convenient while reducing the environmental impact of unnecessary printing. 
• Wide network of access points: With over 3,000 access points across Canada, Purolator ensures customers can easily drop off returns at their convenience, streamlining the process and reducing delays. 
• Packaging waste reduction: Purolator offers package-free return options and provides guidelines on minimizing packaging, helping your customers reduce their environmental footprint and avoid excessive waste. 
• Commitment to sustainable logistics: Our investments in EVs and emissions reduction underscore our commitment to reducing the carbon footprint of optical product shipping, making Purolator a sustainable choice for any business in the eyewear industry. 

Check out our short video on how Purolator makes returns a lot easier for your customers: 

Why choose Purolator as your optical health product shipping partner?

As an eyewear company, partnering with a trusted logistics provider like Purolator is vital to your success in terms of client satisfaction, compliance with customs and regulations and nationwide reach. Whether you need to ship across Canada or internationally, Purolator offers the tools and services you need to ensure your optical health product shipments arrive intact, on time and comply with regulations. 

Access nationwide reach to 100% of Canadian postal codes*

Purolator’s vast network and unmatched reach in Canada allows eyewear businesses across the border to expand into new markets, and for Canadian optical businesses to deliver products to every address in the country.

Ship across borders with ease

Our flexible cross-border shipping options and customs clearance experts allow optical health product companies to navigate complex international regulations and ship prescription glasses and contact lenses to Canada or reach global markets with ease. We offer a range of solutions, including nearshoring, offshoring, multimodal transport, cross-border returns and express shipping, enabling efficient eyewear deliveries across borders. 

Optimize shipment routes for efficient deliveries

Purolator’s route optimization solutions help your optical health product company reduce transit times, minimize costs and make efficient deliveries by selecting the most reliable and cost-effective shipping routes.

Utilize cutting-edge technology

Purolator’s National Hub provides your optical health product companies with a centralized, efficient distribution point using the latest cutting-edge technology like world-class automation. Additionally, we offer e-commerce web integration services, so your optical products are prepared for shipping as soon as your customer completes their online order. 

Safely package optical products to minimize damage 

Our packaging guidelines allow eyewear companies to safely pack and transport fragile products like eyeglass lenses, contact lenses and frames, while also reducing their environmental footprint with sustainable packaging materials.

Prioritize prescription lens shipments with our digital healthcare indicator tool

Purolator’s digital healthcare indicator tool helps to keep shipments for prescription glasses and contact lenses moving, as all healthcare-related shipments are easily tracked and identified with a visual and digital aid. 

Deliver eyewear as early as 9AM 

Our time-definite services guarantee that eyewear products arrive on schedule, as early as 9AM. 

Ship optical health products to Canadian customers by the next day

Purolator’s express delivery services provide fast and reliable transportation, with next-day delivery options within Canada for your time-sensitive eyewear deliveries. 

Extra steps are taken towards security with our Chain of Signature service 

Purolator’s Chain of Signature service offers complete visibility and security for high-value or sensitive optical health product shipments, ensuring accountability at every stage. 

Get peace of mind with our closed-loop network 

Our closed-loop network helps ensure optical product shipments are kept within our network, improving security and accountability, instead of being handed off to third parties. 

Deliver critical shipments as soon as possible 

Purolator’s Mission Critical solution offers rapid delivery for your most crucial shipments, ensuring they arrive safely and on time

Seamless returns management at over 3,000+ access points

Purolator provides your optical health product customers with an efficient and convenient way to handle returns and exchanges throughout Canada at various shipping locations and access points. 

Transport optical health products in bulk with Purolator freight

Purolator’s bulk shipping options, such as less-than-truckload (LTL) and truckload (TL) freight, allow optical health product companies to manage large shipments cost-effectively while maintaining product integrity.

Give customers more customization options with Purolator Your Way™ 

Purolator Your Way offers personalized shipping solutions, allowing your customers to tailor their deliveries according to specific needs and preferences. 

Show customers your commitment to eco-friendly shipping 

Purolator’s commitment to environmental sustainability allows you to minimize your carbon footprint while maintaining reliable, eco-conscious shipping solutions. 

Fulfill the growing need for optical health products in Canada with Purolator 

As the demand for optical health products continues to grow, businesses in the optical industry face the challenge of ensuring safe, compliant and timely deliveries. Purolator’s expertise in logistics, combined with our customizable services, make us the ideal partner to help you navigate these challenges, enhance your customer experience and leverage growth opportunities to ship eyewear anywhere in Canada. 

Our extensive nationwide reach spans every corner of Canada, guaranteeing comprehensive coverage for your eyecare logistics needs. At Purolator we own and operate all of our assets, including a fleet of eco-friendly EVs and regional distribution centres strategically located throughout the country. This allows us to maintain full control over the entire shipping journey, bringing you maximum reliability and security for your valuable optical health products. 

Ready to reach customers throughout Canada with quick and reliable optical health product shipments? Partner with Purolator today.

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