NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations increased last week, March 18–24, when compared with the previous week at a rate of 1 index point. That places gross revenue at a level 5 index points above where it was at this point in time (Week 12) when compared with last year (2023), 11 points above the same period in 2022, 6 points above 2021, 54 points above 2020 (the first week of COVID lockdown restrictions) and 20 points above 2019, according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker.

Optical sales categories were mixed last week when compared with the previous week, at rates of 1 index point for gross revenue, 2 index points for exams/refractions, 0 index points for frame units, 1 index point for lens pairs and -1 index point for contact lenses.

When comparing last week’s optical sales with the same period last year, the categories were mixed as well, ranging from a decrease of -2 index points for both frame units and lens pairs, to the greatest increase of 5 index points for gross revenue. The other categories increased by 4 index points for exams/refractions and 1 index point for contact lenses.

With optical sales categories being mixed last week, four of the categories reached a level above an average week in 2019—the index baseline assigned a value of 100 for this Optical Business Tracker. These ranged from a high of 123 index points for gross revenue to a low of 93 index points for contact lenses. The other three categories reached 103 index points for exams/refractions, 103 index points for frame units and 103 index points for lens pairs.

Jobson Optical Research selected 1,500 optical locations that have been operating and reporting their sales to its partners, GPN and ABB Analytics, since 2019. The index has been rebased to an average week in 2019. Going forward, this new index base will be used as an arbitrary benchmark and assigned a value of 100.

Click here to view the complete Jobson COVID-19 Performance Tracker