NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations decreased last week, Jan. 23–29, when compared with the previous week at a rate of -3 index points. That places gross revenue at a level 9 index points above where it was at this point in time (Week 5) when compared with last year (2022), 6 points above the same period in 2021, 7 points above 2020, and 18 points above 2019, according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker.

All optical sales categories were down last week when compared with the previous week, at rates of -3 index points for gross revenue, -3 index points for exams/refractions, -1 index point 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, all categories were up with the exception of one, with the highest increase of 8 index points for gross revenue to the greatest decrease of -7 index points for contact lenses.

The other categories increased at rates of 6 index points for frame units, 5 index points for lens pairs, and 1 index point for exams/refractions when compared with the same period last year.

With most optical sales categories decreasing last week, all of the categories still reached levels above an average week in 2019 with the exception of two—the index baseline assigned a value of 100 for this Optical Business Tracker. These ranged from a high of 119 index points for gross revenue to a low of 94 index points for contact lenses. The other three categories reached 99 index points for exams/refractions, 106 index points for frame units, and 106 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