NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations decreased last week, May 16-22, at a rate of -2 index points. That places gross revenue at a level 4 index points above where it was at this point in time (Week 21) when compared with last year and 12 points above 2019. During the beginning of the pandemic, gross revenue had reached a level of 84 points by Week 21 of 2020 as it continued emerging from the pandemic-related low of 14 index points it had reached during Week 15, according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker.
 
Optical sales categories were mixed last week. Most categories, gross revenue, exams/refractions, and frame units, decreased at a rate of -2 index points when comparing last week with the previous week. In addition, lens pairs were flat, and contact lenses were up by 1 index point.
 
When comparing last week’s optical sales with the same period last year, categories were both up and down. Gross revenue and contact lenses were up by 4 index points and exams/refractions by 2 index points. Frame units and lens pairs were down by -3 and -2 index points, respectively.
 
With optical sales mixed last week, only one category remained above an average week in 2019—the index baseline assigned a value of 100 for this Optical Business Tracker. At 108 index points, gross revenue is the only category above that benchmark. The other categories below that benchmark range from lens pairs and frame units at 95 index points to contact lenses and exams/refractions at 92 index points.
 
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