NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations remained flat last week, April 1–7, when compared with the previous week. That places gross revenue at a level -1 index point below where it was at this point in time (Week 14) when compared with last year (2023), 3 points above the same period in 2022, 10 points above 2021, 103 points above 2020 and 16 points above 2019, according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker.

Most optical sales categories were down or flat last week when compared with the previous week, at rates of 0 index points for gross revenue, -1 index point for exams/refractions, -2 index points for frame units, 0 index points for lens pairs and 3 index points for contact lenses. When comparing last week’s optical sales with the same period last year, most of the categories were down as well, ranging from the lowest decrease of -8 index points for frame units, to the only increase of 3 index points for contact lenses.

The other categories decreased by -1 index point for gross revenue, -2 index points for exams/refractions and -6 index points for lens pairs.

With most optical sales categories decreasing or remaining flat last week, only one 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 119 index points for gross revenue to a low of 93 index points for contact lenses. The other three categories reached 98 index points for exams/refractions, 98 index points for frame units and 99 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