NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations increased last week, April 15–21, when compared with the previous week at a rate of 7 index points. That places gross revenue at a level 4 index points above where it was at this point in time (Week 16) when compared with last year (2023), 17 points above the same period in 2022, 14 points above 2021, 107 points above 2020 (during COVID) and 22 points above 2019, according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker.

All optical sales categories were up last week when compared with the previous week, at rates of 7 index points for gross revenue, 5 index points for exams/refractions, 6 index points for frame units, 6 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, the categories were mixed, ranging from the largest decrease of -3 index points for frame units, to the greatest increase of 4 index points for gross revenue.

The other categories changed by 3 index points for exams/refractions, -2 index points for lens pairs and 2 index points for contact lenses.

With all optical sales categories increasing last week, two 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—while two categories matched the baseline. These ranged from a high of 122 index points for gross revenue to a low of 91 index points for contact lenses.

Two of the categories, exams/refractions and frame units, matched the index baseline of 100. The lens pairs category reached 101 index points.

Jobson Optical Research selected 1,500 optical locations that have been operating and reporting their sales to its partners, GPN and ABB Analyze, 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