NEW YORK—Optical sales quickly recovered last week, July 12-18, following the previous week’s downturns due to the Independence Day holiday. In fact, the national average for gross revenue at ECP locations not only regained the -16 index points it lost the previous week (July 5-11) but also added an additional 2 index points last week for a total increase of 18 index points, according to the latest Practice Performance Tracker from Jobson. Last week, all optical sales categories not only regained the losses they experienced the previous week but also surpassed their prior levels.
In addition to gross revenue regaining 16 points and surpassing that by 2 index points, frame units and lens pairs also added 2 index points to the -14 index points they lost the previous week. Similarly, exams/refractions regained the -12 index points they lost and added an additional 4 index points with an upturn of 16 index points when comparing last week with the previous week, and contact lenses regained the -11 index points they lost and added 1 index point with a total upturn of 12 index points last week.
With all categories of optical sales rebounding last week following the previous week’s holiday-related downturns, gross revenue returned to its level above the index baseline level of 100 assigned to an average week in 2019. While all other categories similarly rebounded, they all still remain slightly below the level of an average week in 2019.
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