NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations decreased substantially by -19 index points last week, July 4-10, as a result of the Fourth of July holiday occurring at the beginning of the period of time being tracked. That places gross revenue at a level 3 index points above where it was at this point in time (Week 28) when compared with last year. Gross revenue this year was 15 points below 2020 and 11 points below 2019 during Week 28 because Independence Day fell during Week 27 of those two years, according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker.
 
All optical sales categories were down last week when compared with the previous week due to the Fourth of July holiday. In addition to gross revenue declining at the highest rate of -19 index points, all other categories decreased by nearly as much. Frame units were down 18 points, both exams/refractions and lens pairs were down 17 points, and contact lenses were down 16 points.
 
When comparing last week’s optical sales with the same period last year, all categories were down except one. Other than gross revenue, which was up 2 index points when comparing Week 28 of this year with the same time period last year, the other categories were down by either 2 index points for exams/refractions and contact lenses or by 3 index points  for frame units and lens pairs.
 
With all optical sales declining last week when compared with the previous week, all categories are at levels below an average week in 2019—the index baseline assigned a value of 100 for this Optical Business Tracker. They range from gross revenue, the closest to the 100-index-point benchmark at 92 index points, to exams/refractions, lens pairs and frame units, all at 79 index points. The contact lenses category was at 84 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