NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations increased last week, April 24–30, when compared with the previous week at a rate of 1 index point. That places gross revenue at a level 7 index points above where it was at this point in time (Week 18) when compared with last year (2022), 11 points above the same period in 2021, 90 points above 2020 (when COVID stay-at-home restrictions were in place) and 20 points above 2019, according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker.

Most optical sales categories were down last week when compared with the previous week, at a rate of -1 index point for exams/refractions, frame units, lens pairs and contact lenses. The only category that increased was gross revenue, at a rate of 1 index point.

When comparing last week’s optical sales with the same period last year, all categories were down with the exception of two, with the highest increase of 7 index points for gross revenue to the greatest decrease of -4 index points for frame units. The other categories increased/decreased at rates of 1 index point for exams/refractions, -2 index points for lens pairs and -2 index points for contact lenses.

With most optical sales categories decreasing last week, only three of the categories still reached a level at or 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 116 index points for gross revenue to a low of 86 index points for contact lenses. The other three categories reached 94 index points for exams/refractions, 100 index points for frame units and 100 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