NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations increased last week, Aug. 8-14, at a rate of 2 index points for the second week in a row. That places gross revenue at a level 9 index points above where it was at this point in time (Week 33) when compared with last year, 5 points above the same period in 2020, and 8 points above 2019, according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker.
 
All optical sales categories were up or flat last week when compared with the previous week. Exams/refractions were up 4 index points, frame units, lens pairs and gross revenue were up 2 points, and contact lenses remained flat.
 
All optical sales categories were also up when comparing last week’s optical sales with the same period last year. Exams/refractions, frame units, lens pairs and contact lenses all increased at a rate of 4 index points when comparing Week 33 of this year with the same time period last year, except for gross revenue, which increased by the largest amount of 9 index points.
 
With all optical sales either up or flat last week, all categories reached levels above an average week in 2019—the index baseline assigned a value of 100 for this Optical Business Tracker. Gross revenue reached the highest level at 117 index points, followed by the rest in descending order—exams/refractions (105), contact lenses (104), lens pairs (103) and frame units (102).
 
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