NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations increased last week, Sept.11–17, when compared with the previous week at a rate of 20 index points. That places gross revenue at a level 4 index points above where it was at this point in time (Week 38) when compared with last year (2022), 14 points above the same period in 2021, 4 points above 2020 and 17 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 20 index points for gross revenue, 19 index points for exams/refractions, 16 index points for frame units, 17 index points for lens pairs and 10 index points for contact lenses. When comparing last week’s optical sales with the same period last year, most categories were up besides one, ranging from the greatest increase of 4 index points for gross revenue to the only decrease of -2 index points for contact lenses.

The other categories increased at rates of 2 index points for exams/refractions, 1 index point for frame units and 2 index points for lens pairs.

Despite all optical sales categories increasing last week, only one 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. These ranged from a high of 114 index points for gross revenue to a low of 87 index points for contact lenses. The other three categories reached 98 index points for exams/refractions, 95 index points for frame units and 96 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