NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations increased significantly last week, Nov. 28–Dec. 4, when compared with the previous week due to the previous week’s long holiday weekend at a rate of 43 index points. That places gross revenue at a level 5 index points above where it was at this point in time (Week 49) when compared with last year, 3 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 last week when compared with the previous week, at rates of 43 index points for gross revenue, 35 index points for exams/refractions and frame units, 36 index points  for lens pairs and 32 index points for contact lenses. When comparing last week’s optical sales with the same period last year, all categories were down besides one, ranging from the highest increase of 5 index points for gross revenue to the lowest decrease of -2 index points for lens pairs. The other categories, exams/refractions and contact lenses remained flat.
 
With all optical sales categories being up last week, four categories reached levels 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 117 index points for gross revenue to a low of 93 index points for contact lenses. The other three categories all reached 101 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