NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations decreased last week, August 12–18, when compared with the previous week at a rate of -1 index point. That places gross revenue at a level 13 index points above where it was at this point in time (Week 33) when compared with last year (2023), 19 points above the same period in 2022, 28 points above 2021, 24 points above 2020 and 27 points above 2019, according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker.

Optical sales categories were mixed last week when compared with the previous week, at rates of -1 index point for gross revenue, exams/refractions and frame units, 2 index points for lens pairs and 4 index points for contact lenses. When comparing last week’s optical sales with the same period last year, all the categories were up, ranging from the largest increases of 13 index points for both gross revenue and contact lenses, to the smallest increase of 3 index points for frame units. The other categories increased by 7 index points for exams/refractions and 5 index points for lens pairs.

With optical sales categories being mixed last week, all five 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 136 index points for gross revenue to a low of 106 index points for frame units. The other three categories reached 114 index points for exams/refractions, 108 index points for lens pairs and 112 index points for contact lenses.

Jobson Optical Research selected 1,500 optical locations that have been operating and reporting their sales to its partners, GPN and ABB Analyze, 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.

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