NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations decreased last week, March 14-20, at a rate of -1 index point. That places gross revenue at a level 5 index points below where it was at this point in time (Week 12) last year. However, 2022 gross revenue is far above (43 points) where it was for Week 12 during 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic and also above (9 points) where it was for Week 12 during 2019, according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker.
 
All optical sales categories were either flat or down last week. While frame units and lens pairs remained flat when comparing last week with the previous week of March 7-13, the other categories decreased at rates ranging from -3 index points for contact lenses to -1 index point for both gross revenue and exams/refractions.
 
Although all optical sales were either flat or down last week, three of five categories are above an average week in 2019—the index baseline assigned a value of 100 for this Optical Business Tracker. Exams/refractions at 99 index points and contact lenses at 93 index points are both below the 100-point index benchmark, while frame units at 103, lens pairs at 104, and gross revenue at 112 are above that level.
 
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