NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations decreased last week, March 28-April 3, at a rate of -1 index point. That places gross revenue at a level 7 index points above where it was at this point in time (Week 14) when compared with last year and 13 points above 2019. During 2020, however, pandemic-related, mandated shutdowns brought gross revenue to only 16 index points during Week 14. That’s 100 points below Week 14 of this year, according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker.
 
Optical sales categories varied last week, ranging slightly from an increase of 1 index point for frame units to a decrease of -1 index point for gross revenue and exams/refractions. Remaining flat when comparing last week with the previous week of March 21-27 were contact lenses and lens pairs.
 
With zero to little change in optical sales last week, all but one category reached levels above an average week in 2019—the index baseline assigned a value of 100 for this Optical Business Tracker. The contact lenses category remains the only one below that benchmark at 97 index points, while those above range from exams/refractions at 101 index points to gross revenue at 116 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