NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations increased last week, September 30–October 6, when compared with the previous week, at a rate of 1 index point. That places gross revenue at a level 16 index points above where it was at this point in time (Week 40) when compared with last year (2023), 19 points above the same period in 2022, 26 points above 2021, 19 points above 2020 and 30 points above 2019, according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker.

All optical sales categories increased or remained flat last week when compared with the previous week, at rates of 1 index point for gross revenue, 1 index point for exams/refractions, 2 index points for frame units, 0 index points for lens pairs and 7 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 increase of 16 index points for gross revenue, to the smallest increase of 4 index points for frame units. The other categories increased by 8 index points for exams/refractions, 7 index points for lens pairs and 12 index points for contact lenses.

With most optical sales categories increasing last week, three 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 129 index points for gross revenue to a low of 96 index points for contact lenses. One category, frame units, matched the index baseline at 100 index points. The other categories reached 105 index points for exams/refractions and 103 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 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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