NEW YORK—Optical sales bounced back on a national level last week (Dec. 28-Jan 3) following the substantial declines experienced the previous week (Dec. 21-27) during the Christmas holiday. This is likely due to the typical end-of-year surge in business from those with managed vision care plans and health care flexible spending accounts using up their benefits before the end of the calendar year. While most service/product categories rebounded at rates hovering around 20 index points, exams/refractions grew by half that, by 10 index points last week.

This left contact lenses, which have followed their own trajectory all year, the only category to return to sales levels higher than before the Christmas holiday.

On a regional basis, all regions and categories bounced back. While the South, Midwest and West all experienced strong resurgence in all categories, albeit to sales rates higher than pre-Christmas levels only for contact lenses, the Northeast’s resurgence lagged behind the three other census regions. With COVID-19 cases on the increase throughout much of the country, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, the correlation with regional optical sales is mixed.

The Jobson COVID-19 Practice Performance Tracker data is compiled by Jobson Research from GPN/EDGEPro and ABB Analyze data. Another element of the report illustrates Consumer Sentiments about the COVID-19 response and purchasing intentions, with data supplied by The Vision Council.

This index baseline was developed by Jobson Research from total sales from an average 7 days in the first quarter of 2019.

Click here to view the complete Jobson COVID-19 Performance Tracker