NEW YORK—The national average for gross revenue at ECP locations decreased last week, May 23-29, at a rate of -2 index points. That places gross revenue at a level 5 index points above where it was at this point in time (Week 22) when compared with last year and 24 points above 2019. Gross revenue during Week 22 of 2020 was at 75 index points, that’s 31 points below where it was at the same time this year, according to Jobson’s most recent Practice Performance Tracker.

All optical sales categories decreased or remained flat last week. When comparing last week with the previous week, exams/refractions remained flat while decreases were -2 index points for gross revenue and lens pairs and -1 index point for frame units and contact lenses.

When comparing last week’s optical sales with the same period last year, categories were both up and down. Gross revenue was up the most by 6 index points, while the contact lenses category was up 4 index points. Both frame units and lens pairs were each down by -1 index point.

With optical sales either flat or down last week, only one category remained above an average week in 2019—the index baseline assigned a value of 100 for this Optical Business Tracker. At 106 index points, gross revenue is the only category above that benchmark. The other categories below that benchmark range from lens pairs at 93 index points to contact lenses at 91 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.
 
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