ECP BUSINESS METRICS

Optical sales on a national level remained flat again over this past week, according to the real-world, real-time data being tracked by Jobson Optical Research. Gross revenue, exams/refractions and frame units all remained unchanged for this past week ending August 23 when compared with the previous week. During the same time period, sales of lens pairs increased by only 1 index point while contact lens sales decreased by 4 index points.

Buying customers remains a primary reason national optical sales hover not far below pre-pandemic levels even while 25 states reported increases in COVID-19 cases this past week, according to the CDC COVID Data Tracker. Even though ECPs are seeing fewer patients, those who are making appointments and coming into the office are there to buy, as evidenced by conversion rates that are currently higher than last year. The capture rate for the week of August 17-23 is higher at 53.4 percent this year when compared with the same period for 2019, when it was 51.4 percent, according to ABB Analyze.

REGIONAL BREAKOUT

Regionally, the Northeast continued playing catch-up with the other regions in all categories except contact lenses, which declined. Following sales growth over this past week, the Northeast has reached a level that is now within 9 or fewer index points of the national average in all service/product categories. The Midwest maintained its dominance, achieving sales levels higher than the national average in all service/product categories. The Midwest has now reached sales levels comparable or higher than national pre-pandemic levels in all categories even while it contains the highest number of states (11) reporting increases in coronavirus cases over this past week, according to the CDC COVID Data Tracker.

*The index baseline was developed by Jobson Research from total sales from an average seven days in the first quarter of 2019.This index baseline is equivalent to a score of 100. All other time periods going forward are calculated as a percent increase or decrease from the 100 baseline index of that period. This index is intended to show directional and magnitudinal change that the market is experiencing. Actual index scores are arbitrary meaning the baseline of 100 is simply used as a benchmark. Jobson Research shall not be held liable for any use or misuse of the data described and/or contained herein.

Please note that practices that use practice analytic systems tend to skew a bit larger and have higher revenue than practices that do not.

Source: GPN/EDGEPro and ABB Analyze contributed anonymous sales data used to determine gross revenue, exams/refractions, frame units, lens pairs, and contact lens boxes. Data was collected from approximately 3,500 independent eye care practices.

Consumer Sentiments

* Percentage of Rx eyewear users that are planning to postpone or cancel their Rx eyewear purchase until conditions are better. "If you need new eyeglasses or contact lenses while COVID-19 is still a threat, which of the following actions are you likely to take?"
** Selected answer option 8, 9 or 10 for the question "On a scale of 1-10 (were 1 = No concern at all and 10 = Extremely concerned) how concerned are you over the recent global COVID-19 threat and outbreak?"

Source: The Vision Council VisionWatch COVID-19 Consumer Sentiment Study.

For additional information, you may reach out to GPN/EDGEPro, ABB Analyze, and The Vision Council directly.

For more information from Jobson Research contact jwaller@jobson.com.