According to Jobson Research’s recently launched Optical Business Barometer (OBB), May left optical retailers the least optimistic about business this year, compared to the first four months of 2010. In an effort to gauge the optical business trends of eyecare professionals and keep the industry up-to-date on emerging business trends, Jobson Research debuted the OBB in April to provide independent optical retailers (those with single locations or groups of no more than three locations) with a comparative “how’s business” benchmark throughout the year. Compared to April’s 3.6 score, results measuring participants’ attitudes toward business fell to an Index of 3.4 for May 2010.
As a monthly survey conducted online by Jobson Optical Research, the OBB is designed to measure attitudes toward the business climate of independent ECPs on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is “very negative”, 3 is “neutral” and 5 is “very positive.”
May’s Index represented the lowest recorded rating of the year. February’s Index score of 3.5 was slightly higher and January’s results came in at 3.6. March was the best Index scoring month with 3.7. Sentiments regarding independent optical retailers’ outlook toward their own business for the future six months remained steady for May at 3.7, compared to April’s score, on the 1 to 5 scale.
Independents’ sentiments for the next six months, regarding the overall optical business outlook throughout the U.S., dipped to 3.4 when compared to the previous OBB April report of 3.5.
Check out the online article, where the findings of the OBB are also compared to those in the Consumer Confidence Index from the Conference Board as well as the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).
