I wanted to extend to everyone a happy New Year. I’m so thankful for everyone’s interest in and support for this website. It has certainly been a crazy year for the mattress industry, and it has been a lot of fun to be a part of it.
What were the highlights of the year for me? Well, it was amazing to see how many new companies were able to enter the industry and have success. Five years ago, no one ever would have thought buying a mattress online would gain steam, but here we are today. It’s now a trend that isn’t going to go away anytime soon.
It was really cool to see how these new companies and mattresses positioned themselves in the market. There are several different angles you can take when pitching your mattress to the public. You can go for the pure memory foam mattress buyers. You can claim you have a natural mattress, as many people are worried about unknown chemicals in their products or are worried about allergies. You can claim your mattress is “luxury” at half the price. You can ship your mattress in a box and talk about how easy the purchasing process is. We have seen almost every combination of marketing strategy from these different companies. It has been really interesting to see.
We also saw some major consolidation from the retailer side with the purchase of Sleepy’s by Mattress Firm. Now Mattress Firm will be just about everywhere across the country, and it will be interesting to see how this affects consumers. It will also be interesting to see how much market share the online players will grab from the standard retailers in 2016. My guess is the online players will see a lot more growth in the upcoming year.
What are my predictions for the mattress industry in 2016? Well, I think the market will be saturated with even more online companies coming into the space. Not all of these companies will have success, as the number of ways you can differentiate yourself in the market is a finite number. There may be some consolidation and some companies just won’t make it, as the market will become really crowded. I haven’t seen a ton of companies offering all-natural products, so that might be an opportunity to enter a small niche within the market. There will probably be more higher-priced luxury players online if I had to guess. There may also be a few alternatives at the lower price point that would compete directly with Tuft & Needle. I could see any of those things happening.
Overall, the winner will be the consumer. With this many companies offering this many products, the value consumers are going to be able to get will be tremendous. Ultimately, that’s an overall win in my book.
As for our website, you can expect a ton of new content to come out in 2016. There’s never a shortage of things to write about in this industry. We will producing lots of reviews of different mattress brands and models, and we aim to add a lot more general informational content. We may also get into pillows and bedding, as we do get a decent number of inquiries about those products on our site. Either way, it will be a lot of fun.
Once again, thanks for all your support and happy New Year!
