Overall retail sales in the U.S. went on the upswing over the summer – but one particular consumer product was already off and running in spring.
Tens of thousands of stores in the U.S. had to shut their doors, many for good, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the country’s aggrieved retail executives was Linus Adolfsson, founder of Hästens luxury mattress shop The Sleep Spa, who had to close his stores in March. But then a king-sized uptick in online sales cushioned the blow. “Within about a week we started having more people calling us than we ever had before,” he said. “Many people started to look at their life differently and the small things that become more apparent when the world isn’t spinning as fast.”
Ariel Kaye, founder and CEO of Parachute, had a similarly glowing report. “Our mattress sales doubled between Q1 and Q2,” she said. Parachute started in 2014 as an online-only, direct-to-consumer brand focused on bedding. The company has since expanded to other home products and opened physical locations across the U.S. “We have seen growth across categories,” Kaye added. “It’s been a bit of a hibernation. People have time to research.”
Online traffic started picking up in early April for California-based retail chain Nest Bedding. Email inquiries and call volumes increased. Then came a big bounce in online sales. Christian Alexander, the company’s Chief Operating Officer, said that “as the months went on, we saw online sales not only made up the difference of our closed brick and mortar stores, but far surpassed their sales, which was astonishing.”
To what can this consumer trend be attributed? Retail executives in the mattress business have theories. Chief Marketing Officer Mark Abrials of Avocado, which specializes in “green” and vegan mattresses, sees it as a reallocation of funds: “People are spending so much time at home and less time and money eating out or going on vacations,” he said, adding that consumers are spending their money on “things that make them feel good.” Philip Krim, CEO and co-founder of Casper, also pointed to the comfort factor. “We talk about ‘cozy performance’ internally. The idea is that we’re still doing work, but we want to feel safe, secure and get a good night of sleep,” he said.
Some cite remote work as a reason for so many consumers buying new bedding. As the New York Times observes, “The kinds of beds that are selling fast offer insight into 2020 habits.” Data show that adjustable beds are especially popular at the moment. “I think a lot of people work in bed even though they say they’re at a desk or a table,” suggests Ron Rudzin, CEO of Saatva.
Another pattern is higher sales of mattresses for RVs and campers, where Serta Simmons Bedding is seeing a “tremendous surge,” according to Chief Marketing Officer Melanie Huet. She connects this trend to remote working as well. “We anticipate future demand to go up because of work remote policies. Americans are relocating to less densely populated areas. Their living space goes up and that triggers new mattress purchases.”
