Golden Insights Into Mattress Prices

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Going inside the minds of mattress shoppers reveals retailers are leaving money on the table in many transactions, according to a BSC survey

We will call it mattress gold. It’s the gift to retailers of helping them close more sales at higher prices. And that will bring golden benefits to their stores and websites in the form of more revenue and more profit.

The gold is shimmering in the insights on mattress pricing that we highlight in this issue, as well as in this column. The key facts: In general, consumers are willing to spend $65 more for a queen-size mattress than they spent on their queen mattress. And they expect to pay $146 more than they spent on their current queen mattress.

This is sort of like knowing the other team’s plays on the football field. It’s a big advantage for mattress retailers to go inside the minds of their customers to learn their mattress spending expectations.

I have this on good authority. One of the nation’s top mattress merchants once told me how valuable these insights are, as they give retail sales associates confidence to pursue step-up selling opportunities.

Our mattress pricing insights come from the comprehensive round of consumer research that Sleep Savvy is highlighting this year and that I’m writing about in my columns and in my social media posts. Knowledge is power, you know. And research from the Better Sleep Council, the consumer education arm of the International Sleep Products Association, offers powerful insights into a variety of key mattress topics.

These price insights particularly are important, as they reveal significant potential to boost the size of sales tickets, a key business driver for all retailers.

That potential is great in the $1,000 to $1,199 price category, where we find the greatest difference between the percentage of consumers who expect to pay those prices for a queen mattress (14%) and the percentage of consumers who actually are paying those prices (8%).  

That is a major performance gap. Think about it like this: A significant number of consumers expect to pay those prices but find reasons not to do so, with most of them probably paying lower prices.

The industry’s opportunity is to give those consumers more reasons to pay the higher prices they already expect to pay. Why? Because you get what you pay for, and a better mattress will deliver better quality sleep than a lesser mattress. 

Or, to quote a wise man who shaped my own spending habits (thanks, Dad), it pays to buy quality products.

Better mattresses have higher quality components than lesser mattresses. They provide more durable comfort, and they often come with additional features and benefits, like the ability to move smoothly with adjustable bed bases. RSAs need to run through those additional features and benefits as they make the case for a $1,000-plus bedding purchase.

A good mattress is one of the best investments a consumer can make. BSC research notes that 79% of consumers rate a good night’s sleep as the most important factor in their health and well-being. That is much higher than the percentage of consumers who rate a healthy diet (64%) and physical exercise (62%) as important for their health. Consumers who spend lavishly on health foods and trendy exercise gear would be well-advised to lavish some of their spending on top-quality mattresses, too.

And speaking of mattress spending, the BSC research also found some good news on mattress prices, with almost half of consumers saying they believe that mattresses are fairly priced for the value they provide.

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of those ads in which some retailers talk about how overpriced most mattresses are — except those they offer, of course. Here’s the answer to that misplaced notion: A great many consumers believe our products are fairly priced. Good for us.