Retail mattress sales got off to a booming start in January, a new survey reveals.
Piper Sandler’s January Mattress Retailer Survey, which presents insights from retailers around the country, showed the strongest sales growth in the survey’s five-year history, the New York-based firm says.
Retail mattress sales in January were up in dollars by a mean of 22.3%. Total unit sales were up by a mean of 17.1% that month, according to the retail survey.
That strong January performance continued a trend of escalating sales growth in recent months. Total retail mattress dollar sales were up by a mean of 4.6% in November and were up by a mean of 15.2% in December, Piper Sandler said. Total dollar sales for the fourth quarter were up by a mean of 13.2%.
The firm, which closely follows public mattress companies, said that retailers are now expecting overall first quarter sales growth to be up by 18%-19%, an improvement over their initial expectations of growth of 13%-14% at the start of the quarter.
“While commodity pressure is likely to be a headwind for the industry, and supply chains are still seeing delays, we expect ongoing elevated demand to more than offset these factors,” Piper Sandler said in its report on the January survey.
The firm asked retailers for their best guess on when inventory/out-of-stock issues will be resolved. Thirty-three percent of the retailers believe those issues will be resolved in the second quarter of this year, while 25% believe they will be resolved in the first quarter, and another 25% believe they will be resolved in the second half of this year. Notably, 17% of the retailers said they don’t believe those issues will be resolved until 2022.
Piper Sandler also asked retailers about the direct-to-consumer mattress brands that they currently carry. Forty-two percent said they carry Nectar, while 33% said they carry Purple, and 8% said they carry Casper. Forty-two percent of the retailers said they are not carrying any direct-to-consumer mattress brands.
Purple was the DTC brand that 42% of the retailers said they would like to add this year, while 25% said they would like to add Casper and 17% said they would like to add Nectar.
