Increase your average ticket and improve your customers’ sleep with an adjustable base. They are the coolest products around 

Is it time to adjust your adjustable base lineup? 

Savvy bedding retailers know that a solid, step-up assortment of adjustables can boost your average ticket, entice new shoppers to check out your store or e-commerce site — and, of course, improve your customers’ sleep and overall health.

Several trends are shaping the offerings from power base producers. 

O Getting smarter: Manufacturers are rolling out app-driven smart bases to help consumers better track their sleep and other measures of their health. And new top-of-the-line smart bases connect with other smart devices in the home, allowing consumers to control and customize their environments more easily. “We are seeing a significant increase in high-tech offerings, such as smart home, data tracking and integrated sensors,” says Sherry Chapman, head of marketing for Ergomotion, a power base specialist based in Santa Barbara, California.

O Boxed and ready to go: Because of the rise of direct-to-consumer shipping, adjustable bases need to be as efficiently boxed as mattresses. “Our industry over the last several years has noticed a huge shift in how (retailers and manufacturers) ship, but the last year with the pandemic has really moved the DTC business to grow even more,” says Sheila Luciano, vice president of business development for Customatic Technologies, a power base producer headquartered in Natick, Massachusetts. Jay Thompson, president of Leggett & Platt Adjustable Beds in Carthage, Missouri, notes that design improvements are making boxed bases possible. “Though the products are heavy, they are getting easier to handle through foldability and other clever designs,” he says.

O Easy assembly: Whether consumers order online or pick up in-store (two shopping trends accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic), they don’t want hassles when setting up a new base themselves. Millennials, in particular, favor ready-to-assemble furniture they can put together in a few minutes with few or no tools, says Dexter Weber, president of Logicdata North America, based in Grand Rapids,
Michigan. 

O Simpler, sleeker: The shipping requirements of boxed adjustable bases also are influencing the aesthetics of bases. “Several years ago, the furniture look was very popular,” Thompson says, “but today, retailers and consumers are emphasizing versatility and mobility over the furniture aesthetic, and they still get a product that looks great in case goods or as part of a freestanding bed.” 

O Functional features: Bases with “wow” features may grab attention and appeal to a certain segment of the market, but other consumers seek adjustables with practical, problem-solving features. Luciano sees a resurging interest in anti-snoring technologies, and Chapman says bases with simple features — wired remotes that don’t get lost, massage settings for aching bodies, and head and foot positioning for increased comfort and improved circulation — are popular. “Savvy shoppers are looking to more practical secondary features such as an underbed light and USB charging, both of which offer high utility for the consumer,” Thompson adds.

O Shifting price points: Customatic is among the base makers that say their midrange products have been performing well. “However, as we pull out of the pandemic, we are looking to increase retailers’ margins by offering higher-end products that will help differentiate themselves from the commodity products we are seeing out in the market today,” Luciano says.

Let’s look at several new and bestselling bases that are on-trend.

Stepping up

Rize offers a full line of bedding products, including mattresses, foundations, sleep accessories and bedroom furniture, and its six-model assortment of adjustable bases provides retailers “a very clear step-up story,” says Rick Sterzer, executive vice president of sales for the Cleveland-based company. Retail prices in the line range from $399 to $2,499.

The company’s popular Clarity II retails for $799 or $899. “We were purposeful in the feature set and price points on our Clarity II model and win (over) every retailer with this base,” Sterzer says. “We provide exceptional value with the Clarity II to allow the RSA to easily step up from the two entry-level models below it.” Features include head and foot adjustability, preset and programmable positions, massage settings, underbed lighting and USB ports. It’s compatible with platform beds.

Among Rize’s latest introductions is Up, a basic “head-up-only model,” Sterzer says. “It retails for $399, but some (retailers) promote this as a free upgrade to compete with the marketplace during holiday (sales) periods,” he explains. 

Next year, the company, which operated as Mantua Manufacturing Co. before a recent rebranding, will mark its 70th anniversary and plans to celebrate at the Winter Las Vegas Market with expanded lines in several product categories.

Ready to go

W. Silver Products, based in El Paso, Texas, designs and makes its bases at its facility in Juarez, Mexico. “Because we manufacture our own bases, we can shift our production to assure we have the right product in stock to fill our customer’s orders in a timely manner,” says Brent Polunsky, sales manager for the company. “Our customers have grown accustomed to quick deliveries, and we strive to live up to their expectations.”

WSP’s line includes about a dozen adjustable bases. The opening model, S27, is a bestseller and features head and foot adjustability and a zero-gravity setting ($699). It is designed to work with platform bases. The company’s top model retails for $1,399. “Our top-of-the-line base is a deck-on-deck model that has head tilt, massage, anti-snore and other features that the consumer is looking for,” Polunsky says. 

At the Las Vegas Market in April, WSP unveiled the midpriced S45 ($1,099) with “all of the electronics the consumer is looking for,” Polunsky says. He adds that the company’s retail price points include freight, and “our minimum order is $1,250, which is very low and this makes it very convenient for our customers to order from us.”

Getting smarter

“The adjustable bed base is becoming the epicenter of the future connected home experience with sleep commands, restorative wake automation and life-enhancing technology,” Ergomotion’s Chapman says. “Ergomotion’s smartbeds meet consumers where they are in their adoption of smart home technology to enhance everyday wellness, and we’re excited to be part of this journey.” 

The company groups its adjustable bases into two lines, Wellness Retreats and Quest. The four Wellness Retreats models include an adjustable base, frame and elements such as aromatherapy, a “heating cocoon” for the feet and sound therapy through headboard speakers.

Models in the Quest line ($799 to $1,249) are designed to “restore mental and physical health at an affordable price point,” Chapman says, noting that the Quest 2.5 was named a top-performing bedding product of 2021 by Good Housekeeping. The base includes programmable settings, zero-gravity position, massage options, underbed lighting, dual USB ports and the company’s voice-activated Hello Ergo system.

Ergomotion extended its Quest line with the Las Vegas debut of the Quest Connect smart base that is rolling out late this summer. The base recently earned a 2021 CES Editors’ Choice award from USA Today. “Quest Connect leverages smart home technology to provide an endless array of home automation possibilities. This can include automatically brewing a pot of coffee as you wake up, instructing your shower to start in the morning and providing comprehensive health data — all through distinguished home connectivity,” Chapman says.

Back to basics and dreaming big

Adjustable base specialist Customatic offers eight standard bases, retail priced from $249 to $3,995, and all of them can be customized for retailers, Luciano says.

Customatic recently introduced a power base that harkens back to the product category’s medical roots. The Independence ($3,995), which is designed for consumers with mobility issues, can rotate 90 degrees, placing a person in a sitting position and then “gliding them up to a secure standing position,” she explains.

Also new from the company is DreamFlex, a feature-filled premium model that debuted at the Las Vegas Market in April. It includes independent head and foot adjustability, USB ports, wireless remote, underbed lighting and adjustable legs. In addition, it has a fully adjustable lumbar region; dual massage in a variety of sensations; a gentle wake-to-massage feature; and a built-in, Bluetooth-enabled speaker system. The base is designed to “resonate with consumers creating a luxury sleep experience,” Luciano says. “When comparing the DreamFlex to other adjustable bases, the advantages it offers far exceed expectations at a comfortable price point.” 

Simplicity is a bestseller

L&P offers about a dozen core adjustable base models, with prices from $299 to $2,499. “Bottom to top, Leggett & Platt uses similar materials and assembly methods to ensure quality throughout the product line,” Thompson says.

L&P recently updated its Simplicity HFM base ($999) and unveiled it in May. It’s a “parcel-friendly model,” Thompson says, that features head and foot adjustability, programmable memory positions, massage settings, underbed lighting and USB charging ports. It can be controlled by an app and has a “slim profile to pair well inside popular platform and storage case goods,” he says. Simplicity HFM is part of L&P’s popular Simplicity line. The opening bed in the line ($799) is a bestseller and offers head and foot adjustability, programmable memory positions, an 850-pound lifting capacity, underbed lighting and adjustable legs. Consumers can choose to add features. “These two products cover all of the basics at an attractive price in what has become the ‘sweet spot’ in the market,” Thompson says.

“Lite and Slim”

Vertically integrated Logicdata, which specializes in motion furniture, manufactures its own components, including the actuators that it integrates into the sides of its adjustable bases. “This design allows for our bases to be packed in smaller packaging than our competitors and it allows our bases to be assembled from the ground up by one person,” Weber says.

The company’s bestselling adjustable is SilverLite ($899), which includes head and foot positioning and the ability to lift 1,000 pounds. “The stability and lift capacity separate this from our other bases, making it a perfect option for heavier-set consumers or heavier mattresses,” he says. 

The company showed a prototype of its newest base, SilverSlim ($799), at the recent Las Vegas Market and expects to launch it in early 2022. “This a head-up, foot-up design with unique one-box packaging with no oversize fees for all sizes of the base,” Weber says. “The slim profile makes it perfect for fitting into existing bed frames, including platform beds.”

Note: All prices are suggested retails for queen-size bases.

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Julie A. Palm is chief wordsmith at Palm Ink LLC in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She has 25 years of experience as a writer and editor for newspapers and magazines and as a director of publications. She is a past editor in chief of both Sleep Savvy and BedTimes magazines. She can be reached at japalm623@gmail.com.