Bedding veteran Owen Shoemaker says information is power for retailers and talks about his company’s mattress monitoring system.
Transcript
Dave Perry
Hey, it’s Dave Perry welcome to “Take Five With Dave”. I’m in the Wright Global Graphic space at the ISPA EXPO with Owen Shoemaker who we have worked together for a long time. You are now with Sleep Systems Inc. a new company. Tell us what that is.
Owen Shoemaker
Yes, we’re out of Canada. You know our friends at Wright Global have beautiful execution in top of bed. We’re bringing something brand new to the industry, and that’s data streaming information from under the bed.
Dave Perry
So tell me how it works.
Owen Shoemaker
We put a sensor underneath every mattress and it will record if a person is sitting on the bed, lying on the bed, and for how long. And this data is real-time. Aggregate over a week, a month, or a year. However, you want to look at the information. We supply reports on a daily basis, weekly basis. Access through a website, subscription service.
So you can track your own products as a manufacturer or all your products as a retailer.
Dave Perry
So, tell me how a retailer would use this to make more sales.
Owen Shoemaker
Well, if you have a series of beds in your store that are being shown expertly and frequently by some of the salespeople, but not all it improves your sales education and your sales training because you’re looking at trends and patterns by salespeople that follow a logical path through the options. A promotion that you run now will tell you how many customers actually came in and tried that promotional product versus something else that they were shown.
Owen Shoemaker
So that’s why we call it a smart SKU for a smart showroom. The idea is an intelligent data stream that you can analyze. The same way that Google Analytics provides an analysis of bounce rate on a Web page. We can give you bounce rate on a mattress; bounce on bounce off.
Dave Perry
Isn’t information power for retailers?
Owen Shoemaker
Absolutely. You know, it’s always been a strength for anyone who does the old what gets measured gets done.
Owen Shoemaker
Yes. So the measurement in each product now is there. You can always look at historical sales data and say well, I saw all these sales in this product, but how many did you convert from how much traffic? And how many presentations? So a five-minute presentation is that better than a five-second presentation?
Dave Perry
Interesting. And what about cost, without getting into specific numbers, but just generally speaking, what’s the cost of the system?
Owen Shoemaker
Well, generally speaking, you know, an investment by a retailer in headboard or top of bed, it’s comparable to what we would charge to put into under bed system for research and for knowledge. And knowledge is power.
Dave Perry
OK. And finally, Owen, reaction at the show. What are people saying?
Owen Shoemaker
It’s very good. I mean, we’re seeing manufacturers who say, look, I’m investing in different elements to get into a store and I’m investing in the advertising. And now I can understand how much activity is happening on my specific products.
Dave Perry
Well, I think it’s very creative, very interesting. Having worked with you for a lot of years It’s great seeing you with this exciting new project, and I look forward to staying in touch.
Owen Shoemaker
Thanks, Dave.
Dave Perry
Great seeing you. More videos to come.
