Well timed article since I am looking for a mattress right now and was having a coffee reading HN after going to multiple scammy furniture places
Tell HN: How we bootstrapped to the #1 rated mattress on Amazon.com
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Re: Tell HN: How we bootstrapped to the #1 rated mattress on Amazon.com
#112Well timed article since I am looking for a mattress right now and was having a coffee reading HN after going to multiple scammy furniture places
Same here, and I have found http://www.sleeplikethedead.com to be an excellent resource for researching mattresses.
Re: Tell HN: How we bootstrapped to the #1 rated mattress on Amazon.com
#113I'm very interested in this mattress and we're in the market. However, I'm concerned about the 5-year warranty, as I thought it would be acceptable to expect a little more. Is that standard for foam beds, how do you differ from competitors in this regard, and can you explain why/how you chose a 5-year warranty model?
The primary difference is that our warranty doesn't pro-rate. When you see a 10-25 year warranty, those aren't true warranties in our opinion. They depreciate the credit you'll get each year and have very strict requirements (no marks on the bed, sagging must be more than 1" deep, etc). So we offer 5 years for any kind of defect and just do an exchange. We expect it to last longer than that but 5 years is the point w…
You may want to consider putting a similar explanation on your website, in the /about/care section maybe. It's that kind of extra information/anticipation of a prospective buyer's question that really makes me feel like a company is being honest. That, and little things like the note you have under your comparison chart. Those are probably the small touches that will make your customers extremely loyal.
Re: Tell HN: How we bootstrapped to the #1 rated mattress on Amazon.com
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> all foam mattresses deform to some degree So do spring mattresses, by the way, and aren't they the most common type?
Foam mattresses tend to deform and stay deformed after only a few years of use; the foam just doesn't re-expand all the way. Spring mattresses are warranted against more than minor deformation, not just defects at the time of purchase. If you buy a name-brand (Serta, Stearns & Foster, etc) mattress and after 5 years it's sagging 4" In the middle, you make a warranty claim and get a new mattress.
Have you had to use your mattress warranty? When I looked into it most warranties were pro-rated, required that you followed their mattress maintenance schedule, customer had to pay for inspection, 'normal wear' was not covered, etc, etc. This article [1] claims that actual useful lifetime of a mattress is around 1/3 to 1/2 of the warranty period.
(I ended up buying 2 awesome, cheap, non-brand name, made in the US mattresses from Restonic, which are still going strong after 5+ years).
Re: Tell HN: How we bootstrapped to the #1 rated mattress on Amazon.com
#115I think one of the major hurdles to overcome with online mattress sales is perception of shipping. I do a lot of online shopping and have no issues with it. If I were in the market for a mattress, my first thought about online mattress sales would be "It's going to be an arm and a leg just to ship it." and would perhaps not even start the online process. Just my opinion. (From Canada so Amazon Prime and free 2 day sh…
It really is for sure. We've had to get a special machine to package the mattress in a smaller box but we're still paying for what's called Dimensional weight. It's large enough that we aren't being billed for the weight but rather the size.
Luckily we've managed so far though and have been able to streamline some of the process. I imagine it will become easier as we grow.
Re: Tell HN: How we bootstrapped to the #1 rated mattress on Amazon.com
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
The primary difference is that our warranty doesn't pro-rate. When you see a 10-25 year warranty, those aren't true warranties in our opinion. They depreciate the credit you'll get each year and have very strict requirements (no marks on the bed, sagging must be more than 1" deep, etc). So we offer 5 years for any kind of defect and just do an exchange. We expect it to last longer than that but 5 years is the point w…
You may want to consider putting a similar explanation on your website, in the /about/care section maybe. It's that kind of extra information/anticipation of a prospective buyer's question that really makes me feel like a company is being honest. That, and little things like the note you have under your comparison chart. Those are probably the small touches that will make your customers extremely loyal.
That's a really great point. I'll be sure to share this with the team today.
Re: Tell HN: How we bootstrapped to the #1 rated mattress on Amazon.com
#117Being someone that considers himself literate in the mattress industry, as my wife runs a humble mattress storage and distribution firm I totally agree that the prices I could see visiting on the US are way over the top. If I lived there, well, making/selling mattresses must be a profitable business from the retail pricing I could see. Mind you I was on Silicon Valley which I imagine must be very pricy. The website i…
Thanks for the feedback, and I understand your concerns. I'll address them below. >> Even if mattress retailers are making a fortune on margins, well you guys also have margins too. And a retail price of $299..to..$499-king tells me that your mattresses are very low end. We of course have built-in margins on our products, and we try to keep it as fair as possible while supporting our operational overhead. But to writ…
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Re: Tell HN: How we bootstrapped to the #1 rated mattress on Amazon.com
#118This is awesome. Did you start this as a side project? Also curious how you built the bed as well…definitely a great price and a very elegant site. Aligns well with your product. I don’t know if we have any New Yorkers here, but Bob’s furniture (official sponsor of just about every NYC sports team) sells lower cost furniture, and you’d never know it based on their cheesy late night commercials, but they’re actually a…
JT and I left our jobs to start a company together. We sought out a stagnant industry to disrupt and saw ripe opportunity in mattresses. Most of the products were mediocre and designed without taste, and there seemed to be a lot of greed among the major players.
So we launched with a very simple v1 product — an all cotton mattress — and then iterated from there based on customer feedback and surveys.
Thanks for your feedback!
Re: Tell HN: How we bootstrapped to the #1 rated mattress on Amazon.com
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well our current mattress is more in line with a traditional mattress. We designed it to be compatible with the floor in addition to a frame, this is how we sort of broke into the market. With a niche angle. Comparing to Ikea, our prices are only comparable because we cut our margins almost all the way down but the quality of material is very different. In other words, our bed won't sag after just 12 months. Thank yo…
Are you saying that an Ikea mattress will sag after just 12 months, or are you actually just saying that yours won't and leaving it up to the reader to infer that an Ikea one will?
I apologize I wasn't more clear. I don't mean to come across as judgemental of Ikea. I haven't personally slept on one before other than just testing them out in the show room, but we do have quite a few customers who have replaced their Ikea bed with ours who have shared their feedback.
Re: Tell HN: How we bootstrapped to the #1 rated mattress on Amazon.com
#120John, thank you for this. As many have commented, I am kicking myself that I had to buy a mattress months ago and had to go through the whole bait-and-switch, renamed-same-mattress-from-store-to-store BS. Next mattress will be from you guys --- any king-sized mattresses in your future (or is that what the twin XL) Again -- thank you for disrupting this corrupt business
Thank you. We really appreciate the support.