161–170 of 277 posts
Since there are a lot of generic mattress questions in this thread, start here: http://www.themattressunderground.com/mattress-forum/ They've coved every question and every scenario imaginable from people (typically the forum-runner) who have researched these things for years.
I 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.
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"well you guys also have margins too." of course. How can a business succeed without any margins ? The point they are making is that the margins are ridiculously high that these stores charge. They are claiming to reduce those margins. "Here is how a cheap mattress is marked up" I browsed through their website. They don't claim to be a luxury mattress and their point is more about a reasonable mattress for a reasonab…
You're right, I also thought after having posted it that I was too harsh. I think it was due to the fact that I partially live this business on a daily basis and found some of the facts not trustful. Specially bearing in mind the product being sold is closer to a mat than to a reasonable mattress. I think that harshness prevented me from making clear the two points I was trying to make: 1. A warn that everything has…
The "you get what you pay for" point underscores the brilliance of Tuft and Needle's entrance into the market.
You must understand that there are industries, like mattress retailer, that have operated on artificially high margins for generations.
If you look at The company's competitive positioning you will see that they are vertically integrated, lean, and willing to blow apart the competition.
When 2 individual walk into the car dealership and separately buy an identical car. one pays full sticker, markup and a warranty. The other pays $100 over invoice. They both got the identical car; did they both get what they paid for?
I am impressed with the company's story and model. They are going to do well in the mattress business for a long time to come.
I bought a california king tempurpedic mattress from sharper image in 2003. It set me back about 1500 and at that time the other mattress manufacturers were not in the memory foam market. Today, the mattress performs impecibally.
The 5" is suitable because of their foam construction layering and density.
The real deal will be the price point on the 10" model
So I would like to know if you had experience with textiles, mattresses, etc before deciding on something like this. I have always hated the mattress industry, this is actually something I wished for many times. I would have done it myself, but this is such an easy idea to shoot down in your head before you even do one bit of research.
How did you have the know-how or confidence that doing something like this was a possibility? I would think that you would have to have some knowledge of sewing, materials, etc... How did you figure it all out? Or did you already have experience with it?
I have so many ideas that I shoot down, even though they are good ideas, they either seem impossible (I would have considered this a silly idea for me to try), or way too ambitious.
Any insight into this is appreciated.
One question: Are your beds flame-retardant?
And if so what are your views on flame retardant mattresses?
Ive read somewhere that in America all beds have to be flame retardant but recently their overall safety is being questioned (chemicals and fumes etc).
On what basis do you make the claim that you are the #1 rated mattress? I see that you have mattresses that are 5 star rated, but that does not imply you are the best one. According to Amazon's "Top Rated" mattresses, your brand is not even in the top 10. [ http://www.amazon.com/gp/top-rated/home-garden/3732961/ ]
We aren't ranked as the #1 Best seller which we don't mean to cause any confusion with. Those are typically Prime only products and those are ranked by sales volume.
There may also be a difference in ranking if you're in a region that we don't ship to such as outside of the USA. I'm not sure how Amazon differs rankings by country.
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And on 2. I forgot customer support. I am a truly believer that customer support makes the biggest difference when running a business no matter if is online or offline.
But, to me it seems clear that they value customer service if they are directly responding to your posts here. The tools available on their website combined with the shipping and returns also underscore that.
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That's a great point. We didn't put our product on Amazon until we reached a high level of customer satisfaction. In the early days when we first started, we had to hustle when we had upset customers. We fixed the problems really fast to avoid them writing about a negative experience. As an example, we've provided complimentary upgrades to our new versions of the bed to previous customers.
If you avoided amazon, didn't this severely limit the feedback you could get? How did those initial customers discover your product?
Listing our product on Amazon.com created additional sales and a new market which was great. But we realize this is a 3rd-party platform which we can't control and don't want to become dependent on it.