What Are The Best Online Mattress Stores? How To Choose From The Crowd
You may have noticed that online mattress sales have really exploded lately. You might be bombarded with billboards advertising them as you go about your day. Perhaps your friend bought one. They’re everywhere now and the market is only expected to grow. So if you’re looking to buy a new mattress, how can you tell which is the best mattress store online?
Luckily for you, I spend all the time my kids are asleep or at daycare geeking out about mattresses and trying to answer this exact question for you. In this article I’ll break down into detail what I think makes a great online mattress store and then at the end I will reveal my top three favorite stores.
The Six Factors That Make A Great Online Mattress Store
Some practical things such as price and service are obvious factors that determine how good or popular an online store is, but there are other things I think are important too. Things like how that business treats the environment, or where they make their products. Here are the six criteria I think are important to consider when you’re deciding who to buy your online mattress from:
1. Customer Service: I’ve put this at the top of this list because I believe good customer service is absolutely paramount. Buying a mattress online is not only a big investment, it can feel like a big risk too: we are so used to trying them out in stores and dealing with someone face to face.
In my opinion, regardless of the other factors below, the best online mattress stores ALL should have excellent customer service records. It is very easy to look at some of the sites and get the slick marketing campaigns mixed up with good service. You need to feel confident that if you have an issue with your mattress purchase, the company is going to help you out with that issue.
What I look at is if the company offers great warranties and promises, do they keep their word? Are customers happy with the service they got? A quick check of their rating with the Better Business Bureau never hurts either.
2. Trial Period and Warranty: Like I said above, buying a mattress online can feel like a big risk. After all, shouldn’t you try a mattress before you buy? The best online mattress companies will give you 100 nights or longer (some up to a year) to try out a mattress before you need to decide if you want to keep it.
This is great news, as I know from my own experience, the experience of others, and from research that it takes around 30 nights of sleeping on a mattress to really know if it’s a good fit for you. So an online company offering you a long sleep trial can suddenly start to look better than that store where you lay on the bed for 5 awkard minutes! When I’m looking at companies offering long trial periods, I always go searching for customer feedback on how smoothly their returns went – you need to know the company is going to keep their word without you having to complain to a higher authority if you decide to return the mattress.
A decent quality mattress should come with a warranty that backs up the quality described on the company website. Some of my favorite mattresses have a 10 year, 25 year, or even lifetime warranty as long as you’re looking after your mattress properly.
3. Price: Price is one factor where what determines a good online mattress company for one person is going to be different to another person.
For example, there are a lot of great mattresses from nice companies out there for quite cheap, particularly on Amazon. However, they may not have the same trial and warranty period as a more expensive mattress. If you’re just looking for a cheap mattress for a spare room, RV, etc this won’t be such an issue. I still believe the company should have good service though!
For buyers with a middle of the road budget, I absolutely believe you can find a mattress that ticks every single box in this list of good qualities for under $2000. For that amount of money, you do not have to compromise on anything and you should be able to get any mattress type you want. My two favorites that tick all the boxes are at the end of this article.
4. Place of Manufacture: Many people feel reassured when they buy a mattress or product that is made in the United States of America rather than somewhere overseas, such as China. Companies should be transparent and up front about where the mattress is made. Many of the best online mattress companies proudly make their mattresses in the US, many are even made to order.
Price is going to come into play here: you can expect to pay more for a mattress made in the USA.
5. Time From Manufacture To You Setting Up The Mattress: This might sound a little bit strange. But if you think about it, an online mattress is one that has been manufactured, squashed down by a roll press machine and put in a box. The foams or other materials inside the mattress tend to decompress better if they aren’t squashed up for too long.
That means that I think a company that either makes their mattresses to order, or makes them in small batches, is looking out for your comfort and the quality of their product because they are not letting the foam sit squashed up in a box for goodness knows how long. To me, this is a sign of a good online mattress company who cares for their customer and has pride in their product.
I often read complaints (usually about cheaper mattresses from China) that a mattress took a long time to decompress and it is often because the mattress was in a box for too long. Again, price is obviously going to be a factor here.
6. Company Values: I think given the current state of our planet, the way any company conducts business and their ethics should be considered. Does the company care about their environmental impact? Are they using natural products in their mattresses?
Perhaps they donate some of their profit towards protecting the planet, or towards helping people in need. These are the types of companies I like to support if I can, and there are some great online mattress companies out there that do these things.
My Top Three Picks For The Best Online Mattress Stores:
Some of the reasons for choosing these companies vary, so they’re in alphabetical order, not order of which is best. Drum roll please!
Amazon
You are probably very familiar with Amazon, that giant well established online marketplace. Did you know that Amazon sells hundreds of different mattresses? It can be a great place to buy a mattress as Amazon has great customer service, 30 day returns, and you can read reviews from people already using the products to get an idea of how good they are.
I think Amazon is probably best for cheaper mattresses, and many of their top sellers are indeed well below the thousand dollar mark. Many will have a ten year guarantee, but use Amazon’s standard 30 day returns policy as their trial period. You get what you pay for!
However, you also often you get companies who use Amazon as their main marketing stage, and you end up getting the benefit of good service both directly from the company and Amazon.
My top pick for a cheap mattress on Amazon is: Classic Brands. It’s a very popular memory foam mattress with great technology for the price. Plus, Classic Brands are responsive to customer inquiries and transparent. Find out more about this bargain mattress here.
My top pick for a mattress made in the USA with out of this world customer service on top of Amazon service is: Snuggle Pedic. I’d go so far as to say Snuggle Pedic have the best customer service out of any mattress I’ve ever reviewed. People who don’t even end up liking their mattress still feel compelled to leave a review about their service, it’s so good. Snuggle Pedic is the best memory foam mattress I have reviewed. Click here to read the full review and find out why it’s so great.
Avocado
Before you even get into looking at the mattress, Avocado is a great company. They give 1% of their profit to the environmental organization 1% For The Planet, they have strict carbon neutral goals for their manufacturing and shipping, and they hand make their mattresses to order in California.
They have great customer service, including free shipping to Alaska and Hawaii, which many other companies will charge you upwards of $150 for. They also have a massive one year sleep trial and 25 year warranty.
The mattress itself is one of my absolute favorites: it’s a hybrid with pocket coils and natural latex. It’s an extremely high quality mattress in my opinion.
An Avocado mattress will cost you around $900 – $1700 depending on the size you select, and I think it’s worth every penny.
Read my full Avocado mattress review here for more information on this amazing online mattress.
PlushBeds
PlushBeds is another company that makes their mattresses to order in the United States. They have been in business since 2007, so they’ve been around before online mattresses even were a thing. They take immense pride in their trustworthiness and customer service ratings, and are the only company I’ve come across who can offer you a 100% latex mattress that is not only natural latex, but also organic.
Like Avocado, PlushBeds have strong environmental ethics: they are part of the Sustainable Furnishings Council and have Green Business Certification.
They are the priciest of the mattresses on this list, but they will also be the most durable. I think a PlushBeds mattress is perfect for you if the longevity of your mattress is a top priority. Read my full rundown of the PlushBeds mattress range here.
Read more mattress reviews, including top picks under $500 on Amazon, best mattresses for heavy people, mattresses with two sides (and basically any type of mattress you could imagine) here.
