Why Is It So Cheap To Buy A Mattress Online?

Buying A Mattress Online Is Cheaper Than In Store, Fact.

So, you’re on the look out for a brand new mattress. Have you been to a mattress store lately? Perhaps you’ve been perusing the internet to see what mattress in a box prices are like?

If you have answered yes to those questions, you will have noticed there is a major discrepancy between the prices for mattresses in stores and the prices for mattresses online: the price you pay for a mattress online is much cheaper than in store. Often, mattresses sold on line are just a fraction of the price you would pay if you bought one in store.

For example, DreamCloud, an online hybrid mattress designed with luxury in mind, retails for about a quarter of the price of a mattress with similar features you would find in a store.

Why is that?! Is it that the online mattresses are junk and cheap? Not at all. Lets take a look at what I think are the top three reasons.

There is no physical store to maintain

Mattress stores have big overheads. There is a lot to pay for in maintaining a store, including but not limited to:

• Cost of the actual space, be it rented or owned
• Utilities such as electricity, water, gas, heating
• Furniture such as office equipment, sales desk, display stands, internet and phone
• Furnishings such as bedding for all the display beds, design elements for the store
• Other miscellaneous things such as computers, stationery, etc

And that is just a very quick list that I can think of off the top of my head. It probably isn’t even the half of it. You can imagine that all those costs will add up very quickly, and these will be paid by you, the customer, when you buy a mattress.

Think about what an online company needs in comparison:

• A manufacturer (often contracted to a third party)
• A website and web design
• A warehouse to from which orders can be picked and packed
• Shipping contract to deliver mattresses quickly after they are ordered

These costs are extremely minor compared to those of running a store. For example, hosting and running a website can be done very cheaply. Web hosting for a year is probably cheaper than a months electric bill for a store.

There are no sales commissions to pay

I dug around the internet to see if I could find exactly what sort of commissions mattress sales people make.

I couldn’t really find anything that gave me a concrete answer, but I did find answers that said the commission could:

• vary based on the profit margin on the mattress sold
• could be 15%
• could be as “little” as $400 or more than $1000 depending on the mattress

So if those are the figures that go to the salesman, along with the cost of actually running the physical store, you can see that your dollars are paying for many things that are NOT the mattress you’re walking out the door with. That shouldn’t make you feel bad or uncomfortable, that is how retail works. All shops and industries need to run like this to make a profit.

Think about what an online company needs in comparison:

The costs to get online sales are extremely minimal. An online mattress company will need to make sure their website is awesome and that people can find their website and use it easily.

However, online companies may also pay people commissions to review mattresses. I put my hand up, this is me. You’ll note at the top of every single review post where there is a potential for me to earn a commission, I say so. I find it pays to be upfront. However, commissions for people like me who write online reviews are a LOT lower than commissions paid to an in store salesman. Online commissions are usually about 5-10% of the cost of the item. So for example, if I review a $1000 matress that pays a 5% commission, I’ll earn $50 if you follow my link to buy it.

Online companies need you to feel comfortable taking a risk on their product

Let’s face it, buying a mattress online can be a scary thought.

Over the years, we have gotten used to buying more and more items online, but the mattresses we sleep on has been one of the last things we’ve considered buying online. For some people, there is just no way they could ever contemplate buying a mattress without having laid on it and had a good look at it.

I therefore think that as well as the lower overheads that come with buying a mattress online, I think the companies want you to be enticed into trying out their product with the lower prices. We bought an online mattress recently, and cost was definitely a big factor in feeling able to take the “risk” of buying a mattress sight unseen.

Companies also make the risk incredibly low for you by offering generous sleep trials. Two very popular mattress brands even give you a whole year to try their mattresses out!

 

The bottom line: a mattress bought online can be as good quality, or even better than one bought in store despite the cheap price

Having seen the mattress materials, read all the reviews, and all the reports from consumer watchdogs such as Consumer Reports, I believe that if you do your research before you buy, you can find an online mattress that is equal to, if not superior to some of the leading in store mattress brands.

Is it time for you to try one out? Think of all the other things you could spend the extra money on with your online savings….