There are many ways to buy a mattress these days. Traditionally going to a brick-and-mortar retail store has been where most people bought their mattress. However today many are going online to make their mattress purchase. What are the advantages and disadvantages for both? Obviously, you can visually see, touch and lay down on a mattress in a retail store. You cannot do that with online retailers. You can however go to a store and see the product and in many cases purchase the exact same product online for a lower price. Strictly from a cost perspective online retailers have lower cost due to the fact they do not have to pay rent on their building and can generally operate with lower labor and overhead costs.
Consumers do not have to spend money and time travelling from store to store and back home again. It can be a very time consuming and stressful doing this. Brick and mortar salespeople tend to be high pressure, many times trying to sell the product that they are being paid the highest commissions that day. Many times, consumers end up making the wrong decision because they are either pressured into it or they just get tired of haggling with salespeople and purchase the wrong mattress for them.
Internet companies tend to be more in touch with making the buying experience easier and are deathly afraid of negative online reviews. This can be the death of less than reputable retailers. Today so much information is available to consumers from product reviews to online store reviews that it is not difficult to for consumers to make wise choices based on that information. With all the improvements in online mattress stores, the choices are vast, and it has never been easier to purchase a mattress online. With the rise in specialty foam beds (memory, latex, gel and hybrid foam) which can be compressed and rolled then put into a box then shipped very reasonably by UPS or FedEx. Internet mattress stores online offer incredible return policies that essentially take out all the risk to consumers who do not like the mattress they purchased. With growth in all online sales expected to grow by 50% the next 2-3 years, this category offers great choices with discounted pricing and practically no risk to the consumer. Market research has proven that consumers buying online is for the most part a very good experience.
As an aging baby boomer, buying online for me took a while to get used to, however now days if I can get what I want online, I will go there every time and avoid all the stress of getting in my car to go looking for it. The next time I need a mattress, I will purchase online.
