Bedding Industry: One in Three of the Households Don't Buy

The article "buying gap data reveal big bedding opportunity" reported by FurnitureToday shows that the bedding has the third highest buy-shop ratio of 71%.

What does that mean? 71% of people who shop for bedding actually bought the item. This does look like a good number to most of the marketers. However, if we look at the other side of the story, there are 29% of people who just walked away. An estimated of 4.8 billion was lost last year in the bedding category.

That does represent an opportunity to the bedding industry. Before we start thinking about how the marketers can further bump the ratio up a bit, let us take a look at the main reasons that caused the "walk away without action taken":

• Many consumers are confused by the shopping experience. They see beds have very similar components but offer only slight differences
  
• They see beds that are almost the same with a large price gap
• They walk away for more choices, but at the end, they decide to delay the purchase

We should wait to see how the industry would handle this situation and whether they can make an improvement on the buy-shop ratio.

How important is a good night's sleep to people?

A few days ago, I read an article on cnn.com - "Is a good night's sleep worth $50,000?" that I think I should share with all my audiences here. First of all, I was really stunned by the fact that mattress is actually costing more than cars and college tuitions. Vividus bed, which was produced by the Swedish manufacturer Hastens, cost approximately $50,000. Can you imagine that? I am wondering what is the mark-up on this incredibly priced mattress? Is it 100%, 200% or even more than that....?



Not surprisingly, since people are valuing more towards a good night's sleep, the market value of the wholesale mattress industry has increased nearly 40 percent, climbing to $6.4 billion in 2005, according to the trade group International Sleep Products Association. The luxury market makes up much of the trend here. Premium-priced mattresses, which costs more than $1,000 -- represents 21 percent of sales in 2005.

The driving force of the supply has always been the demand. The higher demand to the luxury mattresses drives more and more manufacturers to focus on the luxury market. What's behind these high demands? It is not hard to notice that the high demand towards the luxury mattress signals that people are valuing a peaceful night's sleep over their hard-earned dollar.