More consumers are now purchasing their mattresses online rather than in a store, according to The National Bed Federation (NBF), which has revealed the results of its latest consumer research report, undertaken twice a year to gauge consumer bed buying habits and trends.
The survey, carried out on a sample of 500 people who had purchased a mattress from September 2017 through to the end of February 2018, showed that 51% of purchases were made online compared to 47% in-store.
Simon Williams, marketing manager of the NBF, says: “This is the first time our consumer research has shown that online bed purchasing is preferable than buying in-store, confirming the steady rise of internet shopping and ecommerce.
“It was also interesting to see the research showed there was little difference among the age groups this time, demonstrating that the over 55s are now as comfortable as their younger counterparts when it comes to using the internet to make purchases.”
Pocket springs are still the most popular mattress core (44%) with memory foam the most popular comfort layer (38%). Purchases made at the big national bed specialists and local independent bed stores were down YoY (19% vs 23% and 9% vs 15%) whereas buying from the one-size-fits-all tech start-ups (Eve, Casper, Simba, etc) more than doubled, going from 2% to 5% of market share.
The most important factor in the purchasing decision was price at 58%, followed closely by comfort (56%).
