The FAM Audio Stories: Recent Episodes
The FAM
Mattress industry audio stories from the world’s first audio-everywhere media hub for the bedding business.
As of Sept. 21, I’m a dad! While I’ve learned a lot about babies and the amazing way the human body functions, I’ve also learned a lot about sleep — and the lack thereof.
Every new parent knows sleep becomes more precious when the little one arrives, and that’s a message the mattress industry should be using.
To read or learn more, finish this article here!
Football. Halloween. Leaves changing colors.
Who doesn’t love fall?
As the weather cools and people venture out to do their holiday shopping, retailers have the perfect chance to bring in customers with community-based events that can build brand recognition and offer people in the local area a fun activity.
To learn about these fun ideas, check out the article here!
As we begin to recover from a pandemic that strained retail beyond conceivable belief – not to mention dramatically shifting shopping patterns and purchasing behavior – retailers face increasing pressure to commit to ambitious environmental and social goals. And consumers are making it clear that trite and shallow promises won’t be tolerated. They want to be part of the conversation and many are willing to open their wallets to prove it.
To listen or read more, check out the rest of this article here!
GTRsuite is a technology company that offers geo-locating tools for retailers and manufacturers in the home furnishings industry.
Its latest release, the Lead Prediciton Engine, geolocates shoppers who search for furniture online so GTRsuite knows where all of those searches appear and the SKU they’re interested in — whether through Google or a company’s website.
For example, if you've been trying to get into a certain retailer for years and they’re not interested, you can put this ‘magnet’ right over that retailer’s locations on your map of dealers and then show the intention within these areas right down to an SKU.
And like many other technology companies, the numbers speak for themselves.
For more on the GTRsuite and how it can help your business, read here.
Do you ever tell yourself you’re going to go to sleep at a reasonable hour but suddenly find dozens of things to do that keep you awake? If so, you may be suffering from something called revenge bedtime procrastination.
To read and learn more, click here.
By now, you’ve likely seen an article or heard a podcast about why TikTok is important to your business, and companies like Simmons — which teamed up with TikTok stars Charli and Dixie D’Amelio on a new mattress aimed at Gen Z. — know the power of the platform. But new research shows something happening that’s going to change the way companies do business on TikTok.
To learn more, listen or read here.
Everyone’s looking for the next big idea, but sometimes you need to stop and pay attention to the micro-moments. Google says these occur when people “reflexively turn to a device — increasingly a smartphone — to act on a need to learn something, do something, discover something, watch something or buy something.”
In 2022, nearly everyone does this multiple times a day, which makes these micro-moments extremely important for any successful business.
To read or listen to more about cherishing the micro moments, click here.
If you look at good marketing today, it’s clear that storytelling is the secret to any successful brand. But with your retail store as your brand, are you making the most of your storytelling abilities?
Here’s a unique idea: Brand museums.
To read or listen to more about how a bran museum could enhance your marketing strategy, click here.
What does your pillow do all day when you’re not sleeping on it? How does it keep itself busy? Does it like its pillowcase outfit?
These are all questions Dennis the Pillow answered when he recently went on the “Everything Is Alive” podcast to share his thoughts on being a pillow and what that life is like.
Read or listen to more of this story here.
When’s the last time you did an honest, thorough audit of your content marketing strategy?
When it’s done correctly, content marketing is a powerful tool. But when it’s done incorrectly, it’s an expensive hobby.
An effective business blog allows you to tap into audiences that you may not be able to reach through traditional marketing channels and track and measure reach and conversions.
It was a sad day in superhero history when Mattman fell fighting the nasty Sleeping Bandit. But there's hope!
At Nationwide Marketing Group’s 59th PrimeTime event in Orlando this week, Wells Fargo Economist Charlie Dougherty shared several interesting insights into the housing market, inflation and the supply chain.
Read the full recap here.
As Nationwide Marketing Group continues to grow and expand its luxury appliance focus, the group has announced the addition of an exclusive program with appliance manufacturer Thermador.
Around this time last year, Mattress Firm unveiled its unforgettable “Unjunk Sleep” campaign — which launched with actor Liev Schreiber riding down the street on a mattress and stating that America has a junk sleep problem. The campaign was a success, and it led the company to launch several more ad spots that look at the different ways junk sleep can impact us all — whether physically, mentally, or emotionally — with a healthy dose of humor.
On a deeper level, the ad spots speak to human sleep needs — a message the entire industry should be pushing — and they do it in a way that catches people’s attention.
To learn more, read the entire article here.
You heard that right — it’s a real job title that Casper is hiring for right now.
Casper Sleepers will sleep “in our stores, and in unexpected settings out in the world,” according to Casper’s job posting.
For more on this exceptional job posting, click here.
Tech company Planner 5D has developed the first use-case demo for Apple's newest RoomPlan API, which uses the camera and LiDAR scanner on iPhones and iPads to create a 3D floor plan of any room.
This unique technology finds dimensions and inserts furniture and decor items by using its own AI recognition feature to scan the furniture and match them with items from its catalog to easily apply different interior design styles.
Despite what those outside the industry might think, to say RSAs are the backbone of the home furnishings retail would be an understatement.
They are the ones spearheading the sales, talking to and learning about customers. They train and memorize product details, brand names, and SKUs, all while offering service with a smile.
At The FAM, we have mad respect for RSA, so we decided to talk to RSAs and see what sage advice they have as soldiers on the front line.
When Jerrod Young was looking for work, he knew he wanted to join a small business where he could gain experience wearing several different hats — and he found that at Columbus Mattress Wholesale.
If you’ve embraced the e-commerce world, you know how often things change and how much the sector is growing. That’s why online-savvy retailers value statistics that let them analyze the market, understand opportunities for growth, and see what the competition is doing.
In the most recently measured period, furniture and home furnishing sales accounted for 11.78 percent of total retail e-commerce sales in the U.S.
And while e-commerce hasn’t caught on as much in the furniture industry as it has in other retail sectors, it’s still critical to know what’s going on in the industry and how you can succeed.
A report from Sourcing Bro outlines some important things you need to know about the e-commerce world, and we’ve broken down the highlights.
Have you built your social media crisis plan? If you didn’t have one before the pandemic – and still don’t have one – it’s not too late. Yet.
Dawn House Living President Gui Peres talks about why the new Dawn House line has been successful and what the future of health and mattresses looks like.
HENRYs — high earners, not yet rich — is a marketing term coined in 2003 to describe families earning between $250,000 and $500,000, but not having much left after taxes, schooling, housing, and other costs. Since then, it’s been used in marketing to target a younger generation of wealthy people — most of which are Millennials. And if you look around, there are a lot more HENRYs now than there have been since the Baby Boomer generation was in its prime.
In fact, Millennials recently surpassed Baby Boomers as the biggest generation—with 72.1 million in the U.S.—which means they will be a major part of the population for many years to come.
For more on this episode, click here.
The luxury appliance market saw incredible growth in 2021 as homeowners upgraded their living spaces with new refrigerators, cooktops and ranges, laundry and other high-end appliances. More disposable income and changing tastes drove luxury appliance growth.
Consumers stuck at home working throughout the initial onset of the pandemic used their appliances more each day and had time to dream up how to upgrade their living spaces. This led to a remarkable 6% rise in market growth for core appliance sales in the U.S. during that period.
For more on this trend, click here!
Most retailers in the home furnishings industry offer a range of financing options, but a new trend is coming into play.
Find out who the major players are, what their platform offers and the growth trends on the horizon!
When Isabella Clark, needed a change of pace, she decided to try something new and interesting: mattress sales.
Starting six months ago as an RSA at Columbus Mattress Whole in Ohio, she says she’s enjoyed learning and growing her knowledge of the industry.
The FAM talks to the RSA about what she loves and doesn't love in the industry, as well as consumer misconceptions, and more!
The FAM looks at beds with built-in storage from Bedline as well as Ergomotion, and finds out why they're getting more popular in the U.S.
When we ask retailers what questions they have about the industry, many say that they want to know what works for other retailers.
And mimicry is the most sincere form of flattery, so if something works for another retailer, there’s a chance you can make it work for you.
Broad River Retail has a laundry list of initiatives that work for them, so The FAM caught up with CEO Manny Rodrigues to see what they are and how they work.
Keith Moneymaker of Sweet Dreams Mattress & More explains how he has had success connecting consumers with RSAs through the store's website.
If you’re wondering where to spend your ad dollars this year, Julia Rosien has some ideas! Hint: we’re thinking bigger ad dollars on smaller networks
Jennifer Martinez, a sales associate at Sweet Dreams Mattress and Furniture, talks about what she loves and doesn't love about the industry.
“Omnichannel” has become somewhat of a buzzword in the home furnishings industry—and for good reason.
These days, most retailers would fair better with a strategy that integrates different methods of shopping, but it may seem intimidating if you’ve never done it before.
The FAM reached out to several furniture and mattress retailers to talk about their omnichannel strategies and what’s working, and we found something surprising—omnichannel doesn’t have to be as complex as it seems.
The sun is shining, the weather has warmed up, and people all across the country are ready to enjoy the summer.
That gives retailers the perfect chance to bring in customers with community-based events that can build brand recognition and offer people in the local area a fun activity.
Here are a few ideas.
Swelteringly hot temperatures. Hastily rising sea levels. Excessive droughts in the western U.S. Scientists agree climate change is affecting our world’s environment, but now they’ve discovered it may also affect our sleep.
In a study published May 20 in the journal One Earth, findings suggest that by the year 2099, altered temperatures may erode 50 to 58 hours of sleep per person per year.
The furniture industry knows a thing or two about the various challenges caused by Covid and the many changes that have happened or will happen because of it. One of these changes has to do with a little-talked-about category in the industry: rent-to-own furniture.
The rental furniture market is projected to reach 139 billion by 2029, according to Fortune Business Insights, and over 44 million people, or 35.9% of U.S. households, rent their homes—which means there’s potentially a lot of business to be had for rent-to-own retailers.
Consumers are recognizing how sleep and wellness are intrinsically intertwined. However, despite acknowledging the importance of sleep, a recent Tuft & Needle survey found that two-thirds of Americans note that they don’t get enough sleep, with seven out of ten people admitting they get less than seven hours of sleep per night.
The survey also found that three-quarters of people note that sleep impacts their mood and overall outlook on life, and two-thirds also agree that sleep impacts their physical health and mental wellbeing.
To help fix that disconnect, Tuft & Needle’s new marketing campaign—“Wake Up Awake”— is focused on helping sleepers get better rest, reclaim the night, and look forward to the day ahead.
There’s a new focus on health in the bedding and mattress industry—and it’s not going to slow down anytime soon. From adjustable bases to built-in Bluetooth sleep monitors that can track your heart rate and alert you to any potential issues, there are several mattress companies making an investment in the health category.
The pandemic has certainly had a part to play, as people who spent more time at home realized they weren’t getting a good night's sleep. They bought new mattresses because they paid more attention to what they needed—which is not just exercise or a diet, but a good night’s sleep.
Overstock.com, the online powerhouse launched in 1999, quickly established itself as a source for just about anything under the sun. But as part of a recent and ongoing reinvention, the company now has a laser-sharp focus on furniture and related goods. The FAM’s Ray Allegrezza had a recent one-on-one with Overstock President Dave Nielsen to find out more.
Did you know that this year there are projected to be 2.5 million weddings in the U.S this year? That’s a record high, mostly because people have put their weddings on pause for a couple of years due to Covid.
In addition to that, their bank accounts are relatively full, they’ll soon be ready to buy a house, and the average couple spends about $9,000 on furniture and mattresses when they move into a new home.
This week, Interwoven—the fabric market put on by the International Textiles Association (ITA) that was previously known as Showtime—debuted its new brand look, including a new logo and magazine that ITA says “represent the merging of ideas through collaboration, connection and innovation.”
Remember the World Wide Web – Web 1.0 – and when you suddenly needed a website to promote your business? Cycle ahead a decade or so. Without warning, Web 2.0’s user-generated content model (think Wikipedia, Myspace, Tumblr) forged the path for Facebook and Twitter — and then Instagram, TikTok, and WhatsApp. Surely this is a fad…
Shoppers don’t just want a smooth and seamless retail experience, they expect one. And if you can’t deliver, that could mean the business goes to another store.
That’s why Nationwide Marketing Group teamed up with website partners Site on Time (SOT) and Retailer Web Services (RWS) to provide free access to Centerpoint, a tool that connects retailers’ point-of-sale (POS) data with their websites to give shoppers real timeline of sight into product inventory and pricing information.
What is a foam sommelier?
It's a great question and we are so glad you asked. We sat down at the Furniture Today Bedding Conference held this past week in Orlando, Florida with Scott Smalling, Founder of Relief Bed International and more recently, Chief Commercial and Innovation Director for Emma, The Sleep Company, to chat the bedding conference, foam and what his role at Emma, and we get an update on Relief Bed since our last conversation in April 2021.
We discuss the shift facing D2C innovators and their strengths and struggles, what Relief Bed is doing to help in the Ukraine and how Scott is working to become the industry foam sommelier through Emma.
We also honor Roger Magowitz of the Seena-Magowitz Foundation who received a Lifetime Achievement award this past week. Congratulations, brother!
Consider the sleep disruptors that detract from good quality REM sleep.
If you do a proper job of interviewing a person about all of the things standing in the way of a serious log-sawing session, then some of these things will come out.
If you’re in a mattress store, maybe they don’t get into it with you—because why would they?
For years, retail sales associates have been looked down upon—with people calling the position a dead-end job that no one can make a career out of.
But anyone in the retail business knows that’s not true.
Just look at Broad River Retail, for example. In 2020, Broad River celebrated 51 Million Dollar Writers in its Million Dollar Memory Makers program. And while they set a goal of 60 for 2021, they had 98 employees write one million dollars or more in sales last year.
As the company explained to The FAM, jackpot bonuses, consistency, and recognition of excellence have helped them build a community of sales associates who not only receive an excellent commission but also enjoy selling furniture.
Ray Kinsley puttered around town in a pearl Buick with a blue top. He drove my grandma to the senior center for lunch each day and to church on Sundays.
Along the way he would jump curbs, motor through manicured lawns, bump bumpers, and park on top of the white lines.
A string of fender benders unfolded before my dad, Mickey, found out and decided it was time to permanently park his parent’s car in the garage.
My grandpa Ray was 90-years old and after dad retired the Buick we found out the townspeople of Crocker, Missouri appreciated my grandpa’s distinct colored car because it was an ivory and sapphire signal to get the hell out of the way; Ray was coming and he might run you off the road.
If you haven’t started planning Memorial Day, don’t worry, there’s still time.
With the holiday coming up in just over a month, The FAM reached out to a few mattress industry executives to see if the holiday is still important and talk about how it’s marketed in the industry.
Sometimes the craziest-sounding ideas are the ones that lead to the most success—like quitting your teaching job to open a mattress business during a global pandemic. But Direct Ship Mattress did just that at the end of 2021, and the story that led to the opening is almost as unbelievable as the fact that it opened at such a challenging time in the industry.
A quick look at the most current U.S. Census shows that 76% of Americans are White, 13% are Black, and 6% are Asian.
That should come as no surprise. But when we think about the furniture industry—which is primarily made up of older White men—is there a disconnect between the people in the C suite and the people actually buying the product?
Find out more at fam.news!
The price index for household furnishings and operations increased 10.1% over the past year—its largest 12-month increase since the period ending July 1975.
That’s according to Mattress Industry Consultant and Texan Mattress Owner Lawrence Heilers.
So what does that mean? He explains in a recent Facebook post:
“Customers are getting used to higher prices. They are overpaying for homes. Paying offer sticker for cars. We need to change our marketing strategy to focus on:
- In stock
- Long term financing
- Services - such as delivery and removal
- Large assortment of choices
“We have to stop promoting $149-$199 queen mattresses, twins at $99 or $39 down no credit needed financing. Your guests shopping promotional prices are being stretched while your premium guest is flush with cash and equity. You get what you fish for. It’s time to reinvigorate your business with a better marketing strategy.”
The FAM has always been fans changing with the time and trying new marketing strategies, so we reached out to Heilers to have him elaborate on his post and see what retailers can do now to sell to the customer of the future.
To find out more, read the rest of this article on fam.news!
Are you in the mattress business or are you in the life improvement business? It’s an important distinction because they deliver much different margins and require a different approach in just about every aspect of your business.
That’s the topic of an in-depth report The FAM released called “The Sleep Store of the Future.”
“Mattress stores are concerned about getting to the transaction,” says author Mark Quinn. “Sleep stores are focused on helping the consumer transform their sleep life through a better understanding of their own problems and possible solutions.
“Mattress stores are fighting everyone else on price, driving margins lower. Sleep stores are playing their own game adding value to the sale and the consumer experience as an authority in the market, allowing them to drive margins up.
Here’s the thing: even the retailers pushing the “sleep delivers a better quality of life” message aren’t really in the sleep improvement business if you get right down to it. Because if they were, wouldn’t their store look different?”
Read the full report to learn how you can transform your store into a store of the future.
It’s not just insecure men who say size matters.
In the furniture world, it seems as if big retailers are getting bigger and more successful—and that goes for big box stores, large independent retailers, and more.
If that’s the case, is the day looming where Goliath crushes David? Or do smaller retailers still have a shot on the playing field?
We take a look at both scenarios.
The Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make Daylight Saving Time (DST) permanent by November 2023.
Studies have shown that switching clocks kills people through increased traffic accidents, strokes, crime, heart attacks, and more.
Seventy percent of Americans don’t want clocks to switch ever, but 40% want permanent Standard Time, while 31% are diehard DST-ers.
While most Americans are in favor of keeping a consistent clock, the debate about ST or DST comes down to a preference for more sunshine in the evening or in the morning.
In Chicago for example, where the sun sets around 4 p.m. in the winter, under DST the earliest sunset would occur at 5:21 p.m. on Dec. 8, 2023, and the twilight that follows would provide some light until just before 6 p.m.
Whether you prefer more sunshine in the morning or at night is a personal preference, but we know that keeping clocks the same is the key to better sleep and fewer deaths.
Illinois-based full-line furniture retailer Darvin Furniture recently hosted its first Sweet Dreams Slumber Party event, which aimed to connect customers with the store’s sleep specialists so they could educate shoppers on the importance of a good night’s sleep.
The FAM caught up with Hanny Diab, Darvin Furniture & Mattress VP Merchandising & Business Development, to see how the event went, as well as what worked and what didn’t.
Do you go by what the rep recommends? Customer feedback?
With more options available to dealers, figuring out which mattress to put on your sales floor can become confusing, which was recently the topic of a thread in a mattress industry Facebook group.
Walking around High Point Market last week, exhibitors told me that traffic was way up, new introductions (if they had any) were well-received, and dealers were ready to buy. From one reporter’s point of view, the traffic did seem up—especially when looking at the crowded entrances of the buildings—and many exhibitors told me that this market felt like a step in the right direction when it comes to a return to normalcy.
The HPMA also said at a meeting during market that attendance from individual buying companies as of late Tuesday was up 3.3% from October and down 19.2% from the fall of 2019. Attendance from individuals, also as of late Tuesday, was up 4.4% from October, and down 17.2% from October 2019 —which was the best-attended market.
Keep in mind, these figures are based on pre-registrations and on-site registrations at market, and actual attendance figures won’t be released for a few more weeks.
Is traffic really up, or does it just seem that way because there hasn’t been a “real” market in two years?
Every good mattress salesman knows that the business is just not about sales and margins, but actually helping people sleep better so they can live healthier lives.
Serta Simmons Bedding (SSB) recently commissioned a study with OnePoll to understand Americans’ sleep habits, and what they found is pretty insightful.
We dig into a few of the key findings.
In the FAM’s exclusive research with Nationwide Marketing Group, we asked people if they’ve suffered from new sleep issues since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While more than half said no, 36% said yes, which presents a huge opportunity for sleep retailers.
It may seem like a small percentage, but it’s about the scale—the pandemic has affected people around the entire world.
Even further, in a SleepScore survey by Sleep.com, 86% of adults said their sleep quality dropped during the pandemic.
So what does this all mean?
It means a second chance at Covid for the industry.
In 2013, Connecticut became the first state to pass comprehensive laws for recycling mattresses, which require mattress manufacturers to establish a program to manage unwanted mattresses in the state, reduce illegal dumping, and even help create jobs in the recycling sector.
California and Rhode Island soon followed suit, and together formed an organization called the Mattress Recycling Council (MRC). And just last month, they announced they’ve recycled 10 million mattresses through its statewide programs in the three states.
Now Oregon plans to be the fourth state in the nation to enact a mattress recycling program by 2024.
For youth in foster care, only 50% graduate from high school—and only 3% graduate from college.
That’s why graduating high school or college is such an important milestone for kids in foster care.
Ticket to Dream Foundation, a non-profit that helps foster kids across the country, just launched their 6th annual Cards for Grads campaign to celebrate and acknowledge the success of this year’s foster grads, rooting them on for their next steps into adulthood.
Mauri Knowles, program director at Ticket to Dream, explains that the foundation’s Cards For Grads campaign supports foster grads across the country each spring. The goal this year is to celebrate 6,000 high school and college graduates.
These are some crazy times we are living in wouldn’t you say?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: “just because you have the power to be an asshole, doesn’t mean you SHOULD be an asshole.”
Suppliers from all over are having trouble getting their products to people. Covid has shut down factories, and people don’t want to come back to work anymore. On top of that the demand spike has made it tough for the guys in the factories out there to keep up with production.
Around 2015, Facebook changed its News Feed ranking system to weigh videos more heavily than links. Then in 2017, MTV announced it was “pivoting to video.”
Fox Sports made a similar move, laying off about 20 digital writers and editors who wrote for its website so it could focus on video content. Others followed suit.
And though the imminent “pivot to video” wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, that doesn’t mean that video isn’t useful for retailers and manufacturers.
When I was 12 years old I would wake up on Sunday morning in Houston, Texas and watch professional wrestling.
This was before the WWF, I’m talking about guys like Andre The Giant, The Von Erich dynasty and Dusty Rhodes. My brother and I would watch and then throw pillows on the ground and practice body slamming each other before we had to go to church… those were the days.
Is it Covid that has changed the way the industry looks at trade shows—or was that already happening before the pandemic hit?
In 2021, there were fewer markets because of Covid, and that may be the case in 2022 as well.
Just look at all of the markets that were already postponed in 2022—CIFF, VIFA Expo, Salon De Mobile, Malaysia EFE, Maison Object—and that’s not even the full list.
But in terms of the markets that did happen, how were they in terms of productivity?
Good salespeople are always prepared to answer customer questions, but the most successful RSAs are the ones who ask great questions. Of course, it’s all about asking the right questions, which was the topic of a mattress industry Facebook thread started by Steve Houk.
The answers we found were so great we wanted to share them and take a closer look at why they’re such good questions to ask.
Did you know that today is World Sleep Day?
Started by the World Sleep Society, World Sleep Day is an annual awareness day held the Friday before Spring Vernal Equinox of each year, which is March 18 this year.
Each year, the organization offers a catchy slogan for people to keep in mind. This year it’s “Quality Sleep, Sound Mind, Happy World,” which is fitting considering the state of the world right now.
Questions to consider are “How does quality sleep help maintain mental health? How might better sleep help people focus during the day? Or how might fatigue weigh us down physically, mentally, and emotionally?”
Nearly 200 activities are organized by volunteers in local communities across 56 countries around the world to celebrate the day—which advocates and raises awareness for sleep health, and this is an opportunity for you to drive more store traffic and build trust with customers through knowledge of the product.
Here are a few ideas of events you could put on for World Sleep Day.
Bread lovers, your prayers have been answered
Loafa is a new hyperrealistic bread sofa inspired by Mario Bellini’s 1970s Camaleonda sofa.
Designed by Estonian rapper Tommy Cash in collaboration with object-transformation artist Gab Bois, Cash unveiled the sofa on Instagram and asked followers to reach 10,000 comments to convince Ikea to put the Loafa into production.
Ikea has been silent, but Cash recently wrote: “Loafa is coming to your nearest IKEA söön.”
It’s no secret that the home furnishings industry is male-dominated.
And while organizations like WithIt are working to change that, we all have a part to play.
The FAM recently read a news story about how American Freight Furniture and Mattress was recently ordered to pay $5 million in monetary relief and provide job opportunities to women who were denied hiring in sales or warehouse jobs at the company.
But even more important than the fact that American Freight was wrong to do this, we need to focus on why companies should be looking to hire women.
Daylight Saving Time begins on March 13 this year, and we’re excited for more hours of sunlight each day.
Thanks to the FAM’s expert investigator Mark Quinn, we know that the strange change in time began with a guy named George Hudson. The entomologist hatched the idea of DST so that he could get an extra two hours to hunt bugs.
Will we ever see an end to DST?
Got Milk? The Incredible Edible Egg. Pork, The Other White Meat.
Some of the greatest and most successful products in the world have slogans. And that’s because slogans are memorable and help keep products and services at the top of mind.
They help consumers develop a positive relationship with a brand. (the slogans we mention above are not for a brand..more for a product. Better to say, they help consumers develop a positive relationship with a product, category, or even a concept.
So why doesn't the furniture industry have one?
Bad news for those tired of hearing about the need for up-to-date, user-friendly websites that tie the online experience to the store—they’re only becoming more important.
At Nationwide Marketing Group’s recent PrimeTime event in Nashville, The FAM caught up with Aaron Bundschuh, chief digital and technology officer at Nationwide, to talk about all things websites.
For years, regardless of what actually took place during a market, the story that the trade press would report was remarkably predictable—“Traffic was mixed, but order writing was strong.”
On the rare occasion when a show was really lacking, you could bet your last dollar that somewhere in the story, usually in the first paragraph, an exhibitor would state, “Traffic was down, but I saw and sold the buyers I needed to see.”
Today, thanks to the immediacy of social media and to the fact that everyone with a smartphone deems him-or herself a journalist, there’s much more transparency regarding every event, including trade shows.
Steve Baxter, co-founder and COO of tech company GTRsuite, is new to the furniture industry. And oftentimes, these newcomers—who don’t have any bias or past information to go on—realize some extraordinary things.
Joining just a year and a half ago, Baxter’s background in tech led him to create GTRsuite a tool that gives manufacturers the ability to put store locators on their site, which then directs customers shopping online to their nearest brick-and-mortar retailer.
While talking to Baxter about GTRsuite, we began to talk about e-commerce in general and “disrupting the disrupters.”
One of the biggest challenges that independent retailers face today when they're up against big box stores is that they don't have any competitive advantage from a product perspective.
That’s according to Mike Derro, vice president of furniture and bedding at Nationwide Marketing Group.
The FAM caught up with Derro during Nationwide’s PrimeTime event in early February to talk about a new private label product line from TSI, Sherwood, and Nationwide. The line is called Encore and Derro says the mattress program should solve some of the raw materials issues that may have prevented smaller manufacturers from being able to deliver.“By being able to partner with TSI, if there are any raw material challenges in the future, retailers are backed by one of the largest manufacturers that just happens to be a private label called Encore.”
We’re big fans of driving store traffic—and we have several articles to prove it.
We often talk about how to get people in the door but don’t talk enough about the actual in-store events. Here are four simple tips for creating retail events that will drive more sales.
Chances are if you are familiar with furniture stores, you’ve undoubtedly seen the windows plastered with brightly colored signs that read “price reduction,” “no interest,” or “no down payments”?
For years, the furniture industry has bragged about the “no, no, no”, but has that hurt the image of furniture?
After all, furniture is about style, fashion, function, and comfort, and terms like “no interest” bring up thoughts of used car salesmen or cheap discount stores.
The messages that our industry sends to consumers don’t reflect the way so many people in our industry look at selling furniture.
Doug Stewart's news podcast will focus on business strategy and zooming out to see the bigger picture when it comes to retail and the furniture industry as a whole.
Mattress University, an educational presentation at Nationwide Marketing Group’s Primetime event in Nashville this week, dove into the current retail landscape with a panel that included Tim Deets of TC Home Furnishings, Chris Schunk of Lake Effect Furniture & Mattress, Karl Tobler of Mattress Warehouse, Salt Lake City, and Lee Burns of Mattress Direct, Baton Rouge, La.
Podium hosted a webinar that shed light on five retail marketing strategies that retailers can use to win locally.
Logan Wooden, product marketing manager at Podium, led the seminar with guest Chris Strong, marketing manager at Watson’s Furniture.
If a sales associate wants to be good at their job, they need to have a unique set of skills.
Yes, they need patience and the ability to multitask and keep track of several things at a time—from customers to phone calls to daily tasks.
But they should want to help others and create relationships with customers. The retail industry is geared toward making people’s lives better, so they need to have a desire to sell them the right product to improve their life.
Casper had a whirlwind of a year in 2021. First, it laid off key executives including its CMO, COO, and CTO. Then Phillip Krim stepped down as CEO as the company went private and was eventually acquired by Durational Capital Management.
The acquisition took the industry by surprise for a number of reasons. One of which is that many people do not know anything about Durational Capital Management.
Blind adventurer Erik Weihenmayer delivered the opening keynote for Nationwide Marketing Group’s PrimeTime show in Phoenix on February 6 and shared a powerful message with attendees about how to use challenges and adversity to propel their businesses to new heights.
Between talking about personal experiences crawling into a volcano with Will Smith on the DIsney+ show “Welcome to Earth” and climbing Mt. Everest with 19 others (the largest group on record), his message centered around the idea of living a “No Barriers Life”— a mindset of constantly challenging yourself to grow and evolve.
At Nationwide Market Group’s PrimeTime event in Nashville this week the groups introduced a new project information management system that aims to improve the quality of vendor data to help retailers deliver a consistent website experience.
Dubbed the “redefined furniture-centric shopping experience,” about 30 member brands are on board so far, and Nationwide has collected information such as pricing data, related items, product options, and the ability to create different configurations.
The ultimate goal of the new system is to free retailers up so they can focus on other areas of their business that need more attention and where they can make the most difference.
You’ve heard how important e-commerce is for retailers—and maybe you’ve even upped your game in your store recently. But to keep up with consumer desires and be successful in 2022, you’ll have to embrace technology and merge your digital and in-store channels for an omnichannel experience.
Tech company STORIS recently released in 2022 trend report where they surveyed some of their own home furnishings retailers e-commerce, and here are 10 technology trends they say retailers need to know to be successful in the new year.
Bob Phibbs, AKA the Retail Doctor, held a webinar recently where he offered five ways to handle under-performing stores.
Serta’s Arctic Cooling. Tempur-Pedic’s Tempur LuxeBreeze. Casper’s Sleep Wave. Eight Sleep’s Pod Pro.
The list of mattresses out there that promise a cooler night’s sleep goes on—almost to the point that it seems like there’s a cold war among companies offering cooling mattresses.
If that sounds ridiculous, it’s because it is. Is that really what consumers want?
The connection between sleep and wellness has become clearer as technology advances, which is why Ergomotion created a wellness division within the company that focuses on technology and products made for overall well-being and recovery of the user. Gui Peres heads Ergomotion’s wellness division and has been working with Garmin on a new project: the Ergosportive Smart & Adjustable recovery system.
In the second part of this four-part series, we focus on how challenges to being a sales rep may impact the future of the role.
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) kicked off the new year with amazing technological introductions, from Cadillac’s InnerSpace autonomous car, to Astell&Kern's first "carryable" headphone amplifier. But notably, there were quite a few innovations in the sleep and bedding category. Here are a few of The FAM’s favorites:
Bedding industry newcomer Lifeloom will debut its Frictionless Sleep Systemsheets—the world’s first FDA-cleared bedding product engineered with DermaTherapy technology clinically proven to improve sleep quality—at the upcoming Las Vegas Market.
Mattress salespeople have been compared to used car salesmen for years—mostly because of how they haggle the price. And while that stigma is slowly evaporating, some retailers still find haggling as a good way to make sales and build relationships with customers.
As a local retailer, you probably don’t limit yourself to advertising in just one way. You likely combine digital marketing with in-person marketing. To maximize the effects of your marketing campaign, you want to ensure you create an omnichannel retail experience.
With an omnichannel retail experience, you will find that your branding becomes more effective, as do your marketing efforts. Take a look at creating this type of experience for your customers and reap the rewards of doing so.
Before you ask yourself if you can accomplish a big goal, maybe take a moment to ask yourself why it's important to you. If your WHY is strong enough, the HOW isn't just possible, it's probable.
Chiropractor Lamont Smith created the Tummy Time Mattress after hearing repeated complaints from clients about back problems. While the product is still in its prototype stage, Smith says he has talked to or will talk to a few major mattress brands about partnering on the Tummy Time mattress and see where it goes.
It’s 2022, and there’s no time like the present to start looking at creative ways to drive foot traffic to your store. Here are five ideas you can deploy right now to attract more traffic to your store, courtesy of the book “Come Back to Bed.”
As 2021 comes to a close, it’s never too early to begin thinking about ways to drive foot traffic in the New Year. As you think about 2022, plan ahead and try some of these innovative ideas offered in the book “Come Back To Bed”:
Recognizing the need for a well-designed, health-tracking mattress for seniors, Ergomotion has created Dawn House Living—a new bed aimed specifically at seniors that has sensors to detect irregularities.
If you have ever been curious about the longstanding relationship between the furniture industry and High Point Market, a just-released book by Dr. Richard R. Bennington called High Point University and the Furniture Industry takes you on a deep dive that explores and explains a century-long partnership between the industry and the school.
In less than two decades, the graying of America will be inescapable: Older adults are projected to outnumber kids for the first time in U.S. history.
So what does this mean for the furniture industry? In the grand scheme of things, it could have an effect on nearly every part of the industry—from sales reps to retail staff, and more.
In the first part of this four-part series, we’ll focus strictly on the effects of driver shortages for trucking.
Here’s a fun fact for you: Consider that 90% of the world's data has been produced in just the last two years.
This explosion of information is known as “Big Data,” and it is completely transforming the world around us, according to the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
When you first read that you might be thinking, “That’s awesome because I have more information at my fingertips to make life easier and help me make educated decisions.”
In many ways that’s probably true, but consider the amount of information available to consumers today when it comes to shopping for YOUR products.
Is it helping your customers or creating confusion and causing frustration?
If we don’t learn from the past, we’re bound to repeat it.
But in some cases, that may be just what we need to succeed.
Take mattress ads, for example. In the past, mattress ads focused on how people live, sleep and interact with their beds—something many mattress companies continue to focus on today.
That’s not to say today’s mattress companies don’t have creative advertising—just look at Purple. And even today—as back then—businesses are pushing the idea of better sleep, not just the mattress.
But there’s still a lot we can learn from ads of the past, as many of them have extremely creative, modern messages about better sleep and how the mattress helps people live better lives.
With all of the issues the home furnishings industry is facing, you might think things are slowing down. And while that's true in some regards, many retailers and manufacturers are still reporting high sales numbers. That's likely to continue through 2022, according to experts, especially as shipping problems ease and more and more businesses learn from the challenges they faced over the past year and implement new strategies for growth.
To get a few answers, The FAM polled the industry to see how business is these days, and the results are somewhat surprising.
If business is slowing down for you, there are a few things you can do to keep momentum through the holiday.
Talk to any business owner about new technology, and one of their first questions is sure to be, “what’s the ROI?” However, with the explosion of social media, influencer marketing, and other tech-based marketing techniques, businesses are learning that some ROI is not measurable.
Alarmed by an increase in new cases of the Covid-19 virus late last month, China created a painful new kink in an already dysfunctional supply chain by implementing a seven-week mandatory quarantine for cargo vessels and their crews hoping to return to China.
Do you like Dream pop music?
If you haven’t heard of it, you might want to get hip, as #Dreampop has gathered more than nine million views on TikTok, and r/dreampop subreddit subscribers have grown by ~400% over the last four months.
And—now considered the defining band of the genre—The Cocteau Twins averages more than 1.1m+ listeners a month on Spotify. And it had a resurgence with Millennials in the early 2000’s thanks to the band Beach House.
Would it surprise you to find out that more than 60 percent of shoppers use their smartphones when they’re in a store?
Also known as showrooming, this is common practice.
And while it’s still a challenge for retailers to overcome, it’s not nearly the problem it was five years ago. Today, retailers have learned to educate their salespeople, offer personalized service, and even price match to beat the competition.
Is the Jones Act holding back the home furnishings industry? Ray Allegrezza opines about the subject and offers a solution.
Pleasant Mattress has received the Sleep Products Sustainability Program (SP2) certification from the Mattress Recycling Council (MRC)—the first U.S.-based manufacturer to do so.
SP2 is an environmental certification program resulting from a sustainability initiative launched by the MRC for mattress manufacturers.
Ray Allegrezza opines about the state of China's power outages and goes out on a limb to throw two new possibilities on the table.
Corsicana Mattress Co. has partnered with Retail Service Systems (RSS) for the 2021 editions of the Rugged Road Trip—which provides exposure to Corsicana’s private label capabilities while also bringing awareness to the community and services provided by the RSS team.
Ante4autism recently presented $30,158 checks to each of the five autism charities from the 13the annual Ante4autism poker event that took place this past August.
Checks were presented to the Rich Center for Autism at Youngstown State University, National Autism Association – South East Ohio chapter, Karina Jett with Jennifer Strobel from FEAT of Southern Nevada, Dr. Jennifer Smith of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Adin & Myra Stone, and the Autism Speaks Ante4autism Columbus, Ohio walk team.
While larger importers like Wal-Mart and Home Depot are still paying fairly low prices for containers, smaller businesses like those in the home furnishings industry are taking the brunt of the blow.
Diamond Mattress has patented a new foam-encased design that features specially ventilated layers that work together with the coil openings of the inner core to provide maximum airflow and heat dissipation.
The U.S. Department of Defense is funding a trial of a device to help speed up and enhance the natural cleansing system that our brains use during sleep.
Never say, "Thank you for your time." Ever.
Sometimes we say things we don't mean. Other times, we say things we do mean but in a way that isn't believable. Then there are the times when we do a bit of both. But what are we really saying when we thank someone for their time?
The Seena Magowitz Foundation is holding a 70's Disco-themed virtual “We Are Family” reunion charity event at 5 p.m. MST on November 17 to support the fight against pancreatic cancer.
The fact that the pandemic has kicked butt and taken names up and down the furniture industry is hardly breaking news. However, a just-tabulated survey of members of the International Home Furnishings Representatives Association sheds some new light on where and how the Covid-19 virus has hurt independent home furnishings reps the most.
Casper has been acquired by private equity firm Durational Capital Management and Emilie Arel, Casper’s president and chief commercial officer, is expected to take over the CEO position from co-founder and current CEO Phillip Krim, effective immediately.
It’s 3 a.m. and you just heard a strange slurping noise in your house. No, it’s not the Boogeyman. It was just your dog licking himself.
You roll over and close your eyes, and then after 10 minutes, you realize you can’t get back to sleep.
While this is one of the more common examples of how noise affects sleep, and ultimately how refreshed you are the next day, there are also short-term and long-term effects that too much noise or persistent noise can have on a person’s sleep schedule.
What's the solution?
For some people, a noise machine could do the trick. They condition the environment with a low hum, keeping their brains from registering threats associated with clicks, pops, and creaks.
Leggett & Platt’s CEO Karl Glassman is retiring, and in his place, the board-appointed Mitch Dolloff will take over as CEO and president effective Jan.1, 2022.
Have you heard about sleep tours?
No, we’re not talking about the metal band.
A Hong Kong tour company took note of how many people fell asleep on its busses and stepped up to capitalize on it.
Ray Allegrezza caught up with Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah to talk about the myriad changes impacting Wayfair and the entire home furnishings sector.
Every year, City Furniture donates 5% or more of its profits to charitable organizations—now known as the “5% Giving Pledge.”
And from October through December of this year, the top 100 retailer is raising $500,000 for the American Cancer Society (ACA).
This is about two mattress companies that I truly trust and have complete faith in when it comes to them caring.
They both care about the quality, the look, the comfort, the support, the retailer, and the consumer. They’re concerned about who is sleeping on their mattresses and getting a great night's sleep that is healthy and re-energizing. These two companies are Southerland Inc. and Englander.
Serta Simmons Bedding (SSB) has promoted Shelley Huff—previously COO of SSB and CEO of Tuft & Needle—to CEO, effective Dec. 1, 2021.
Simmons made history by becoming the first brand to ever launch on TikTok, partnering with two of the platform’s stars—Charli and Dixie D’Amelio—to create the Charli & Dixie x Simmons mattress. To celebrate the collaboration, Charli and Dixie went head to head in a family-friendly showdown to turn two fans’ bedrooms into creative studios in the Simmons Dream Room contest.
When you’re selling mattresses, you’re not really selling the pieces of fabric wrapped around box springs or memory foam material, you’re selling a better night’s sleep.
And there are four main parts of a better night’s sleep that retailers can use to make more sales. Together, these four pieces help a salesperson show a massive amount of information as well as help the customer understand everything clearly without being overloaded and burnt out.
As we know, Gallery Furniture’s Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale had something up his sleeve in terms of bets for the Astros. But there's more.
A shrine to tequlia? Yep, that's what Mark Quinn and Mark Kinsley saw on a recent business trip, and it was wild.
Experts predict that in 2021, the number of weddings in the U.S. is expected to hit 2.77 million. And one of those married couples has the chance to win a Beautyrest honeymoon package, which includes a brand-new Beautyrest by Christian Siriano mattress of their choice and $5,000 cash.
Nectar’s parent company Resident Home has been found in violation of an earlier Federal Trade Commission (FTC) administrative order. Resident will pay $750,000 to the FTC to settle charges over alleged misrepresentations that its mattresses were constructed from 100% USA-made materials.
Corsicana Mattress recently broke ground on its new 376,000-square-foot headquarters and manufacturing center on 26 acres in its hometown of Corsicana, Texas.
Nationwide Marketing Group has merged with Azione Unlimited, the preeminent group of custom integrators and manufacturers, to form a whole-home platform.
GhostBed is collaborating with legendary tennis champion, entrepreneur and health advocate, Venus Williams on a collection of performance mattresses designed by Williams that will later expand into a full sleep solutions and home furnishings lineup.
Would it surprise you to find out that many online mattress reviews are written by the very DTC companies who sell the mattresses?
What does the sleep store of the future look like? Mark Quinn worked with Adam Ashborn from Reborn Marketing and Design Ltd. to help envision it.
King Koil has a new VP of operations, Latexco received its GOL certification, and Spring Air adds and all-natural pillow to its line-up.
Alan Vonderhar from Miskelly Furniture, also known as Dr. V always brings great insights and a passion for the mattress category. Mark Quinn had never actually visited one of the Miskelly stores, but he's glad he made the trip because these guys get it.
Will the Astros win the World Series this fall? Gallery Furniture CEO Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale is betting on it.
There’s a trend of sleep companies partnering with sports teams—just look at ChiliSleep, which partnered with the Reds and Mariners, as well as the FSU Football team. And now Mattress Firm is getting in on the game, as they just announced it is the official sleep partner of the Denver Broncos—which includes a Mattress Firm logo patch on the front, upper-left sides of the team’s practice jerseys.
Mattress Firm confidentially filed paperwork for an initial public offering in the U.S. on Monday, according to a report from Reuters.
What’s the state of the supply chain? How constrained is it? How have shipping rates changed over the past few months, and what can we expect in the future? Those were all questions answered by two expert speakers on a call set up by UBS.
Innovation in medicines and bug treatment over the years has reduced the number of bed bugs lurking in mattress crevices today, but they’re not all gone. And Terminix recently released a list of the top 50 most bed-bug-infested cities in America.
Don’t be the unconscious incompetent.
What does that even mean?! It means, know what you don’t know.
There have been many times when this industry has guessed and got it wrong. “One sided beds will never be a thing,” said Douglas Dumbshit (that was me by the way.) “Memory foam will never exceed 10% of the market,” presumed Clay Clueless. “People that buy beds online without trying them won’t buy them a second time because the quality just isn’t there,” Harriet Hopeful speculated.
Nationwide Marketing Group returned to an in-person format for PrimeTime in Nashville in August, but the group knew that the opportunity still existed to engage and provide value to members who were unable to make the trip to the Music City.
That’s why Virtual PrimeTime launched Monday, September 20, giving independent retailers the opportunity to experience for the first time—or go back and rewatch—some of the most popular and important educational sessions from the show. And it’s all available for free.
Southerland is going lean by giving its new, 318,000-square-foot Nashville factory a 30% increase in capacity.
As a kid, did you ever want to visit Hundred Acre Wood, home of the adorable, honey-loving Winnie the Pooh?
Well, now not only can you visit his humble abode, but you can sleep in it, as a Winnie the Pooh-inspired house will be available to book on Airbnb twice this month as part of the celebration for the Disney character’s 95th anniversary.
Over the past 10 years, we’ve seen how bad energy drinks are for most people—as they’ve caused serious health problems like high blood pressure and heart arrhythmias. But in an anti-energy drink move, several companies—including Som Sleep and Pepsi—have put out “functional” drinks that contain ingredients like collagen (good for your skin), probiotics (good for your gut) and nootropics (mood-improving chemicals).
Casper has laid off its chief marketing officer, chief technology officer, and chief operating officer, as well as dozens of others, in its latest round of layoffs communicated to employees on Friday, Sept. 10.
Fabric provider Creative (formerly Creative Ticking) has added three mattress fabric sales and design veterans—Camilla Franklin, Lynn Pappas and Mason Hallet—to the team.
Sweet Dreams Mattresses & More and the Dreams4All Foundation stepped up to provide mattresses to Afghan refugees.
In a recent conversation with Goodbed’s Mike Magnuson and Jeff Cassidy on the Mike It Up Show, Larry Miller, CEO of Sit'N Sleep, had some insightful information to share with the industry. We’ve rounded up some of the best advice he offered so you can use it to grow your business as well.
Larry Miller, CEO of Sit’N Sleep, carries a wide range of brands, and here's his advice about carrying online brands in your store.
Mark Quinn talked to an old friend, Bob McCarthy, managing director for RESIDENT the makers of Nectar Mattress, about the co-op model, and they have some fresh ideas of their own.
Cerberus Capital Management announced plans to acquire Brooklyn Bedding and Helix Sleep, and it will combine the two companies to develop a DTC platform that gives consumers access to both brands. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.
Gallery Furniture Owner Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale is known for his philanthropic acts, and he was recently back at it again to help those affected by recent Hurricane Ida.
Scott Smalling—an industry veteran who’s worked in executive roles at Simmons Bedding Co., ComforPedic, Carl Havens Signature Fabrics, and most recently, iOBED—has a new gig at European sleep brand Emma – The Sleep Company.
The FAM learned that Purple now has 15 stand-alone showrooms throughout Utah, Texas, Idaho, Washington, California, New Jersey, Ohio, and Virginia.
And now, the company will open another new stand-alone location in Frisco, Texas on September 24 where they’ll sell mattresses, seat cushions, pet beds, and other bedding accessories, including Purple’s latest release, the Purple Plus mattress.
What do poltergeists and the 13th Floor of Las Vegas Market have in common? Mark Kinsley has the answers!
Back in April, smart mattress maker Eight Sleep raised $40 million in funding and put a large chunk of that toward sleep research.
Now, backed by Valor Equity Partners—a firm that has worked with Tesla, SpaceX and GoPuff—as well as SoftBank, Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund and General Catalyst, Eight Sleep has raised $86 million in a Series C round of funding.
Nationwide Marketing Group’s 57th in-person edition of PrimeTime wrapped up just last week, and Nationwide says the early returns from the business and educational conference show just how critical an opportunity those few days are for independent retailers.
Michael C. Bush talks in a TED talk video about what makes employees happy, and it's sage advice you'll want to hear.
Nationwide Marketing Group 50th anniversary brought over 3,000 people to Nashville for big parties, live concerts, and more. Mark Quinn tells the story of how it went, including bits about the Dos Marcos presentation and a special musical guest.
Remember when ChiliSleep partnered with the Reds and Mariners for a sports science collaboration? Well, the company is back in the sports arena, this time partnering with Florida State University’s football team.
On Saturday, Aug. 21, at the South Point Hotel and Casino, Ante4autism set a new record by raising over $150,000 at their 13th annual Ante4autism event.
Mattress Firm and Tempur Sealy International have agreed on a multi-year extension to their current partnership, extending the supply agreement through 2025.
Based on a question from a real mattress retailer, we asked the mattress industry for tips on how to handle walk-in customers and convert them into buyers. The insight we received is incredibly insightful.
Latexco promotes Briana Bohaczyk to sales associate, and Shifman hires sales veteran Diana Genshock to manage its Southwest business.
HSM installs new equipment at its Wisconsin facility, Mattress Concierge introduces its redesigned hospitality collection in partnership with Goldbond, Eclipse reintroduces Lifetime collection and Precision opens a new manufacturing facility.
More Americans work remotely today than ever before. And while you may be imagining people in a decked-out home office, more than a third of American adults surveyed admitted to regularly working from bed.
Corsicana will launch a new collection of reconstructed mattresses at the upcoming Las Vegas Market, as well as a new hospitality line at the HD Expo.
Southerland will introduce its redeveloped American Sleep line at the upcoming Summer Las Vegas Market, which includes hybrids and two-sided mattresses.
Hot sleepers are in the crosshairs of Serta’s new Arctic Sleep System that is offering up to 15x better cooling, and Spring Air announces a banner year.
How are you building trust with your customers? You charge your salespeople to build that connection with the consumer when they walk into your store, but are you practicing what you preach?
GhostBed is launching a tech-filled mattress, Eclipse is tapping into an iconic name that gets 64 million Google searches each year, and Magniflex is introducing a calming pillow.
Corsicana is introducing the Midnight Plush Hybrid mattress, a new addition to its NightsBridge Midnight collection, at the summer 2021 Las Vegas Market.
Members of Nationwide Marketing Group have waited over a year and a half to come together for an in-person PrimeTime event, and this week they descended Nashville for the 57th edition of the show.
If you go to buy a new laptop, you don’t only buy it based on how much it costs, you look at what features and benefits it has—what it does and how it will help you. That’s the same mindset retailers should take when they are talking to customers about mattresses.
You may remember a few weeks ago rumors circled that the cardboard beds Olympic athletes sleep on during the big games are made to discourage athletes from having sex. Well, that's been debunked. Again.
For 13 years, the annual Ante4Autism event has raised money to help the families and individuals impacted by Autism—as 1 in 59 children in the U.S. are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. This year, Englander and Fiesta Furniture have both signed on as sponsors of the 13th-annual event.
The mattress industry is on a growth streak right now, with Tempur Sealy and Leggett & Platt among the top brands reporting a blowout Q2.
Pleasant Mattress rebrands McCrosky, Diamond and R.E.S.T. launch adjustable bases, and more mattress industry news.
Dos Marcos hosted what might be the world’s first webishow featuring Greg Law, owner of Sweet Dreams Mattresses and Furniture, and Dr. V, director of strategic development at Miskelly Furniture. The webinar-meets-podcast celebrated how retailers can use Podium to increase sales and gain a better idea of what consumers actually care about.
Englander is launching its Supreme collection of 14 new mattresses at the summer 2021 Las Vegas Market.
As e-commerce sales have grown more important than ever since the pandemic hit, Nationwide Marketing Group is launching a new endless aisle feature for members with e-commerce-enabled websites that allows retailers to quickly and easily add products to their online catalogs.
Millions of mattress myths are swirling around the internet and they’re impossible for retailers to police. But what happens when a shopper comes into your store asking about product quality differences, brands, and buying online beds.
To find out some of the most common (and real!) mattress myths that are being spread, we asked a few mattress retailers what they’ve heard and how this misinformation.
Partnering with SleepScore Labs, Mattress Firm found that Americans collectively lost 74 billion hours in sleep last year. And that’s why the retail giant’s new “Junk Sleep” campaign, which aired during the first night of the Olympics, calls on consumers to un-junk their sleep and improve their lives by finding the right mattress for them.
Piper Sandler published research for June 2021 stating 67% of retailers said price increases from manufacturers are providing a benefit to sales trends. At first glance, this idea seems counterintuitive. When prices go up, don’t people buy less? So we decided to ask indie mattress retailers what they thought of these survey results, and they had mixed opinions.
Mark Quinn reflects on his time at the ABT Golf Charity Event and how the group is helping kids on the autism spectrum.
They first started passing out jimmies at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, and ever since then there’s been news coverage about athletes shaking the sheets. And this year there was a big piece of fake news floating around about how the cardboard beds the Olympic athletes will sleep on were designed to prevent bonking.
Kryo, Inc., the parent company of sleep technology brand ChiliSleep, is teaming up with the Cincinnati Reds and the Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball teams for a sports science collaboration.
Casper is opening a shop-in-a-shop in select Bed, Bath and Beyond stores, and King Koil unveiled a new split-head mattress.
Could an Olympics-style contest where contestants eat peanut butter and lettuce sandwiches be the answer to better sleep? Well, not exactly, but exercise and these two foods have been the focus of some Internet chatter when it comes to searching for ways to get better sleep.
Imagine a website that tells you what a customer wants out of a mattress, explains the bad experiences they’ve had and shows you common—or sometimes uncommon—questions consumers have about the products you sell. It's called Reddit, and you can use it to help you better you business.
There’s an old and magical book called “A Pattern Language” that describes many surprising ways humans actually behave in certain spaces like towns, streets, buildings, balconies, and bedrooms. And one section related to sleep says, “Bedrooms don’t make any sense.”
Of all the things affecting the mattress industry right now, foam shortages and price hikes are at the top of the list—which is why so many mattress manufacturers are pushing alternatives to foam.
Does it seem like there are a lot of mattress-related auto deaths in the news? We asked a few mattress retailers in a mattress industry Facebook group how they felt about the issue, and not only did they confirm that this isn’t just Frequency Bias, most of them said the liability involved with tying the mattress down for the customer is not worth the risk.
There are all sorts of studies about how well properly executed employee incentive programs work, and now Pleasant Mattress is part of a growing number of businesses that are offering incentives to employees to get vaccinated.
Culp Inc. announced its Q4 financial results and the company posted a productive quarter.
Mattresses and outdoor furniture have more in common than you might think. And the unexpected connection between the two could lead to more business for both industries.
To help retailers and manufacturers ensure their products are up to code, SGS—a testing, inspection, and certification company—recently expanded its mattress testing facility in Farmingdale, New York.
To help combat the rising cost of healthcare and increase workers’ access to affordable insurance coverage, Nationwide Marketing Group has launched the channel’s first and only health insurance program exclusively for independent retailers and their employees.
While businesses in the mattress category are thrilled with the uptick in business due to to the effects of the pandemic, are they keeping consumers happy? If you’re a retailer, you might have a false sense of assurance when looking at your P&L, but the backlog and delays on furniture are taking their toll, and failing to handle it appropriately could be costing you.
Kayfoam Woolfson, an Ireland-based foam producer and bed manufacturer, has been acquired by Leggett & Platt from FL Partners, a Dublin-based private equity group that acquired Kayfoam Woolfson back in 2007.
CK Ong of Avacado Green Brands explains how mattress retailers and manufacturers can become better LGBTQ+ allies.
Nationwide Marketing Group’s PrimeTime returns in August for its first face-to-face session since early 2020. And to honor its retailers, Nationwide announced that Grammy Award-winning country group Little Big Town will perform as part of the event’s festivities.
Organizers of the 13th Annual Ante4autism event have moved the event to the South Point Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas strip.
We live in a noisy, over-communicated world that’s filled with sleep pseudoscience and mushy logic. That means RSAs need to give customers some simple keys to effective sleep. You need to give them ideas they can remember and implement, and that’s why we came up with AC/DC—an easy way to remember the sleep tips you need to pass along to every person that walks through your door.
Tempur Sealy International recently announced plans to acquire Dreams, a UK-based mattress retailer owned by Sun European Partners LLP, for nearly half a billion U.S. dollars.
God wants you to sleep. It's in the Ten Commandments. Check out our take on what the Good Book says about sleep.
After 50 years in the same plant, Southerland is moving into a new 318,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Nashville. Expected to open in late June, the new factory will help the company increase production capacity by more than a third and add up to 40 new jobs.
Check out why Mattman is going to Nashville and what he has to say about staying safe in the face of danger!
“Mattress Mack Has Got Your Back.” Those are the words painted across the side of the new high-water rescue truck that Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale rolled out.
Domestic production is expanding as both Tempur Sealy and Spring Air expand their manufacturing facilities.
Mattman talks about the movie "Inception" and how, even though it's kind of crazy, it has some good points about sleep.
Dr. V of Miskelly Furniture breaks down how his salespeople approach selling mattresses by starting with accessories to build the whole sleep system.
When we have trouble doing certain things and people tell us to sleep on it, they don’t mean it literally. But it should be taken literally! That’s the basis of a TedEd video titled “The benefits of a good night’s sleep,” and it breaks down the science behind why timing out your activities in relation to your sleep can help you get the most out of everything you do.
Imagine a world where augmented reality technology can help create skilled workers and advance their skills by years at a time. That may sound far off, but that’s where manufacturing is heading over the next 5-7 years according to Dijam Panigrahi, co-founder and COO of technology company Gridraster.
Mattman has defeated the Caffeine Chameleon and banished him from his daily habits. Want to know how?
As a retailer in the mattress space—are you carrying the products moms need? If not, you're missing out on a big opportunity.
Do you know the best questions to ask when trying to sell a mattress? If not, have no fear, Mattman is here!
A few weeks ago, Corsicana made a major move to capitalize on the under $1,000 mattress market by acquiring Symbol Mattress. Now, Ron Clevenger, former CEO of Symbol, has been appointed to Corsicana’s board of directors.
The initiative Mattress 4 Kids was formed to not only provide in-need kids with brand new mattresses, but to organize donations for new shoes, toys, and jackets.
iOBED International has become one of the first companies in the mattress industry to win a gold medal in the consumer goods category at the Edison Awards.
If you’re a smaller mattress retailer, do you approach e-commerce in the same way as the top 100 retailers? Do you have an in-house team looking specifically at how your shopping cart is used or which keywords are best for SEO? The obvious answer is no, but if that’s the case, then why is there a mindset in our industry that you have to have a robust e-commerce website?
Purple’s Vice President of Brand and Executive Creative Director Burke Morley offered up a few brand loyalty secrets at an IdeaStreams session hosted by the High Point Market Authority and the Home Furnishings Association.
PureCare has promoted Sarah Bergman to vice president of marketing and product development.
In 2014, Broad River Retail had just a single salesperson who sold more than one million dollars in product during the calendar year. In 2020, Broad River celebrated 51 Million Dollar Writers, and while they set a goal of 60 for 2021, they’re already close to beating their record. So what’s their secret?
Pokemon Go is a mobile app that allows you to “hunt” for the creatures from the hit card game Pokemon. If this rings a bell, it’s probably because, according to Guinness World Records, the app had the highest revenue of any mobile game in its first month Now, the same developer, Niantic, is working on Pokemon Sleep—a game that aims to “transform sleep into entertainment.”
Imagine a scientist wearing a white lab coat standing in the middle of a landfill, garbage as far as the eye can see. The scientist drags away the bumper of an electric Volkswagen to uncover a moldy, muddy mattress. The date on the tag indicates the mattress is 40 years old. Luckily, the year is 2070 and the materials inside the mattress contain encrypted information that allows the scientist to call in a crew, remove the mattress, and properly recycle the foams used to build the bed.
When Nationwide Marketing Group’s Regional Member Meeting opens in Dallas on May 25, it will have been 67 weeks since Nationwide members were together in person for any kind of event. That’s a long time any way you look at it, which is why the group says excitement is building for the upcoming two-day meeting in Dallas (May 25-26)—the first of four Regional Member Meetings hosted by Nationwide.
Mattresses are harder to come by these days, and when you find one, it’s more expensive than it used to be. Here’s why.
What happened when Dos Marcos scored two types of Manta sleep masks? While the boys needed some time to adjust to the feel of the masks, they developed a new tip they’re telling everyone about: practice sleeping with an eye mask.
Broad River Retail is moving their flagship store to a new location later this month, increasing the showroom size by 20% and introducing the first side-by-side Ashley HomeStore and Outlet.
Corsicana has made a major move to capitalize on the under $1,000 mattress market with the acquisition of Symbol Mattress.
Sure, Presidents Day is over, but we took a look back at Doorcounts’ data to see how independent retailers fared and analyzed what they might do during buying holidays to grab more sales.
Last year, Beautyrest launched its Harmony mattress line in partnership with SEAQUAL, a leader in ocean plastic recycling efforts, to help promote cleaner oceans. And since then, it’s become the top-selling line within the Beautyrest portfolio, converting more than 3.8 million plastic bottles from the ocean into luxury fabric in 2020.
For years, Amazon has been turning cost centers into profit drivers, and a furniture assembly program could be another platform play where they develop a service and get so good at it they’re able to sell it to others—and turn that cost center (i.e. furniture assembly) into a profit driver.
Burke Morley, the company’s vice president of brand and executive creative director, is headed to High Point to co-host a webinar that’ll answer that question and dish out some practical tips on how to elevate your business goals.
This article was written by Gabby Quinn (Mark Quinn’s daughter) for the University of Arkansas and is about how school start times could be the answer to better grades and happier kids.
It’s never too early to enlighten the younger generations on the value of sleep, and Simmons seems to have the same idea, as they’ve recently partnered with digital creators and TikTok stars Charli and Dixie D’Amelio on a new mattress aimed at Generation Z.
I always chuckle when I say, “It was all in a day’s work” because I know all work is done during the day. And at night, it’s time for bed! After a hard day's work, I take off the Signature Super Sleep Superhero Suit to put my feet up for some downtime. I adhere to my bedtime routine every night to help me fall asleep as quickly as possible. Even though I have a sleep system that is customized to my habits, it’s still not enough. And I came to realize this over the winter and I wanted to share a story that taught me this lesson.
A local Jimmy John's had employees in Asheville, NC asked applicants to memorize every ingredient on each sandwich. It may sound crazy at first, but there are parts of this process that are pretty smart. And maybe you could use a version of it to help find great salespeople.
The team from Nationwide Marketing Group became a video-making powerhouse during the April Las Vegas market.
In the last year, Tesla’s stock has appreciated over 635%. But there’s a mattress business stock that’s even better than all that tech and Tesla: Sleep Number.
When you get used to something it’s easy to take it for granted. Isn’t that what’s happened to us? But when something gets taken away from you, its absence gives you a deeper sense of appreciation. Think about all of the things we could not do over the past 12 months and how that has sort of become the new norm.
Shifman Mattress has launched a completely redesigned website to simplify the shopping journey for consumers, and Diamond Mattress introduced new mattresses and pillows at the Las Vegas market, including the company’s first natural and eco-friendly mattress collection, Ethos.
Nationwide Furniture and Bedding and PrimeMedia teams will be on hand at the Las Vegas Market to put on their first-ever virtual experience. Listen to learn more about the event.
Live Well was recently honored by the New Mexico Small Business Development Center and Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce at this year’s “Virtual Roundhouse” series.
Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale is at it again, placing a seven-figure wager that the Houston Cougars will win the NCAA’s men’s basketball tournament.
We are a dark-deprived society. Don’t let the darkness scare you! Instead, use it to your advantage in maximizing your sleep!
Do you want to work for “The Man” or build your own personal brand that makes you an incredibly valuable asset to your company? Being an employee of a great business is awesome, but if you make the decision that you are the CEO of your own company even though somebody else owns the building, the approach to your work can be more fulfilling and much more lucrative for you.
We previously reported on the mysterious blank check company Caper’s CEO is involved with, and now Terry Pearce and Tony Pearce, co-founders of Purple Innovation, and Daniel Webb, a former Bank of America tech investment banker, have created a blank check company of their own.
During transitions, people encounter uncertainty. And when a human being's world is in flux, they want assurance of an outcome. Every transition creates an opportunity to amaze or disappoint—it’s a tiny gap where you can fulfill or fail. You win in the transitions. And a transition is the key to unlocking a relationship that will allow you to help people transform their lives.
Most fashion shows don’t begin with four models lying on mattresses and not wearing any of the designer clothes they’re there to celebrate. But, that was exactly the case when Project Runway winner and fashion designer Christian Siriano took Beautyrest’s Black collection to the runway for his new fall/winter ready-to-wear collection.
In an exclusive survey, The FAM polled the mattress industry to find out how many retailers, manufacturers, and suppliers who normally head to Vegas are going April 11th.
Most people don’t associate Albert Einstein with sleep, but the German genius who developed the Theory of Relativity was also highly aware of his sleep needs. He professed to needing 10 hours of sleep each night to properly function.
Yes, you read that headline right. How is that possible? A study by Mount Sinai researchers has the answers.
Purple released its Q4 and 2020 sales results, and they made it rain. The FAM has the skinny.
Brett Thornton offers advice to all who attend Las Vegas Market on ways to be present, be a true friend, and make the experience memorable for all.
From massive supply chain issues to the worldwide effects of a pandemic on the economy, it’s nice to hear that retailers are searching for knowledge and committing to their businesses while looking toward the future. And that’s a large part of why Nationwide Marketing Group’s second Virtual PrimeTime event broke attendance records this month.
Practice makes perfect, right? Actually, it doesn't. Perfect practice makes perfect. If your coach teaches you the wrong way to shoot the basketball and that’s what you work on every day, chances are you’re never going to be the lead scorer. If you learned how to shoot correctly from the beginning, your dream of playing in the NBA could have come true.
Diamond Mattress recently jumped into the luxury bedding business with its Generations collection. The line includes four-models, and there are two compressible, bed-in-a-box options.
In 2016, Deena Gardner was working at the Reverie showroom during the Vegas market when a woman walked in and changed her life forever.
One in 59 children is diagnosed with autism in the U.S., and autism spectrum disorder is one of the fastest-growing developmental disorders in the country. That’s why the annual Ante4Autism Poker event—which raises money to help families and individuals impacted by autism—was started. This year, in order to allow more time for attendees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, the 13th-annual event has been moved to August and will be held during the summer Las Vegas Market.
When it comes to the science of sleep, things can be downright confusing. Luckily for us, there are smart people and companies studying the brain’s functions in depth so we don’t have to. And two of those companies—ChiliSleep and Ebb Therapeutics—just merged to expand their research in multiple areas.
Is sleep fitness the next frontier for the mattress industry? Eight Sleep is betting a big chunk of its latest $40 million funding round that sleep fitness is going to be more than a fad—it’s a movement. The company plans to put a portion of their newfound money toward sleep research.
As “Mattress Mack,” Jim McIngvale of Gallery Furniture has become famous for big bets that generate millions of dollars in press coverage.
Mattman is always learning more. And while studying the various aspects of sleep, he came across some eye-opening facts about caffeine.
Mike Magnuson and Jeff Cassidy of GoodBed.com have been friends for nearly 30 years. The two were hired by the same management consulting firm immediately after college, and their job was to analyze large sets of data to provide key strategic insights to corporate clients. Back then, they never could have imagined that this skill set would one day lead them to start a podcast in the mattress industry.
What exactly is a blank check company and why is Philip Krim, Casper’s CEO, involved? It’s a mystery. All of it.
Mattman has a theory about why people say no so often: You are exhausted. Your brain is so depleted. He offers advice on how you can change that.
What’s the top profit driver for Walmart? It’s not bicycles or big-screen TVs. It’s [gulp] mattresses and furniture.
When it came time for Englander to evaluate the performance of its new Dreamer mattress collection, the company collected and shared feedback from its independent retail partners.
When it came time for Englander to evaluate the performance of its new Dreamer collection, the company collected feedback from its partners.
Did you forget about daylight saving time again? Here's why we reset our clocks twice a year, and why we may want to stop.
Dos Marcos offer their opinion on what’s going to happen to the mattress industry in 2021 and beyond. Don't miss this annual tradition!
I’m not the only one. There were, and are, several mattress superheroes out there. Most of them before my time.
You may be surprised to find out how many hours I have spent scouring the tenth page of google looking for these former sleep superheroes. What I found is they’re all following Superman’s lead. The power to leap a tall building in a single bound! Personally, I’m not a huge fan of Superman. He was born great. He is already strong and fast. Those powers came to him by default.
Bruce Wayne, on the other hand, had to achieve greatness! Granted he was born into wealth, but the mechanical ingenuity and martial arts skills are not a result of being born with a silver spoon in his mouth. We do not all come preprogrammed to somersault while kicking a bad guy while simultaneously firing a bat hook to swing up a ledge while throwing a Batarang to catch another bad guy. He had to train hard for years to learn those skills.
As mattress RSAs, it is critical that we teach everybody about the fundamentals of sleep. You only get one shot a decade, if you’re lucky! They may buy a bed online or from a different store near you.
But if they came to you…
In my origin story, I shared a tidbit about running a 5k for years with the same results, and how putting on a mattress suit forced me to change my strategy. When a customer buys a bed from you, that new mattress will have a similar effect on their very first nighttime routine. First impressions with a new product that we say takes weeks to break in and may not be comfortable right away. You wonder how anybody can have a great night’s sleep on dusk one.
When you take control of your sleep and awaken your superpowers, you will have gone through a transformation. You will become more powerful! Look at whatever is on your to-do list tomorrow and ask yourself, “Is this harder or easier with a good night’s sleep?” Or my favorite side of that coin asks, “How much easier is this to-do list with my superpowers on?”
Have you ever planned out how much sleep you are going to get? This is a super-easy way to test your superpowers. It’s so easy it sounds dumb.
It all started at dawn on Thanksgiving day 2018. Yep. Dawn! Not 3 p.m. on a Friday or 10 a.m. on a Monday. I’m a sleep superhero for crying out loud. Dawn!
The Dream Team sponsors and runs in the annual Mooresville Christian Mission Turkey Trot every year. When the pistol fired to start the 2018 race, a giant crowd of 1,800 people charged through downtown Mooresville, NC! It was awesome!
Some runners like to wear crazy pants, others wore turkey hats, and a few of us on the Dream Team suited up in our promotional mattress costumes leftover from a High School fundraiser earlier that year. For years we wanted to run the races with a twin-size mattress strapped to our backs. Or maybe two of us could carry a king-size mattress the whole race. The suits were an entertaining compromise! We pinned Dream Team shirts to the back of each one to let people know “We are the Dream Team!” It was a lot of fun!
A book that was written to help mattress and furniture retailers attract more foot traffic and build a meaningful brand has become a number one Amazon bestseller in multiple categories, including retail industry.
Written by mattress veterans and podcast co-hosts Mark Kinsley and Mark Quinn, the book is described as a guidebook for independent retailers who are looking for ways to catapult their businesses forward.
Featuring more than 70 foot-traffic-driving ideas gathered from real mattress store operators, Come Back to Bed has generated 33 five-star reviews on Amazon.
Marketing your business is an essential part of telling your story and attracting customers. You won’t succeed if consumers don’t know you exist.
But your marketing needs to break through the noise in order to capture attention. How can you do this?
Creative thinking is where it starts. Creative thinking is critical when it comes to setting yourself apart from the competition. For some, thinking outside the box comes naturally, and for others, it’s tough. If you lack creative juices, there are five steps you can follow to help you to unlock creative ideas that will support your business goals. We call this the HATCH method.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said your brand is what people say about your business when you’re not in the room.
The best way to know what people truly think about your business is your reviews.
Today, internet reviews are one of the most powerful forces shaping consumer behavior. People want to see third-party sources that praise your company for its service or product. Reviews can often make the difference between someone choosing to give you their business or not.
It's time to stop calling sleep a pillar of health. Sleep is not standing there like The Queen's Guard wearing a fuzzy black hat beside fellow soldiers diet and exercise. Sleep is the foundation of health, with diet and exercise resting on top of it. Eating good food and getting plenty of exercise only go so far without good sleep.
Let's talk about food first.
Even before COVID-19, few industries had been more disrupted than the mattress business.
For decades, people shopping for a mattress visited a retail store. They’d test a few beds, pay for the mattress, strap that white rectangle to the top of their station wagon, and head home.
The business model for mattresses stayed constant because beds are bulky and hard to move. Manufacturers would ship products to a retailer’s warehouse, and retailers would sell to consumers, who hauled the mattress home or had it delivered. There weren’t many ways to skip a step.
But today, technology and the rise of ecommerce have changed the mattress industry for good. People no longer need to go to a physical store to purchase a mattress. And now, with the coronavirus pandemic further exacerbating these trends, we’re forced to wonder where the industry will go from here. How will traditional mattress retailers survive?
During the day toxic junk builds up in your brain.
All that gunk needs to be flushed out, especially a protein called amyloid beta, or your risk of Alzheimer's increases. The glymphatic system is the apparatus that flushes all that funk.
The main waste product the glymphatic system is rinsing down the drain is a protein that accumulates in the brain of Alzheimer's patients. That brain toilet called the glymphatic system is 60 percent more productive when we are asleep.
Studies show that people with a genetic pre-disposition for Alzheimer's were able to significantly reduce or delay their risk of getting the disease by simply sleeping better.
Roger Cunningham owns The Bed Store in Knoxville, Tennessee. “Our success is because of authenticity,” he said. “Our slogan is, ‘We’ll even TUCK you in.’”
TUCK is an acronym for Thoughtful, Understanding, Compassion, and Knowledge. That word and the culture it creates transcends Cunningham’s mattress business. Roger and his team always want to make sure customers get the product they need, not the one with the biggest commission. He also knows customers are scared of mattress salespeople. This fear was once a barrier to purchase—and The Bed Store’s website helped customers overcome it.
Domestic mattress producers could see upticks in business, especially at the low-end, after anti-dumping duties led to a dramatic decline in imported mattresses.
Back in 2018, a group of countries led by Vietnam was importing approximately 8,000 mattresses into the United States.
Not a big deal.
But when that number grew to 4.2 million the very next year, the mattress industry took notice. Those leading the charge uncovered unfair business practices called dumping, in which foreign entities subsidize products and sell them into the U.S. at unfair prices.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought about many challenges for retailers. Even before COVID-19, being a retailer meant charting rough waters and navigating challenges caused by the rise of ecommerce. The sad truth is that not all retailers have made it through and there are many still struggling.
For those of you who are wondering how you can navigate the current environment, the number one thing you can do to survive is: decide to be different.
Why is being different important? We live in an attention economy. If you capture people’s attention, you make profits. Fail to make people look and listen, and business will suffer. Being different can set you apart from your competitors, it establishes your unique value and strengthens your connection with customers.
In June 2020, Gwyneth Paltrow launched “This Smells Like My Vagina,” a candle that started as a joke, but became a huge hit when it sold out on her Goop.com website. She described the candle idea as “a little punk rock.”
Naturally, her next step was getting into the mattress business.
The earliest recorded use of pillows dates back to ancient Mesopotamia -- around 7,000 BC. Back then, pillows were a status symbol, and the more pillows you owned, the more affluent you were.
A lot has changed about pillows since those times, but two things have stayed the same:
- They’re still used to help with neck, back, and shoulder pain.
- Each person has their own (sometimes very particular) pillow preference.
Luckily, today, there are more ways than ever to help sleepy customers find the right pillow for the job. And you have an opportunity to sell multiple pillows to increase your sales ticket, because it’s not just the affluent who use multiple pillows anymore.
Here’s what 10 mattress industry experts had to say about selling more pillows:
If you want to get ripped, invest in your sleep.
Lifting heavy weights damages muscle tissue and tears down complex chains of proteins housed within muscles. All this havoc causes inflammation, which is a natural response—at that point a chemical messenger system tells your brain to deal with the damage.
When those chemicals head in for the rehab, it’s like your body turns into an episode of HGTV's Fixer to Fabulous. A crew races in to remove all the damaged cells and tissue and begins the repair process. At the end of the show, during the big reveal, the homeowner pulls up and realizes the builders knocked out a wall to make the house bigger.
Cook some spaghetti, shove it into a thin rectangular container and place it in the refrigerator overnight. Dump the pasta onto the countertop.
What you’ll be looking at resembles Labyrinth, a mattress material Enkev Natural Fibres created that’s been nominated for a 2021 Green Products Award.
Today’s consumers research and shop online before they head into your store. The evil side of the internet is filled with trolls and misinformation. This series is your how-to guide for addressing mattress misnomers that people might ask you about after they’ve sifted through the worldwide web.
A Google search for “memory foam sleeps hot” produces 52 million results. It’s no secret that the dense material has a tendency to retain heat. Many consumers have suffered hot sleep on a foam mattress or, when researching online, they’re finding information telling them to watch out for beds that make you boil.
On the hit TV show Friends, there’s a well-known scene where Rachel, Ross, and Chandler try to carry a sofa up a flight of stairs and Ross keeps screaming “PIVOT, PIVOT, PIVOT!” when they try to round a corner.
In the end, the frustrated trio ends up getting the sofa stuck in the stairwell, and scenarios like this are one reason king-size box springs really don’t exist. But having to buy two twin XL box springs or split adjustables doesn’t always sit well with consumers, so independent sleep products manufacturer Southerland added a one-piece king adjustable power bed base to its American Adjustables product collection.
She unties her pink sweater exposing a mass of cleavage, her breasts erupting, barely held in by a lacy black bra and buttons that are about to burst.
Another bite of the burger and she’s on her back, disconnecting the fabric cord clipped to her panties.
Needing a drink, she drapes herself across the front seat as she sucks on a red straw. Cooled off, she retreats into the back seat for another lip-biting session with her favorite hot burger.
No, I’m not watching porn. It’s an accurate description of a Carl's Jr commercial promoting their Southwest Patty Melt sandwich.
The spot didn’t make me want to run through the drive-through, but it sure did catch my attention. It brings up an old debate: does sex really sell?
According to the research conducted by John Wertz, University of Illinois Advertising Professor, it can definitely grab your attention but in most cases, the benefit of using sex in advertising stops there. “We found that people remember ads with sexual appeals more than those without, but that effect doesn't extend to the brands or products that are featured in the ads." Audiences remember the ads. But they don’t remember what the sexy spots were advertising.
When salespeople educate mattress shoppers about how to get better sleep, they’re making each interaction more emotional, meaningful, and beneficial. Brush up on sleep knowledge and send customers home with a great mattress and a lifetime of better sleep.
1. Don't Trust Most Doctors. During four years of medical school, most doctors get less than two hours of training about the field of sleep. This is according to researcher Raymond Rosen. If you read two books about sleep, you will be more knowledgeable than most medical professionals.
Listen to hear the other five sleep insights.
Rachel is standing in front of a whitewashed wooden wall flanked by an Avocado Green Pillowtop Mattress. She adjusts her phone camera to fix the framing for the Zoom call. Behind her the Southern California sun spills through large hazy windows—that soft glow is frost applied to the panes or the famous Los Angeles smog that hovers over highways like cotton sheets fluttering toward a freshly made bed.
It’s 11:30 a.m. and Rachel is my Avocado Mattress Virtual Experience Specialist. We chit chat about the weather, she talks about her sons who wrestle, and then tells the story of a spirit-filled Christmas night that ended with an overturned couch and a mad dash to wrap all the gifts the next morning. We laugh and joke and then dig into the details about the organic sleep system in the background.
I scheduled the VX appointment to see for myself what Avocado’s Brett Thornton and his team had cooked up in the 8,000 square foot space that, pre-COVID, was filled with employees.
What if the FDA approved a new pill that reduced the number of days your kid was sick?
That one pill also improves their mood and raises athletic performance to new levels. Also, it boosts test scores and delivers a better sense of well-being. Do you want to know more? Of course, you would.
According to Web MD, this is all possible, and the best part? It’s not a pill, it’s sleep.
Imagine this: You won $300,000 on a scratch-off lottery ticket. When the high dies down and you realize you won’t quite be able to live like The Great Gatsby, you decide to put half the money into your savings account for a rainy day. But that still leaves you with $150,000.
Thinking of all of the things you could do with the money, you remember that it’s always been your dream to open a mattress store.
So, how do you do it? What do you need to consider? Is “location, location, location!” the only thing you need to think about?
This exact hypothetical question was posed to several mattress industry experts, and they each weighed in on what is most important to focus on.
Welcome to The FAM.
This is the world’s first audio-everywhere media hub for the mattress and furniture industry.
Led by experts who deliver fun and actionable information in a digital-first format, it's a gathering place for the mattress industry—like a campfire where you trade stories, gain perspective, share laughs, and walk away feeling enriched and connected.
We’re on a mission to serve you by communicating and curating everything you need to know about the mattress business. Our team of bedding experts are champions for the mattress industry and we work to connect sleep products to the life-changing benefits of better rest.
Here at the FAM, everyone is family. We’re glad you’re here. You can count on us to bring you the news and trends that impact your business.