If you’ve ever tried to buy a mattress in a shop, you’ll know what an undignified experience it can be. But in the past two years, the industry – valued at $13bn in the US – has been disrupted by a new breed of online mattress retailers.
“People really got the whole inconvenience of going into a showroom and having to lie on a mattress awkwardly with a salesman drifting around, trying to sell you something,” Leesa’s European managing director, Richard Tucker says. “You’d roll around on it and say yep that’s quite comfortable, but you haven’t actually slept on it.”
When Leesa launched in 2014, founded by serial entrepreneur David Wolfe and Jamie Diamonstein who had run his family’s mattress company for 20 years, it was one of three companies in the US offering something new to mattress customers. They’re available online, cutting out the awkward showroom, the mattress is compacted into a box so it’s easily transportable (and manoeuvrable up the stairs), and there’s a 100-night risk-free trial. The proposition resonated with the US public and Leesa was turning over $35m (£28m) in its first year of trading.
“At that stage, they knew they were onto something and we launched in the UK in September 2015,” Tucker adds. “ Sales accelerated dramatically in the second half of 2016. We’re seeing that growth into this year as well. I’m sure most of our competitors would say the same [but] I think there’s plenty of room for all of us. We’re effectively setting the standards for the rest of the industry.”
The sector has become more crowded since 2014, with Eve, Casper, and Simba all taking a slice of the pie. The need to stand out from the crowd has been key in securing the success of the business. Diamonstein’s expertise is a rarity and the founders are committed to making a social impact. For every 10 Leesa mattresses sold, one is donated to charity. The US team has given over 10,000 to homeless shelters and women’s refuges so far, and in the UK have donated to both St Mungo’s and the Single Homeless Project in London, and The Mustard Tree in Manchester.
Social media has also played a crucial role in the company’s marketing strategy. Leesa’s Facebook community is now 87,900-strong globally and grown to 10,000 in the UK. It’s also been a helpful channel for the customer service team, who are regularly contacted via the direct messaging tool. Such visibility allows the company to pre-empt wider problems and adjust their approach accordingly. Foam mattresses can be a little harder in the winter, for example, so Leesa will now remind customers to keep the house a little warmer on delivery day.
Leesa mattresses range in price from £390 to £740 and customers are typically in the ABC1 category, although Craig Jackson, Leesa’s head of marketing, insists “our ideal customer is anyone who needs a better night’s sleep”.
“Facebook especially, has been really important,” Jackson adds. “With the targeting options, we’ve found a really efficient way to reach the right people, at the right time.”
Influencer marketing has also played a big part in boosting the brand’s profile: US swimmer Michael Phelps is a fan. In 2015, Leesa also received a $9m investment from private equity firm TitleCard Capital, whose investors include Kate Hudson and Jimmy Kimmel. In the UK, bloggers specialising in the lifestyle, interiors and travel sectors have been sent mattresses and invited to write a blog post around their thoughts on the buying, unboxing, and sleeping experience. This boosts brand awareness across these bloggers’ social media networks and also provides a resource for consumers researching mattresses online. “When people are researching something they’re going to have for eight years, it’s really important [they feel confident],” Jackson adds.
Disrupting a market as established as sleep can take some explaining, which makes this sort of rich content ideal, Tucker says. Tools such as Facebook’s carousel and canvas ads have also been particularly helpful.
“There are a lot of messages to get across in our advertising” he adds. “It’s a mattress, it’s rolled up and delivered in a box, there’s a 100-night free trial. It’s a Which? Best buy and is approved by Good Housekeeping. Facebook is pretty unique in being able to get a complex message across and then targeting that pretty efficiently to an audience.”
It’s an approach that is paying off internationally. Leesa recently launched its German business and has ambitious plans to expand into several more European countries by the end of 2017. The universality of Facebook has meant their marketing approach hasn’t needed to change, in spite of adding the newer markets.
“To have that same ad format, same platform, the same targeting options, with the same predictable responses and cost of sale … it’s fantastic. From the perspective of a relatively small business [that’s] growing quickly – and internationally – to be able to do that is quite something.”
