Retailers aren't connecting with consumers, studies show
David Perry, Executive editor -- Furniture Today, July 14, 2008
Bedding consumers and bedding retailers sometimes look at mattress shopping in very different ways. And since it is the consumers we are serving, their views must drive the shopping experience.
Two Furniture/Today research projects illuminate some startling “disconnects” between how consumers and retailers view key bedding issues. And that dissonance is almost certainly costing us mattress sales.
It is no secret that consumers want comfort when they are shopping for a new mattress. Consumers gave us that message loud and clear when we joined forces with HGTV earlier this year and sounded out thousands of consumers on various mattress shopping issues. Nothing is more important, those consumers said, than comfort when choosing one mattress over another.
But what is surprising is what our retail bedding survey revealed about how retailers approach this issue. One-quarter of the furniture stores responding to our survey said they only tout comfort “sometimes” in their advertising. Shockingly, 42% of bedding specialists said they only tout comfort “sometimes” in their advertising.
Our retail survey also asked those retailers how frequently they talked about comfort on the sales floor. The results were better, but still showed room for improvement: 94% of the furniture retailers always tout comfort on the sales floor, compared with 87% of the specialists.
So let's put those findings in perspective: A significant percentage of furniture stores and bedding specialty stores often fail to talk in their advertising or (to a lesser extent) on the sales floor about the issue that is most important to consumers. I'm struggling to understand how retail sales associates can fail to talk about comfort when they are demonstrating beds. What are they talking about? Long warranties? Argh.
Our retail survey also found that consumers are not nearly as interested in bedding brands as the retailers are in promoting them. Brands have their place, of course, but several other mattress attributes are more important, consumers say.
One of those key attributes is support, cited as important by 85% of consumers. Yet significant numbers of furniture stores and bedding specialty stores only tout support “sometimes” in their advertising.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that consumers only care about low prices. While consumers do select retailers based on the perceived competitiveness of their product offerings, once those consumers are in the store price is much less important to them, our research suggests. Only 26% of consumers say that the lowest price is important in choosing one mattress over another.
Bedding retailers who want to connect with consumers need to talk their language. Failure to do so will result in a big penalty: Lost sales.
Contact David Perry at dperry@reedbusiness.com
