In 2025, the digital landscape accelerated opportunities for mattress retailers willing to adapt. Consumer behavior changed faster than many expected, search platforms rewrote the rules as fast as consumers changed their habits and marketing channels that were once “nice-to-haves” became essential growth drivers.
Throughout the year, we dug into the forces shaping this evolution: visibility, trust, empathy, data and the growing influence of AI. Now, as the industry prepares for another cycle of rapid change, here’s how you can transform these shifts into momentum.
Your Google Business Profile is your new front door
Shoppers now meet your brand before they ever step inside the store – through your Google Business Profile. And yes, they judge you instantly. Consistent updates and quick responses to reviews have become table stakes.
The retailers who win search traffic are the ones treating their profile as a living, breathing sales tool — not a static business card.
2026 Must-Do. Treat your Google Business Profile like a weekly maintenance check. Keep hours, location and product info current, answer questions fast and share fresh, relevant content to claim – and keep – top local search positions.
Seasonal advertising works best when it never stops working for you
Holiday clicks feel good, but in 2025 the smartest retailers learned how to stretch seasonal momentum far beyond the moment. When campaigns tapped into seasonal emotions and evergreen needs, they earned a customer relationship that lasted long after the promotion ended.
Seasonality isn’t a date anymore. It’s a mindset, and retailers who plan for emotional triggers, not just calendar triggers, will win.
2026 Must-Do. Build seasonal campaigns that ladder into year-round messaging. Connect each promotion to an evergreen need, retarget holiday traffic long after the event and let seasonal moments fuel your full-year growth strategy.
Small digital upgrades can produce outsized revenue
One of the biggest surprises of the past year? Retailers don’t need a full website overhaul to see meaningful gains. Minor improvements – the kind that take hours, not months – consistently delivered major lifts in performance.
- Cleaner calls-to-action reduce hesitation
- Streamlined navigation sends visitors deeper into the purchase journey
- Page speed and clarity, along with updated imagery, help shoppers understand products faster
Across the board, retailers discovered that a handful of intentional fixes outperform even the flashiest redesign. Big wins from small, smart decisions – repeated consistently.
2026 Must-Do: Conduct quarterly micro-audits of your site. Refresh hero images, tighten product copy, simplify navigation paths and test new calls-to-action. Small optimizations executed regularly will outperform a full rebuild done once every few years.
AI search tools redefine how customers find you
AI assisted search is now happening in real time on consumer devices. Whether they’re asking a voice assistant for “the best hybrid mattress for back pain” or relying on AI summaries inside search results, consumers have answers before they ever reach a website.
Retailers who optimize for this shift – with AI readable content, structured data, rich product information and conversational phrasing – are the ones surfacing first in these new discovery moments. The goal is no longer simply ranking. It’s becoming the trusted answer.
AI assisted search is rewriting how customers find, compare and choose where to buy.
2026 Must-Do: Optimize every product and educational page for AI discovery. Use structured data, natural language phrasing, rich FAQs and clearly defined product attributes so AI tools can understand – and highlight – your expertise before your competitors.
Winning the search results you don’t own
Visibility – not traffic – is the new measure of influence. As search platforms deliver more answers directly on the results page, shoppers are gathering information long before they ever reach a website. These zero-click moments are a new stage of discovery – and retailers who show up there first shape the shopper’s decision before the competition enters the picture.
Clear Q&A content, structured data and authoritative page architecture help your expertise surface directly inside these AI powered results. The retailers gaining momentum are designing for this shift – and earning trust before the customer ever lands on their site.
When you win the moments without a click, you earn the right to win the ones with a click.
2026 Must-Do: Build content that answers shopper questions instantly. Add schema to every key page, write clear Q&A sections and ensure your expertise is easy for search engines to surface – even when the shopper never leaves the results page.
Marketing strategy is a discipline, not a guessing game
Consistency is one of the strongest differentiators in mattress retail. Retailers who moved away from scattered tactics and built intentional, integrated marketing plans saw the payoff almost immediately – steadier traffic, more predictable sales cycles and clearer insight into what actually moves the needle with their customers.
A smart strategy doesn’t trap you. It frees you. When the market shifts – and it will – structured planning gives you the clarity and confidence to adapt without losing momentum. In a category as competitive and fast-moving as mattresses, discipline is your superpower.
2026 Must-Do: Build a quarterly marketing roadmap that aligns your content, promotions, ad spend and messaging. Review performance monthly, refine the plan and let structure – not guesswork – guide your growth.
Transforming shopper psychology into a conversion machine
Mattress shopping is emotional long before it’s transactional. Shoppers worry about choosing wrong, struggle to compare materials and often feel overwhelmed by conflicting claims. Those hesitation points – not your competitors – are what stall purchases.
Retailers who understand this psychology are redefining the path to purchase. They’re investing in trust-building content, clearer digital journeys and teams trained to guide rather than pressure. The result? Fewer abandoned carts, more confident shoppers and stronger in-store close rates. When retailers reduce uncertainty, conversions rise – without relying on discounts.
Trust isn’t a soft skill. It’s a sales strategy.
2026 Must-Do: Map your customer’s decision journey and identify every point of hesitation. Use trust triggers, educational content, transparent policies and well-trained staff to replace doubt with confidence at every step.
First-party data is your most valuable asset
As cookies disappear and ad platforms limit what marketers can see, first-party data is the most stable, future-proof resource in a retailer’s toolkit. Retailers who proactively collect information through quizzes, subscriber funnels, SMS programs and loyalty initiatives are building an owned audience no platform change can take away.
First-party data delivers richer insights, stronger targeting and a direct line to the customer that can’t be disrupted by shifting algorithms or rising ad costs. It’s not an add-on anymore — it’s a defendable, competitive moat.
2026 Must-Do: Build intentional pathways for customers to opt in. Use quizzes, gated guides, SMS incentives and loyalty rewards to grow a high-quality, permission-based audience you own rather than rent.
Empathy – the skill that separates good retailers from great ones
One of the clearest lessons of the year: empathy converts. As online expectations spill onto showroom floors, shoppers now expect the same clarity, reassurance and responsiveness from people as they do from websites. Retailers who train teams to listen, validate concerns and communicate transparently see measurable lifts in sales immediately.
Empathy transforms floor teams into strategic assets. It reduces friction, builds trust faster and creates the kind of human connection that can’t be replicated. In a category where shoppers feel vulnerable and uncertain, empathy is a true competitive advantage.
Connection isn’t a bonus. It’s a differentiator.
2026 Must-Do: Invest in empathy training as rigorously as product training. Help your teams practice listening skills, objection handling and confidence-building language – the tools that turn anxious shoppers into committed buyers.
As we move into 2026, one truth stands above the rest: digital maturity is doing what matters with intention. Retailers who embrace clarity, empathy, data and strategic discipline will outperform those who wait for the market to tell them what to do next. The industry isn’t slowing down, and neither are your customers.
Success in 2026 belongs to the retailers ready to move with momentum and lead with confidence
