Many online direct-to-consumer mattress companies made a big move into brick-and-mortar stores over the past year, and that has been a recipe for success for Puffy.
The company hired retail general manager and industry veteran Brent Biermann in January 2022 to help develop Puffy’s brick-and-mortar business. He tells Bedding News Now that Puffy went on shelves in stores in May of ’22 and things have been going “extremely well.”
“DTC brands are hot, and they’re not going to go away,” he says. “I’ve been asked this over the years, and I’ve worked for legacy companies in the vending side. Legacy brands are important, but the consumer that’s shopping for a mattress today goes online. And what they see are DTC brands being advertised. Review companies pop up, they see brands like Puffy and those are the brands they’re going to want.”
The flagship memory foam Puffy Cloud Mattress, and popular hybrid models the Puffy Lux Hybrid Mattress and Puffy Royal Hybrid Mattress, are endorsed by the American Chiropractic Association for their back and spine support. The Puffy Monarch Hybrid Mattress is Puffy’s luxury-plush model, designed and manufactured in the U.S. with CertiPUR-US certified foams.
The brand has also received multiple Best Mattress awards from CNET, Forbes, People, HGTV and others.
“Puffy is positioning itself to be a luxury hybrid boxed-bed brand,” he explains. “We want to differentiate ourselves. Initially, Puffy started out with all-foam beds, and that became expensive during Covid so we switched to three hybrids and one foam bed. We don’t want to be in the race to the bottom with pricing.”
Puffy wasn’t the first DTC brand to enter retail stores, but after the pandemic, Biermann says the owners felt like it was the right time to take the leap. Since then, he says he’s had to hire many independent reps and is still looking for more.
The big news at the company is what Biermann calls Puffy 2.0 — the launch of quilted hybrids.
The new hybrid line, with advanced features such as moisture-wicking alpaca wool, responsive latex and cooling gel-infused memory foam, offers three models with 12-inch, 14-inch and 16-inch profiles, each providing a distinct feel. A stand-out feature of their hybrid models is the Cool Touch Quilted Cloud Cover, which is luxuriously made with cooling yarns and enhances the cloudlike feel synonymous with the Puffy brand.
“Adding Puffy’s award-winning hybrid and memory foam collection to their in-store range therefore offers brick-and-mortar retailers a highly competitive edge,” Biermann says. “With demand rising for hybrid mattresses among U.S. consumers, Puffy’s retail partners can maximize their sales potential and cater to a broad audience by offering the brand’s luxurious sleep solutions at compelling margins.”
Puffy partner retailers also have access to exclusive brand-building support that is targeted at growing store traffic and increasing market exposure. They receive a boost to their in-store operations through advantageous wholesale pricing and support to meet delivery demand, as well as an increase in digital reach with a listing on Puffy’s online store locator.
“We feel it’s very prudent for a brick-and-mortar retailer to add DTC brands to their floors,” he says “We don’t require large real estate — we can get it done with one to three slots. Even though it’s for a small investment on the retailer’s part, the return can be very high. Our product stands on its own. But the real value to adding Puffy is the incremental traffic we create off of our dealer locator off our store locator on our website.”
Biermann says the store has a MAP agreement that both online and physical retailers follow ardently so that no one gets undercut on pricing.
“We are mostly in sleep shops and small stores but we’re starting to get into larger-scale retailers,” Biermann says. “My philosophy is more of a selective distribution approach. For a DTC brand, we have great margins — in the 60 range — and we’re very easy to work with.”
He advises that retailers give multiple DTC brands at least some real estate on their floors, because if they are not doing that they are missing sales. And retailers shouldn’t be worried about bringing DTC brands into their stores.
Any other advice?
“What I’ve noticed over the years is retail peaks have been more pronounced during holidays, and then it’s been falling off,” he says. “My advice is to stay the course, and never stop advertising. If you’re a retailer, continue to focus on in-store events and be consistent.”
