Now that we’ve established that Amazon is a dominant mattress retailer, much larger than many in the industry realize (see my earlier column here), our next step is to analyze the Amazon mattress shopper.
Thanks to our latest Consumer Insights Now research conducted by Dana French, one of my long-time research colleagues, we can identify key characteristics of Amazon’s mattress shoppers. Some are probably not surprising to you. But others are quite surprising, even alarming.
For starters, you would think that Amazon’s mattress buyers skew on the young side, and you would be right about that. When we asked mattress shoppers where they plan to purchase, 15% of Gen Z consumers, those between the ages of 18 and 28, said Amazon. That was the same figure for younger millennials, those between the ages of 29 and 36.
Interest in Amazon tails off for older consumers, with 7% of older millennials (ages 37-44), 11% of Gen X consumers (45-60) and just 1% of baby boomers (61-plus) saying they plan to buy a mattress for their primary bedroom on Amazon.
The scary news is that those younger consumers, particularly the Gen Z shoppers who are most interested in buying a mattress on Amazon, have low expectations about how long the mattress in their primary bedroom should last.
Five percent of those Gen Z shoppers expect that mattress to last for just one year. And almost one-third of them (31%) expect that mattress to last from two to four years. That means that a shocking 36% of those shoppers expect to keep that mattress for four years or less.
In contrast, only 3% of baby boomers expect a new mattress for their primary bedroom to last for four years or less.
This is one of the reasons, I think, why Amazon is selling so many low-priced mattresses. Key Amazon shoppers are not looking for their primary bedroom mattress to last very long. And why should they? Those younger consumers are used to replacing their cell phones every year. They have more of a disposable mindset when it comes to key purchases, including mattresses. But mattresses, of all products, should not be quickly discarded. Our sleep is too important for that mindset.
In earlier research, we asked mattress shoppers about the age of the mattress that they are planning to replace. Younger consumers are much more likely to be replacing younger mattresses. Fully one-third of Gen Z consumers said they were replacing a mattress that was up to four years old, while 37% of younger millennials said they were replacing a mattress that was up to four years old. For baby boomers, the figure was just 5%.
Those younger consumers are telling us that they aren’t looking for an extended life for their mattress. And remember: These are mattresses for their primary bedroom— the mattresses they will be sleeping on. We are not talking about guest bedroom mattresses that may only see sporadic use.
The picture here is clear and disturbing. Gen Z consumers, notably, don’t expect a primary bedroom mattress to last very long. And they are replacing those mattresses after only a few years. That’s probably not surprising, because they often aren’t paying very much for those mattresses, given Amazon’s strength at the low end of the market.
The key question is how long younger consumers will continue to play this low-expectations game when it comes to their mattresses. I would think one experience with a mattress lasting just a few years might lead those consumers to buy a better mattress. But the fact that they are replacing young mattresses suggests otherwise.
I’ve used the term “starter beds” to describe the inexpensive mattresses that some younger consumers are buying at Amazon for their bedrooms. But replacing one starter bed with another isn’t better for those consumers, even though it does rack up another unit sale for Amazon, and it does help Amazon boost its mattress sales.
How can we get younger consumers to buy better mattresses? Let’s get to work on that challenge.
