I came across a recent Huffington post article that I thought was intriguing. It discusses Loom and Leaf specifically and the “mattress wars” generally. I think it is just more evidence that people believe the standard retail mattress business model is broken. The fact that more and more companies are entering the online-only space means that a LOT of people agree with this notion. I believe that the trend of acceptance of this notion will only continue steadily over time. While I understand that the big companies aren’t too concerned about this in the meantime, I don’t really agree with their position. The fact that there are so many start-ups in this space means that the incumbents should be worried, in my opinion.
I believe Loom & Leaf has positioned themselves a little bit differently from the other mattress startups for a couple of reasons. For one, they are a pure memory foam mattress, unlike the hybrid mattresses that we see from other companies. Some people just love memory foam (while others hate it no matter what), so I think it makes a lot of good business sense to target memory foam specifically. Second, Loom and Leaf seems to be going after a comparison to Tempur-Pedic specifically, which typically means a comparison to a much higher price point. I think as time progresses, that will only become the case more and more.
We’ve seen the online retailers attack the lower and middle price points. Now, I think the next logical step would be for companies to attack the luxury market. Lastly, it looks like the company is trying to separate itself as not being a “bed in a box.” I see nothing wrong with shipping in a box, as it does have a lot of benefits. It does show a little bit of extra luxury to have in-home delivery and setup, however.
I think we’ve seen just about every online startup have success so far. I think that will continue to be the case until the market gets really saturated. Check out the Huffington Post Article on Loom & Leaf here.