E-commerce mattress shop gets physical
How astounding is it that mattress industry disruptor Casper has generated $600 million (U.S.) in revenues over four years? This to worldwide customers who rarely ever get to have a lie-down on its products before buying.
So imagine what’s next for the New York-based e-commerce company and its first-ever permanent location in Canada, the Casper Sleep Shop, just opened at Sherway Gardens.
Like many online-only companies testing bricks-and-mortar retail — think Frank and Oak — Casper still expects most of its customers to buy online. In fact, if you buy here you have the option of taking your mattress and pillow home yourself, or getting it shipped for free like online buyers.
“What we did with mattress shopping online, we want to do here as well,” says Nicole Tapscott, senior director with the company and general manager of Casper Canada.
Indeed, while most mattress shops have a bland, showroom approach to style, this 2,300square-foot location aims for cosy.
The Ikea vibe includes pale wood and bedroom-like vignettes. Art pieces on the wall and objects such as books and roller skates on display make customers feel at home.
Highlighted is the company’s minimal — and minimalist — product line.
Just like online, the Casper, a soft and cosy mid-range mattress, sells for $1,175 for a queen. There’s more oohing and aahing over the Wave for $2,500. (The company’s discount mattress, the Essential, at $675, doesn’t have a presence here.)
Then there’s a wall of extras — out on display, not hidden behind the counter as part of the upsell — which includes some very soft pillows ($85 — $100), sheets ($140 — $210) and the Mattress Protector ($95 — $125). The baby-soft cashmere throw ($250) in a grey-blue is the only unique in-store product. This disrupting company dates back to 2014, when a group of entrepreneurs with backgrounds in product engineering, design and e-commerce decided to do things differently in the mattress industry. The company grew rapidly via online sales — bolstered by free shipping and mattresses that arrive in a box one would expect could house a microwave.
A perfect fit for the booming condo market, among others.
Tapscott, a Canadian who joined the company’s New York office in late 2015, was among its first 100 employees. Casper now employs about 400. The company sold — and shipped for free — in Canada just months after launch. But right away, Canadians took to the product. Orders came in from north of the border, and when Casper did things such as run pop-ups or do its Nap Tour, sleepy Canadians went for it.
“Any activation we did had even more success here than in the U.S.,” Tapscott says.
Obviously, trying out a mattress before you buy is best, so the company increasingly worked to get products in front of customers.
That included setting up 17 longer-term pop-ups across the U.S. In February, Casper launched its first permanent location in New York City.
But this location at Sherway has “been driven purely by market demand,” says Tapscott, who moved back home to run things here.
That will soon entail the opening of a Canadian head office — precise location yet to be disclosed — and more retail locations. The next will be in downtown Toronto, and expect openings in Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal too, likely all within the year. The company will begin doing some manufacturing in Canada soon as well.
Meanwhile, Casper just partnered with furniture retailer EQ3, which will be displaying mattresses and pillows in some of its stores, plus selling them online.
That’s in addition to its existing partnership with Indigo.
“The entire experience is antiquated,” Tapscott says of the old way of buying mattresses.