When the first internet purchase was made, it made sense; a book or an airline ticket was sufficiently specific and fungible to avoid buyer’s remorse. In the ensuing decades, the internet has brought wrenching changes throughout nearly every aspect of commerce. When I began hearing about online mattress sales, I was initially skeptical. How to overcome the huge shipping cost? How to address the relatively personal preferences?
It turns out the father and daughter team behind Luxi may have cracked the code. David and Shannon Farley pulled the covers back on their business model during an enlightening chat.
David has been making mattresses in the Los Angeles area for 29 years. The company for which he worked was originally involved in healthcare, but it eventually evolved into a more consumer-facing business. Trained as an engineer, David’s designs enabled post-surgery patients, burn victims and others with serious physical problems to get needed sleep. The company was sold, and David launched Luxi with his daughter, bringing the old and new together. Shannon adds her millennial online and social media sensibility.
Within the $14 billion bedding industry, the group of online competitors is growing.
The Farleys readily admit there are a fairly sizable number of companies in the online mattress space. David had a well-conceived tripartite answer when I asked about Luxi’s unique selling proposition (USP).
“The premise is that one mattress fits everyone,” states David. “This is a false premise and an insult to consumer’s intelligence. We all differ in weight, mass, shape, preferences. We’re all different, thankfully.” All the competitors offer a single solution, whereas Luxi mattresses are designed so that once in the home the consumer can reconfigure the mattress components for firm, medium or soft. The Luxi mattress is built in Southern California and features four layers of foam, memory foam and latex and a patent-pending Support Balancing Technology layer that enhances the softness and support within the layers. Luxi offers split mattresses in king and queen sizes, thereby keeping sleeping couples happy.
David discovered that mattresses are actually hard to give away, based on a charity project the Farleys established several years before launching Luxi.
As to the third Luxi USP, the company offers a 1000 day pledge of ongoing support for the customer. Not only is a registered sleep health educator available to guide the buying experience, but the expert is available to the customer for years after the purchase. This ongoing engagement with the customer testifies to David’s assertion that he is “less interested in changing the purchasing experience than we are in changing the sleeping experience.”
She has developed a “50/50 referral program,” with fifty dollars going to the original purchaser and an equivalent amount to the first referred buyer. Shannon points out the Luxi website has garnered strong reviews, and the product appeals to a millenial’s affinity for hand-on customization.
The traditional brick and mortar mattress retail marketplace has added more features to the product, which compounds information and choice, which is often overwhelming for the consumer.
There is no question on the importance of sleep, of which we all seem to be getting less than we need.
“Sleep is our secret weapon for success. Sleep fuels our dreams and ideas and invigorates the body and mind. The wages of hard work and insufficient sleep is burnout. The return on an investment in sleep is achieving our potential,” said Farley.
David concludes our chat with an insightful comment. He points out that his online “competition is in the marketing side, not the product.”
I will be testing the Luxi mattress in the coming months, and I will let you know what I think. In the interim, let me know your thoughts about your mattress and your willingness to buy a mattress online, sight (or trial) unseen.
