The 23 Most-Overlooked Tax Deductions 11 Dow Stocks Owned by Warren Buffett 7 Features That Will Sell Your Home Faster Kiplinger's Financial Field Manual for Military Families 9 Worst Things to Buy Online Shopping online certainly has its advantages. It’s easy to compare prices without spending time driving from store to store. You can read product reviews at your leisure. You can quickly search for coupon codes to get better deals on purchases. And, of course, your order can be delivered to your doorstep -- no parking lots or pushy salespeople to contend with. Convenience is surely a major driver behind the growing popularity of online shopping. E-commerce sales in 2014 totaled about $305 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, a 15.4% increase from 2013. Yet e-commerce accounted for just 6.5% of all retail sales last year. Consumers are still doing most of their shopping in brick-and-mortar stores. Sometimes it’s smarter to make purchases in person rather than online.
It can be easier to judge quality, for example, rather than relying solely on what you see on a screen. It’s also easier to ensure a good fit. And some items, especially large ones, can be expensive to ship. You’ll pay even more if the seller doesn’t cover return shipping for orders you decide not to keep. Finally, you can more effectively haggle over the price of certain types of merchandise when you’re negotiating face-to-face. Here are nine things in particular that you should probably not buy online for any or all of these reasons. View as One PageThis site makes a small commission if you purchase a mattress after clicking a referral link or using our coupon codes (at no cost to you). That said, all content and opinions on this site are my own and are NOT affected by these payments. Unlike many other review sites, I do not accept free merchandise for review. If you’re shopping online for a mattress, you’ve come to the right place! What Would You Like To Do?
See Our Top Online Mattress Picks Compare Leading Online Mattresses Side-by-Side Read Our Mattress Reviews Use Our Mattress Coupons Email Our Coupons to Yourself (or Someone Else) Over the past few years, my husband and I have slept on and researched the leading mattresses sold online and shipped directly to your home, sometimes called a bed-in-a-box or an online mattress. Along the way, we’ve learned a lot about the differences between Casper, Saatva, Leesa, Tuft and Needle, Loom & Leaf, Bear, Nest Bedding, Helix and others. Everything we learned is documented on this website in the form of mattress reviews and comparisons, where we score & rate the leading brands on the 13 features you should care about most when buying any mattress online. My #1 goal with this website is to help you make a rational / fact-based decision – in 10 minutes or less. Table of ContentsThe Benefits Of Buying a Mattress OnlineThe Downside (Kinda)What’s On This SiteWhat Is an Online Mattress?
MATTRESS COMPARISON TABLESAll Mattresses Sorted by RatingBUYING TIPSSave Money! The #1 benefit is that you save a LOT of money. Like, 30-50% less than a comparable store-bought brand. Tuft And Needle, one of the newer companies in the market, put together this interesting comparison below that explains why online mattresses cost so much less. As you can see, selling mattresses online direct from the factory eliminates a lot of markup and middlemen, which cuts a lot of cost out of a mattress: This is why mattresses sold online typically sell for 30-50% less than comparable store-bought mattresses. Other benefits of buying a mattress online include the now-common 100-night risk-free in-home trial, the ability to use websites like this one to compare your choices online, and a growing selection of choices that cater to all sorts of special needs, like Bear Mattress (for athletes) and Helix Sleep (custom-fit mattresses sold online). The online mattress movement is having a huge impact on the traditional mattress industry, driving prices down and quality up.
Even Sealy and Tempurpedic have online stores. The downside to buying a mattress online is that you can’t sit on it before placing your order. To eliminate this concern, almost every online mattress company offers a 100-night no risk free trial. If you decide you don’t want the mattress, most companies will pick the mattress up from your home – and you pay nothing. Think about it: 100 nights is more than enough time to decide if a mattress works for you. Three years ago, buying an online mattress was an easy choice, because there were only a few brands to choose from. This makes shopping for a mattress online a time-consuming process. The goal of this website is to help you find the right mattress for your sleeping style and budget in 10 minutes or less. And, of course, I want to save you beaucoup bucks. You’ll find three things on this site: On this site, you’ll find Mattress Rankings & Comparisons for ten different sleeping styles & types of mattress.
In our comparison tables, we rate and compare the leading mattresses on the 13 features to consider before buying a mattress online. Each mattress review on this site is a 10-minute deep-dive into a best-selling mattress. In each review, we cover the following points: If you have a question about a mattress or how it compares to another, leave me a comment at the bottom of a review. Finally, we offer exclusive mattress coupons for many of the mattresses we’ve reviewed.They’ll save you an extra $50-$200 on your purchase. ↑ Table of of Contents An “online mattress” is a memory foam mattress, latex mattress or innerspring mattress that is: A lot of people buy mattresses online today. Over $4 billion were sold online in 2014. As a result, there are many more direct-to-consumer mattress companies today than only 2 years ago: more than 20 companies sell online, with more on the way. To simplify your shopping, we’ve created ten mattress comparison tables, below.
Each table lists the best mattresses for a given mattress type (memory foam, latex or innerspring), sleeping style (back, stomach or side) or a special need. For each mattress listed, we provide information on the top features to consider when buying a mattress online. If you have any suggestions, please leave us a comment on a mattress review or on our contact page. I hope this information saves you a lot of time – and money. Touch to see more details Touch a Mattress name to see our review Touch a Price to visit the manufacturer’s website Turn your phone sideways to see more columns. Now that you have a short list of mattresses, let’s talk about some of the things to you should consider before you place that order. Trust me: you have nothing to fear when buying a mattress online. In fact, I’ve learned that shopping online is the smartest way to buy a mattress. Because you will save money and be happier with your final purchase, in the end.
After all, you can’t learn much about a mattress by sitting on it for 10 minutes in a busy store – with some high-pressure sales guy waiting for a check. But, when you sleep on a mattress in your own bedroom for 100 nights, you learn everything you need to know. Enough to write a mattress review! This is one of those important but silent choices you may end up kicking yourself over, a few years down the line. The reality of the online mattress market today is that most of the companies that sell them are startups, with a very short history. Often, their products have been in the market for less than 3 years. That’s just not enough time to know whether a mattress will stand the test of time – or the company that makes it. I’m NOT saying startups can’t make a high-quality, durable mattress! Just that until more time passes, you really can’t know. So if you’re down to a choice between two companies, I’d go with the more established one.
Just to be safe. In general, all of the companies selling online mattresses DO stand behind their return policies. There are very few complaints online about people getting a bait-and-switch from any of the companies profiled on this site. That said, the companies’ return policies differ in a ways that might be important to you. The most important differences include: In general, all online mattress companies offer at least a 10-year workmanship/defect warranty. That said, mattress warranties can differ dramatically in terms of the financial protection they provide over the life of your mattress. For example, make sure you understand where your manufacturer stands on these warranty features: Be aware that a mattress delivered to your home can incur three (3) potential shipping charges: Shipping costs are typically $40-100 each way, depending on the size and construction of your mattress. It makes sense to understand the above before placing that order.