Why are people buying a $2500 mattress? 🤯
The sleep economy opportunity for the world.
Welcome to the 118th edition of the GrowthX Newsletter. Every Tuesday & Thursday I write a piece on startups & business growth. Today’s piece is going to 94,400+ operators & leaders from startups like Google, Stripe, Swiggy, Razorpay, CRED & more
A US based company started selling a $2500 mattress 💰
It’s selling like hot cakes & claims a sound sleep 🛌
Here’s why this category is blowing up ⬇️
Quick context 🗓
People sleeping less than what’s recommended. Bloomberg claimed that by 2026 1/3rd of the world economy will incur major setbacks due to lack of sleep, causing an estimated loss of $4 trillion.
What’s to blame?
Modern lifestyle. Consumption of alcohol, psychosocial stress, pressure from work, exposure to electronic devices for too long, smoking & lack of physical activity to blame.
So we are sleeping less, who cares?
Apparently, lack of sleep is causing a dent in the economy. Indians are sleeping less than folks in US, & UK, no wonder.
In parallel, income groups are shifting 💵
Once the existential needs have been met and predictable income is in place, the upper middle class is entering the so called “rich” club. And, their priorities are changing, fast.
Upper middle income want to experience better quality of life - mental health, physical well being & sleep is at the core of it. Even you’d notice, everyone “rich” and “famous” is a sleep evangelist - shutting down is the new cool, voila!
It doesn’t end at mattress, it starts here 🙇🏻♂️
Sleep is a need, not a want. Read that again.
By 2024, the opportunity is over $ 585 billion.
The initial revenue traction on Wakefit, Sleepy cat is the evidence.
Assuming we’ve just scratched the surface, people are going to spend a bomb across sleeping products & experiences. The pie is hyper-growing across apps, products & services. Here’s a skeleton breakdown.
And there’s room for everyone 💙
Find the mattress to expensive? There’s a custom made pillow for you.
Can’t afford that too? Buy a sleep apnea device.
D2C & few apps has already tasted the waters 🦈
While Wakefit makes one of the highest revenues for mattress in India - thanks to first move innovation advantage. More products are catching up →much like the D2C ecosystem, the current market is being customised for everyone.
Brands know that $2,500 mattress is not everyone’s cup of tea - so there are cheaper alternatives being launched for every freaking income bracket.
So if you are building for the sleep economy, pay attention ⬇️
First/ sell lifestyle, not the product 🧘🏽
When Calm - the world famous meditation app launched, it focused on 3 things → branding, content, YouTube. Through each distribution, it sold a lifestyle, an idea of healthy living as an outcome.
Second/ build on core motivation 💭
We all bought a piece of furniture during pandemic. Why? the more time we spent at home, we realised - “regular chairs suck”. Now that the hybrid work model has taken over - brands need to extend the core motivation from chairs to beds → mattresses → pillows → apps → services.
Third/ build for a niche target ICP ✅
Pick up the phone & talk to your recent buyers to understand who is your current ideal customer profile. More influx of fresh money into Tier 2 cities might be creating newer markets away from the brutal Tier 1 markets, maybe.
One may stop ordering food online or watching TV shows on their laptop - but people will never stop wanting to have a sound sleep.
That’s all for now ✨
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