How to Improve Consumer Confidence

15th July 2022

This month, Chief Operations Officer at Mattress Online, Martin Eastwood discusses what organisations are experiencing in consumer confidence in the current climate and what you can put in place to improve it.

What are we experiencing in consumer confidence in the current climate?

We’re seeing a real spend divide right now - average number of orders is considerably lower than two years ago however individual order value is up.

Essentially what we’re seeing is that the customers that come to our site are there to buy, and this is confirmed in the conversion rates we’re consistently reporting. There are certainly less people out there browsing but the ones that are browsing are committing to the purchase - it’s not an accident that they visit the website.

It’s almost 20 years since Mattress Online began trading. We've seen shifts like this over the years and we feel confident that the lull in ordering customers is only for so long - a mattress is an eventual and essential purchase.

What do we put into place to improve consumer confidence?

We’re constantly improving our advice pages and sections of our website to give customers the most information to make the right decision when purchasing a mattress or bed frame. That curated content is always evolving to share the latest research and newest products. Our in-house digital content team works hard to provide expert advice - not just about the products but to tie that in with creating and establishing a good night’s sleep and waking up refreshed. There’s a whole bigger picture than just the actual buying of a mattress!

Product reviews play a massive role in reassuring our customers that we're professional and reliable, when reviews vouch for our products it gives more confidence to the next person looking at that bed frame or that particular mattress.

From the outset our order process all the way to the delivery and customer service experience can be relied upon and using reviews to showcase that gives our new customers the confidence to buy.

We’re transparent about extra costs too, our non-profit recycling service and delivery charges are all visible on site meaning that the price will remain the same at checkout.

We’ve been here before, consumer spending reticence can be reassured with brand awareness - customers will flock to brands that they know and recognise - and that’s why we work with almost every brand of mattresses in the UK.

We’re seeing very similar patterns in our retail stores, however there we are bolstering our offering by a hybrid approach whereby the customer has access to our reviews via in-store QR-code based POS complemented by the expertise that our store staff hold.

By Martin Eastwood, Mattress Online.