Casper sued a mattress review site, Sleepopolis, for writing negative reviews of their products. Casper then settled the lawsuit by taking over Sleepopolis. The site now posts only positive reviews of Casper's mattresses.
Thanks for pointing that one out! I had no idea. I was literally less than a week from purchasing two Casper mattresses - one for my family one for my parents. I bailed. I also told my sister to return hers since she's still in the refund window. She told me it wasn't nearly as comfortable as she thought but they gave her hard time with refund. They asked her to either pay return fees which are north of $300 or find non profit that would accept. I'm taking matters in my hand. Its sad.
Just wanted to say that working with Casper customer service was one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had.
I bought their top of the line hybrid mattress then a few weeks later they had a sale which could be used on any of their products if you bought a mattress. We really wanted the lamps so we contacted customer service to see if it was possible to get the discount since we just bought the mattress. The girl was extremely rude making it seem like I was wasting her time. She told me that there was no way to add anything to an existing order so I couldn’t do it. I asked if I had to return the mattress and reorder it to get the lamps and she said yes that’s what I would have to do but no I was out of luck because they took too long to respond to me (called after they didn’t respond to any of my messages) so the promotion was over. The whole time she just seemed annoyed that I even tried to ask.
Sorry I spent $2000 on a mattress and wanted to spend more on another product. I just returned it and got a Novosbed for half the price and it was way better so I’m pretty glad it turned out that way. Keep in mind that Casper can’t sell a return so they have to donate it. The whole return was a mess to deal with as well. Glad they lost money on the return even if they get to write some of the donation off.
Guess my point is that I don’t think Casper treats their customers well. I wouldn’t touch them as an investment. I personally think they’re just cashing out at this point.
Do you keep track of all the things you buy in case price goes down so that you can complain to customer support when they do?
In my case, I contacted support to see if I could get a discount before making the purchase and they told me to wait two weeks for an upcoming promotion. Also quickly exchanged a defect mattress.
Not saying they're the best, but complaining because they don't have retroactive sales....
I don’t see how this is a horrible service experience. There is no expectation of a company to honor future discounts. Would you return a car if its price later dropped or if they suddenly had a better deal?
I haven't been in the market for a mattress for awhile now but went on Casper's website and was shocked to see the price for a Queen is now $1095.
I didn't remember it being that high, and checked Wayback and sure enough it was $850 in 2015, and $950 in 2017.
Given how many copycats are out there, many selling for much less, can someone help me understand how Casper gets away with selling a $1095 mattress + tax to a majority millennial crowd, who are supposedly cash strapped, and doing so successfully?
I'm guessing market dominance from years of targeted advertising on podcasts as well as buying/bullying mattress reviewer websites to make sure they stay as the highest rated.
People often perceive a mattress as "very important," as sleep is important, and are willing to spend a bit extra if they think the quality will be there and they'll sleep better.
In reality I believe most of these "mattress in a box" companies are selling the same 2-3 mattress manufactured in the same factory.
Personally, I buy mattress in the $300-$500 range. When I was in college I just slept on a brick of foam because that was what I could afford.
This is preying on "wellness" concerns. Casper convinces you that a problem exists where it previously (probably) did not, that your sleep is suboptimal, and that only they can fix it for you. Prehistory, humans slept on beds of grasses or reeds on the ground. I still think 80% of your sleep quality is determined by what you do in the day: caffeine intake, amount of physical activity, overall stress level.
I have a Casper. I found it way too firm as a side sleeper, but it was too late to return it, so I bought a $100 memory foam topper from Costco to make it more squishy. I could have saved a lot of money by buying Zinus mattress from Amazon and adding the topper, but oh well.
Casper caters to stress, ripoff anxiety, social anxiety, and budget.
1. We, the millennial crowd (tm), are insanely stressed on average. Whether it's objectively genuine or falsely perceived, brought on by ourselves or otherwise, it is something we enjoy having control over -- And choosing a "simple" mattress that is straightforward to research and buy caters to that desire perfectly. For awhile Casper only had one mattress, and it seemed like an irrefutably decent mattress. You simply chose the size!
2. If you don't like the mattress you can return it within a period of time. Mattress sellers often offer this, but Casper advertises it. It adds a sense of authenticity to the sale, and I think many people (not just millenials) feel more at peace about buying the mattress without trying it first.
3. It's shipped to you and comes in a box. Usually there's no talking involved. Nobody has to come into your home. Regardless, many of us don't even have a vehicle to pick up a mattress with anyway, nor the available friends to help bring it in through the front door. Maybe a delivery person would help but what if they don't? And what if you miss the delivery?
4. Monthly payments. I feel most millennials don't really care about the total cost of something, as long as there's a monthly payment option that is reasonable. Paycheck-to-paycheck is the format we're used to budgeting in, which easily puts a monthly payment into perspective. $35/month versus $350 upfront is way more manageable.
Brand appeal I suppose. I remember 1/2 the Casper price tag goes to marketing - I just bought a generic Amazon Zinus for 1/2 the price that research suggested came from the same foam factory. Seems like Zinus has gone down in cost in the last few years as one would expect with economy of scale while Casper has gone up one, $250 now from Amazon shipped, 1/4 of Casper. Simultaneously feels like Casper has cut back on marketing. Also Zinus is a 40 year old Korean company that's been doing bedding for for 15 years compared to Casper, a tech company that's been around for 5. It seems like a no brainer decision for anyone doing rudimentary research.
I guess its because many people think that they need to sleep well in this hectic times and cannot allow themselves tu cut cost on a mattress. Expensive = good quality. Turns out this is nonsense - we have a foundation in germany that does independend product tests for all varieties of things and came to the conclusion that the best mattress they ever tested was some 200€ mattress.
Maybe they don't buy Casper? I am not cash strapped but shopped around a little bit and got a (very satisfying) queen size mattress for $600 last year @ Living Spaces.
> can someone help me understand how Casper gets away with selling a $1095 mattress + tax to a majority millennial crowd, who are supposedly cash strapped, and doing so successfully?
Because the mattress sellers in the bad part of town still charge 3x more.
I bought a latex mattress several years ago, and will never buy another mattress. (Literally, they last 50+ years) Feels great, available in a range of firmness, no weird smells, never deforms, doesn't get hot, and naturally insect/mold resistant. I think I paid 1300 USD for a king size.
I know that's only tangentially relevant to the topic at hand, I'm just mentioning this since I had trouble finding much info on them. Latex is not promoted or advertised much, since they have very low markup compared to other mattresses; the store would much rather sell you a "hybrid" (usually 1/2 latex and 1/2 memory foam). But if you want to pay 2x as much to get something that lasts 4x as long, what you want is simple, boring, 100% natural latex.
This is probably my most confusing slew of downvotes. What do you think, I own a plantation of rubber trees? I thought it was surprising and interesting that something invented ~100 years ago would be an optimal choice in a thriving market full of recent patents. Ah well.
While we love our natural latex (from flobeds.com, no affiliation!) bed, it doesn't last forever. We had to replace ours at 15 years - while it was still better off than a spring mattress, it still had become worn. It had valleys and clumps - basically the latex was somewhat broken down. Compared to the new mattress, the old was more brittle and would tear easy, while the new one was resilient and springy.
The difference between it and normal spring mattresses is amazing though. I highly recommend them!
Many engineers focus on sales and marketing all the time as a normal course of jobs that involve product management. Many engineers already take into account sales and marketing perspectives in very effective ways, especially quantitative ways that are underused by employees whose sole jobs are exclusively in sales or marketing.
It’s very tiring to see engineers be tacitly assumed to need remedial time in other fields to gain sufficient appreciation for them, especially when the reciprocal deficiency of experience in engineering is virtually never raised for sales, marketing, etc. while engineers often do self-learn quite effective product and business skills.
The trick is that there are a bunch of mattress companies on Amazon selling really cheap foam mattresses (~200$) that are basically the same as Casper. But Casper jammed a ton of money into branding and marketing, so probably has great margins on their products. Foam mattresses as a product are getting extremely cheap and the quality is really not bad. I have a cheap one and honestly like sleeping on it more than 1200$ spring bed I had.
"“Barriers to entry are low, but barriers to profitability are high,” he said. “It doesn’t take that much to design a mattress, a marketing campaign, put up a website, and have one of these big companies like Carpenter do the fulfillment for you,”"
The majority of bed-in-a-boxes outsource their manufacturing...They’re literally calling around to producers saying, ‘we need a finished product and here’s what we think it should look like.’ Sometimes, they don’t even know what they want it to look like...Most of the outsourcing is to just four major manufacturers
Great business story. They quickly capitalized on a trend (tuft and needle started 2 years before), pumped it up with great marketing and distribution, and now are making their exit before a recession.
Interesting that they want to explore medical devices, “sleep services”, and sleep supplements. Guess they are marketing themselves as the Amazon of sleep? Because right now all I know about them is that they sell overpriced mattresses
Though my initial response to the title was to laugh, upon further thought I think they're actually making a smart play here.
They're essentially betting on "optimizing wellness" being a huge fad this decade, which I believe many others are predicting, and are using their current position to get more cash to get ahead of that.
I don't associate Casper with "a quality night of sleep", probably because I'm happy with my current mattress and have no need of their product, but at the same time I couldn't name a single one of the current applications that exist to track + "optimize" sleep / circadian cycles, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that, so who knows? Maybe in 2030 we'll all be moaning about Casper putting up their Nighty Night subscription another $7 for "HD dreams" and reluctantly acquiescing to it.
We tried the memory-foam-in-a-box mattresses and they were not good (leesa - I suspect Casper is similar.). We just ordered and received a latex mattress from Arizona (https://www.mattresses.net) and it's so much better. I don't work for or have any affiliation with them, I just hope this helps someone else.
100 nights or your money back. After two days we didn’t like the mattress. Emailed support and told them we weren’t happy with it. The next day 1800 Junk truck came out and trashed the mattress. So essentially their returned mattresses go into the landfill and become waste if you’re not happy with it.
Maybe they don't want a bedbug invasion in their warehouse.
I bought a cushion for my desk chair from Amazon and it turned out to be garbage so I tried to return it. They said they could only give me a refund if I sent them a picture of the cut up cushion. I didn't have to send it back, just send a picture of it with a big gash down the middle.
I guess, at least with 1800 Junk there is a good chance a employee will pluck the mattress out and put it up on Craigslist.
The product I like from Casper isn’t their mattress – It’s their lights. They’re god damn incredible, I sleep peacefully thanks to those. They should just focus on stuff like that.
I bought a Casper off shelf two days ago. It was the only one on the shelf in Target and it was 9.45 PM. It was pricier than I had expected and didn’t understand why it was so expensive. But I needed one pronto and it wasn’t worth my time to go looking for something else that late at night.
When I was 23 and doing startups full time, I slept on a hardwood floor with just a blanket and a pillow. Helped me to get up in the morning and do work, did nothing bad for my body as far as I can tell.
That's ridiculous that you were down voted. My brother slept on a rock hard bed as a kid and is able to sleep on the floor, without a pillow, all night no problem. The soft bed thing is more of a cultural issue than a biological necessity.
[+] [-] commoner|6 years ago|reply
https://www.fastcompany.com/3065928/sleepopolis-casper-blogg...
I would take any reviews of Casper's products with a grain of salt.
[+] [-] joering2|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] skellera|6 years ago|reply
I bought their top of the line hybrid mattress then a few weeks later they had a sale which could be used on any of their products if you bought a mattress. We really wanted the lamps so we contacted customer service to see if it was possible to get the discount since we just bought the mattress. The girl was extremely rude making it seem like I was wasting her time. She told me that there was no way to add anything to an existing order so I couldn’t do it. I asked if I had to return the mattress and reorder it to get the lamps and she said yes that’s what I would have to do but no I was out of luck because they took too long to respond to me (called after they didn’t respond to any of my messages) so the promotion was over. The whole time she just seemed annoyed that I even tried to ask.
Sorry I spent $2000 on a mattress and wanted to spend more on another product. I just returned it and got a Novosbed for half the price and it was way better so I’m pretty glad it turned out that way. Keep in mind that Casper can’t sell a return so they have to donate it. The whole return was a mess to deal with as well. Glad they lost money on the return even if they get to write some of the donation off.
Guess my point is that I don’t think Casper treats their customers well. I wouldn’t touch them as an investment. I personally think they’re just cashing out at this point.
[+] [-] alexandrerond|6 years ago|reply
In my case, I contacted support to see if I could get a discount before making the purchase and they told me to wait two weeks for an upcoming promotion. Also quickly exchanged a defect mattress.
Not saying they're the best, but complaining because they don't have retroactive sales....
[+] [-] rockinghigh|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tempsy|6 years ago|reply
I didn't remember it being that high, and checked Wayback and sure enough it was $850 in 2015, and $950 in 2017.
Given how many copycats are out there, many selling for much less, can someone help me understand how Casper gets away with selling a $1095 mattress + tax to a majority millennial crowd, who are supposedly cash strapped, and doing so successfully?
[+] [-] gooseus|6 years ago|reply
HN from 2017: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15321807
"Casper went to war with popular mattress review site, then financed its takeover"
[+] [-] astura|6 years ago|reply
People often perceive a mattress as "very important," as sleep is important, and are willing to spend a bit extra if they think the quality will be there and they'll sleep better.
In reality I believe most of these "mattress in a box" companies are selling the same 2-3 mattress manufactured in the same factory.
Personally, I buy mattress in the $300-$500 range. When I was in college I just slept on a brick of foam because that was what I could afford.
[+] [-] starpilot|6 years ago|reply
I have a Casper. I found it way too firm as a side sleeper, but it was too late to return it, so I bought a $100 memory foam topper from Costco to make it more squishy. I could have saved a lot of money by buying Zinus mattress from Amazon and adding the topper, but oh well.
[+] [-] master-litty|6 years ago|reply
1. We, the millennial crowd (tm), are insanely stressed on average. Whether it's objectively genuine or falsely perceived, brought on by ourselves or otherwise, it is something we enjoy having control over -- And choosing a "simple" mattress that is straightforward to research and buy caters to that desire perfectly. For awhile Casper only had one mattress, and it seemed like an irrefutably decent mattress. You simply chose the size!
2. If you don't like the mattress you can return it within a period of time. Mattress sellers often offer this, but Casper advertises it. It adds a sense of authenticity to the sale, and I think many people (not just millenials) feel more at peace about buying the mattress without trying it first.
3. It's shipped to you and comes in a box. Usually there's no talking involved. Nobody has to come into your home. Regardless, many of us don't even have a vehicle to pick up a mattress with anyway, nor the available friends to help bring it in through the front door. Maybe a delivery person would help but what if they don't? And what if you miss the delivery?
4. Monthly payments. I feel most millennials don't really care about the total cost of something, as long as there's a monthly payment option that is reasonable. Paycheck-to-paycheck is the format we're used to budgeting in, which easily puts a monthly payment into perspective. $35/month versus $350 upfront is way more manageable.
[+] [-] dawnerd|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dirtyid|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chris_engel|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rconti|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ivalm|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] discardable_dan|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] meddlepal|6 years ago|reply
I spend a lot of time on my mattress... might as well buy a nice one I really like (Stearns & Foster)
[+] [-] rolltiide|6 years ago|reply
Because the mattress sellers in the bad part of town still charge 3x more.
[+] [-] mundo|6 years ago|reply
I know that's only tangentially relevant to the topic at hand, I'm just mentioning this since I had trouble finding much info on them. Latex is not promoted or advertised much, since they have very low markup compared to other mattresses; the store would much rather sell you a "hybrid" (usually 1/2 latex and 1/2 memory foam). But if you want to pay 2x as much to get something that lasts 4x as long, what you want is simple, boring, 100% natural latex.
[+] [-] mundo|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gilbetron|6 years ago|reply
The difference between it and normal spring mattresses is amazing though. I highly recommend them!
[+] [-] tesmar2|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] uwuhn|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cycrutchfield|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] umeshunni|6 years ago|reply
Revenue - 312M COGS - 157M Sales & Marketing - 113M General & Administrative - 106M
Net profit (loss) - (67M)
First thought: How on earth are they spending $11M/month on G&A expenses?
On further reading -
Casper Labs, our over 25,000 square foot advanced research facility in San Francisco.
Ah, ok then...
Second thought: Why isn't R&D broken out as a separate line item?
[+] [-] 0zymandias|6 years ago|reply
There is a whole other way to look at products like this that is often missed if you haven’t done the time.
[+] [-] mlthoughts2018|6 years ago|reply
It’s very tiring to see engineers be tacitly assumed to need remedial time in other fields to gain sufficient appreciation for them, especially when the reciprocal deficiency of experience in engineering is virtually never raised for sales, marketing, etc. while engineers often do self-learn quite effective product and business skills.
[+] [-] codingslave|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] umeshunni|6 years ago|reply
"“Barriers to entry are low, but barriers to profitability are high,” he said. “It doesn’t take that much to design a mattress, a marketing campaign, put up a website, and have one of these big companies like Carpenter do the fulfillment for you,”"
The majority of bed-in-a-boxes outsource their manufacturing...They’re literally calling around to producers saying, ‘we need a finished product and here’s what we think it should look like.’ Sometimes, they don’t even know what they want it to look like...Most of the outsourcing is to just four major manufacturers
[+] [-] discardable_dan|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xivzgrev|6 years ago|reply
Would. Not. Buy.
[+] [-] opportune|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cmdshiftf4|6 years ago|reply
They're essentially betting on "optimizing wellness" being a huge fad this decade, which I believe many others are predicting, and are using their current position to get more cash to get ahead of that.
I don't associate Casper with "a quality night of sleep", probably because I'm happy with my current mattress and have no need of their product, but at the same time I couldn't name a single one of the current applications that exist to track + "optimize" sleep / circadian cycles, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that, so who knows? Maybe in 2030 we'll all be moaning about Casper putting up their Nighty Night subscription another $7 for "HD dreams" and reluctantly acquiescing to it.
[+] [-] dguo|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tesmar2|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] root_axis|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] someonehere|6 years ago|reply
100 nights or your money back. After two days we didn’t like the mattress. Emailed support and told them we weren’t happy with it. The next day 1800 Junk truck came out and trashed the mattress. So essentially their returned mattresses go into the landfill and become waste if you’re not happy with it.
[+] [-] johnpowell|6 years ago|reply
I bought a cushion for my desk chair from Amazon and it turned out to be garbage so I tried to return it. They said they could only give me a refund if I sent them a picture of the cut up cushion. I didn't have to send it back, just send a picture of it with a big gash down the middle.
I guess, at least with 1800 Junk there is a good chance a employee will pluck the mattress out and put it up on Craigslist.
[+] [-] joshmn|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] scarface74|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] samcampbell|6 years ago|reply
Wholesale: 2018- $31M; 2019- $54M [75% YoY growth] "20.3% year-over-year net revenue growth for the nine months ended September 30, 2019"
"We have also expanded our gross margin from 42.8% in 2016 to 44.1% in 2018 and to 50.7% for the three months ended September 30, 2019"
[+] [-] 0xADEADBEE|6 years ago|reply
[0] - https://www.fastcompany.com/3065928/sleepopolis-casper-blogg...
[+] [-] seldonnn|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xwdv|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cm2012|6 years ago|reply
https://mobile.twitter.com/kevinwlordbarry/status/1215786907...
[+] [-] jelliclesfarm|6 years ago|reply
But I did wonder why it was so expensive..
[+] [-] raverbashing|6 years ago|reply
"Casper is a very inefficient wealth transfer from venture capitalists to prestige podcast makers"
https://twitter.com/kevinroose/status/1215734138981928960
[+] [-] sfblah|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AJ007|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] newnewpdro|6 years ago|reply
Just one night sleeping on a conventional mattress leaves me with weird back pains and a stiff neck.
Not only are they costly and a PITA to move, mattresses waste a lot of space too.
Traditional Japanese tatami mats are basically the same thing in terms of flatness and hardness, they're not known for having sleep/back troubles.