In an age where virtually anything can be bought and sold online, it is no wonder that the online sales of mattress is also flourishing. Although, online retailing accounts for just few percentages of overall mattress sales, it is expanding rapidly in India with increasing number of e-commerce startups. In 2014, online shoppers spend around Rs 6,000 a year on average, said the Assocham study. About 40 million consumers purchased something online this year and the number is projected to grow with better infrastructure in terms of logistics, broadband and internet ready devices. Mattress as an online commodity has a certain specific set of problems like difficult to have a warehouse full of pre-made mattresses or getting over the initial sluggishness associated with buying mattress from retail stores. In the past few years, most of these problems have been tackled. The online consumer has now become desensitized about their idea of doubt towards making a big online transaction. According to recently published report of Bonafide Research "India Mattress Market Overview", online sales of mattress are expected to grow with more than 30% CAGR in the next five years. Online companies dedicated to home furnishing products have mushroomed in the last few years led by players like Pepperfry, Urban Ladder and Rocket Internet-backed FabFurnish. Other e-commerce heavyweights like Flipkart, Snapdeal and global giant Amazon India have all expanded their range of products to include mattresses as more Indians continue to shop online. Apart from these dedicated e-commerce players, marketers of mattresses have also started building their own websites to sell their products directly to consumer. The experience of mattress shopping is changing rapidly in India. One can decorate a bed with just a laptop and a credit card, without having to search through shops for the right mattress, or chase down a local mattress maker to deal with post-delivery glitches. Moreover, an ever increasing range of mattresses, exclusive sizes, secure payment options, warranties, after-sales service and customer-friendly return policies have made buying mattress online less tiring. The biggest customers of online mattress retailers are nuclear families where both the partners are working and are well educated. Opportunities in the online selling of mattresses are vast as there are small numbers of players who sell home furnishing products and their presence is restricted to only bigger cities. Currently, they cover only 50 out of close to 500 Indian cities in India, serving just about 10% of the Indian population. As these players will increase their reach to more number of cities, the sales will also tend to grow. According to Anita Patil, Sr. Research Analyst at Bonafide Research, "In 2010, India had around 92 million internet users which grew 2.5 times in the year 2014 and reached 233 million. Increase in the number of internet users has spurred the level of awareness among Indian consumers. They are now well aware about the mattress brands and often compare the models and prices online. Discount schemes by online players and perks like free delivery with added guarantee are motivating consumers to end up purchasing online." Major companies operating in the mattress market of India are Kurlon Enterprise Limited, Sheela Foam Pvt. Ltd., Peps Industries Pvt. Ltd., Springwel Mattresses Pvt. Ltd. and Coirfoam (India) Private Limited.
