Tips for retailers

What inflatable mattresses can do for sales

There’s nothing wrong with the good ol’ closed cell pad (or thermal roll as many of us like to call them). They’re warm, weigh practically nothing and are remarkably robust, making them the perfect companions for a cross country stomp or camping holiday. Best of all they’re cheap. There’s a catch, of course: they’re also darn uncomfortable. Whether you’re lying on your back, your front, your side or curled up in a little ball, there is simply no way you can get one centimetre of blue foam to feel like your beloved Sealy Posturpedic.

Enter the inflatable mattress.

Forming what is effectively a cushion of air between you and the ground, inflatables offer a vastly more comfortable night’s sleep. They’re also far more forgiving on bumpy, uneven surfaces, since the top layer remains pretty much flat even if the bottom is molded over a small scale model of the Alps.

King of comfort

Caveats? Like balloons, bicycle tyres and inflatable pool toys, blow-up mattresses are prone to going "pop!" if not looked after correctly (read: dragged through prickly fynbos or laid down on sharp rocks).

Inflatable mats tend to be heavier than thermal rolls. They’re also much more pricey than their plain foam brethren, with some top-end inflatables costing over R1000.

But despite all of these potential drawbacks, inflatable mattresses are still king when it comes to comfort.

Are hikers and campers catching on? You bet!

"The demand for inflatable mattresses seems to be growing all the time," says John Fontyn of Eiger Equipment, importer of the popular Thermal Comfort range.

According to Fontyn, who started importing Thermal Comfort in 2002, sales were good right from the start, but in the last two years the increase has been "crazy" (Eiger moved a whopping 2200 units in the last financial year, making Thermal Comfort by far the best-selling inflatable mat in South Africa).

What has precipitated this amazing growth?

"We’ve got the balance right," says Fontyn. "Thermal Comfort offers a product that is both lightweight and affordable".

When inflatable mattresses first arrived in the country many people were put off by the increased weight and hefty price tags. But improvements in technology coupled with a stronger rand have seen a reduction in weight and cost, making inflatable mats a far more attractive option.

While the most noticeable growth has been at the more affordable end of the market, it’s also pleasing to note that premium brands have also experienced an increase in sales.

Geoff Ward of Outward Ventures, who imports well-known inflatable range, Therm-a-Rest, says he’s also noticed a growing demand for his mattresses. And not just the cheaper ones. Top-of-the-range models like the Therm-a-Rest Prolite 4 (which costs around R1000) are selling well, and there have even been some sales of the R2000 Dreamtime mattress. It seems the market simply can’t get enough of inflatable mats.

Clearly any outdoor and camping shop worth their salt needs to stock inflatable mattresses. But what are the implications for retailers?

The biggest plus is naturally increased turnover. Inflatables sell for considerably more than foam mats, which means that without even adjusting your mark-up you can rake in more dosh.

And what about margins? In theory you could get away with upping your mark-up on an inflatable since it’s an expensive item, so a slight increase in price will often go unnoticed. That said, it’s a fiercely competitive market out there, and customers are getting increasingly savvy about where they spend their shekels, so hiking prices might not be to your advantage.

Another benefit of inflatable mats is that they actually take up less store space than closed cell pads. When deflated and packed in their stuff sack, many are no larger than a rugby ball, so they stack neatly and easily onto shelves.

Display stock

The real challenge comes with displaying your inflatable stock. Rolled up in a bag an inflatable mattress means very little to the customer, and if you want to convert people to the joys of inflatables, you’re going to need some blown-up samples on standby. The most popular method of doing this is to hang said mattresses with the display sleeping bags (i.e. with coat hangers on a rail).

This has its pros and cons. On the upside, this approach saves on space. The downside is that it’s not so easy to compare models while they’re hanging, and taking each sample out can become tedious.

Simon Larsen of RAM Mountaineering offers a clever solution for his Insul Mat series — a special mattress stand that allows you to stack up to five samples in a neat, easy-to-use manner.

Another key area that needs attention is staff training. Cheap items like closed cell pads are easy to move off the shelves, as the people buying them usually base their decision on price.

However, when you start selling more specialist items like inflatable mats, it pays to have staff who know the products well and are able to punt the benefits to a potential customer. In this respect some of the importers are doing a sterling job, offering dedicated staff training as part of the deal when retailers buy their stock.

Insul Mat have also come up with a novel way of helping staff — and customers — to get their heads around inflatable mattresses’ many advantages: a sample mat with key points and features actually printed onto it.

Finally, retailers also need to think carefully about the selection of mattresses they want to carry.

There is a big choice: from inflatable camping mattresses such as Bestway, to the more specialist self-inflating hiking mats from guys like Thermal Comfort. And it gets even more complicated: some of the brands like Therm-a-Rest and Insul Mat offer a wide choice of options within their ranges, from high tech mountaineering or adventure racing mats, and even women-specific designs.

Clearly it would be a tad ambitious to try and stock the whole bang shoot.

But the opposite also applies: offering only one or two models is really doing a disservice to your customer, since the options you carry, may not be the best choice for their specific needs.