If you SHIP it, They will come.

Mail Order Mattresses. And realized why Amazon will win....everything

Get in the way back machines....you know back 6 years ago when people were still skeptical of buying online.  What if the clothes don't fit? (free returns) What if I need it in two days? (Amazon Prime) For every problem that cropped up, the internets had an answer.  But then there was the stumper: how big of a thing can you ship, and how personal of an item can be delivered?

How big is too big to ship?  One of my earliest subscription purchases was dog food.  It comes in 40 pound bags if you want to be cost effective and is a pain to haul from store to car, car to house/apt.  So when I discovered that Amazon would bring it to my doorstep for the same price as in store and no delivery fee?  In.  Game changer.  Eliminated a trip to Petco. But Dog Food? If you drop it, no big deal. It won't break.  What about more fragile items?  We've all seen Ace Ventura handle a package right?

So next I ventured into the TV realm.  I ran into problems the last time I tried to buy a large flatscreen.  Couldn't get it home in my sedan.  So there I was in the parking lot, taking it out of the box, trying to squeeze it into the car. Incredibly frustrated, I made it home but slightly damaged the TV on a turn.  So when I needed a new TV this Fall...Ordered it online.  55" flatscreen.  48 hours later it arrived wrapped in enough packing materials to keep a Faberge Egg from breaking.

But at least I didn't look like this:

Emboldened by my TV purchase and hating the process of buying a mattress (which is second only to car buying, which I covered last week), I set off to test the mattress theory. Mattresses are a great example of a category that is in the "Drain the Moat" phase of their business.  They are doing everything possible to protect an old business model of poor service, high markups, and no store having the same skus.  As the competition has snuck in, they have done everything possible to discredit these new mattresses and use their moat as an advantage.  And now they are trying to drain the moat as a last barrier.  Given my early adopter mindset, I see this behavior and only get more excited to try the next thing. So off I went.

My son was moving up to a big kid bed, and I thought it was the perfect way to test it out on a kid who could sleep on anything.  There are a ton of companies moving into the space.  Tuft & Needle, Leesa, Casper.  I chose Tuft & Needle after a little research.  Also they seemed to have the best return policy at the time, which competitors have since matched.  So you're wondering how a mattress gets shipped right?  Well here it is:

So what's the review?  It's much more comfortable than our fancy mattress.  It's tempurpedic-esque and cost about 40% less than a same sized mattress.  So the internet wins again.  

What it confirmed to me is that there is no limit to what you can order through the internet.  Nothing is too big.  Nothing is too personal. (I'll spend 1/3 of my life on my mattress)  And that is why Amazon, with it's sizable lead in e-commerce, will win the day.  

Until the next Last/Best...........

In the meantime, you can always find more Last/Best ramblings here.