Which? urges popular mattress companies to play by the rules

From bank holidays to Valentine's Day, mattress sales happen pretty much all year. Mattress brands may sell more by ramping up promotions at key periods, but we think some are potentially breaking consumer laws by misleading customers about sales. 

Our recent snapshot investigation* into mattress sales led us to write to popular brands, asking them to review their marketing tactics to ensure they are compliant with the consumer regulations around the advertising of sales.

The Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) is separately investigating Emma Sleep and Simba over concerns of potentially misleading price reduction claims.

Here’s why you should approach mattress sales with caution…

Read our impartial reviews of the best mattresses before you buy.

Our mattress sales investigation

Over eight weeks from August to October 2023, we scrutinised the prices offered by direct-to-consumer mattress brands Dreams, Emma, Eve, Hypnos, Lola, Nectar, Otty, Rem-Fit, Silentnight, Simba and Tempur, on some of their most popular mattresses we’ve tested.

While some, such as Eve, Silentnight, Tempur and Hypnos appeared to offer genuine savings on products in sales, Simba and Emma's sales appeared to see-saw between products. Other brands, including Lola, Nectar Otty and Rem-fit had mattresses that seemed to be continuously on sale, during the entire period we checked.

We spotted other issues too, including:

• Offers that didn’t end when advertised. We saw some mattresses still on offer for the same price past the advertised sale date.
• Back-to-back similar sales. Some sales were replaced with other, almost identical sales, or the sale mechanism changed slightly once the initial deal ended. For example, a discount was switched for a voucher applied at checkout but the ‘deal’ price was the same.
• Pressure-selling tactics. We found examples of sale countdown timers and activity messages such as ‘limited time offer’ or ‘hurry’ used, despite the mattress in reality being on sale continuously during our checks.
• Deals that may not offer a genuine saving Some mattresses were promoted at seemingly unrealistic discounts. For example, the Nectar Memory Foam was offered with 60% off and wasn’t sold at full price throughout the period.

Our mattress reviews will help you find a good mattress at the best price for you.

Why are mattress sales so prevalent?

Lisa Galliers, Which? mattress expert says:

‘We’re not saying mattress sales are a bad thing, far from it, because a mattress can be an expensive purchase. But from a consumer’s perspective, it can be confusing when they come to buy a mattress. How do you know you’re getting a genuinely good deal if a mattress appears to be constantly on sale, or the sales don’t end when they’re supposed to?

‘Tactics like these can have a real influence on shoppers’ behaviour. A Which? member survey in 2023 revealed that 22% of mattress shoppers bought a mattress purely because it was on sale. Previous Which? research has also found that shoppers can be influenced by ‘dark patterns’ - clever website design features that are used to affect our behaviour.

‘Some of the activity we observed during this time certainly raises questions, which is why we’ve asked all brands - not just those in our snapshot - to review sales and marketing activity. 

'When companies promote a deal, it must be a genuine offer.’

Find out more about dark patterns, designed to manipulate your choices online.

What the brands told us

We asked the brands to comment on our initial findings.

Emma said: ‘We offer regular promotions while seeking compliance with local regulations. With or without promotion, Emma offers durable products and good value for money.’

Lola said: ‘We immediately implemented all the changes to ensure our website fully reflects the points raised. We have always offered customers a great product at a fair price and have updated our marketing strategy accordingly. We hope that the rest of our sector will do this, too.’

Otty declined to comment.

Rem-Fit said: ‘We pride ourselves on maintaining transparent and fair marketing practices, continually striving to offer our customers genuine value in an extremely competitive marketplace. We are disconcerted by the portrayal of our brand in the preliminary findings.’

Resident Home, which owns the Nectar Sleep brand, said: ‘Resident Home takes seriously the compliance advice recently published by the CMA and has already made site changes to address its concerns.

Simba said: ‘Simba has recently undertaken an exercise to ensure that promotions are clearer and more transparent. Simba wants consumers to be able to make informed decisions when looking at products across the market.’

Our survey of Which? members highlights the best mattress brands.

Tips on navigating the mattress sales

• Don’t panic buy Mattress sales and deals happen all the time, so there’s no need to panic if you suddenly spot the one you want on offer. Use our mattress reviews and advice guides to help whittle down your list of possibles. If you don’t see a price you like, bide your time.
• Compare direct vs retail prices We focused on a small number of direct-to-consumer brands for our study, but whatever mattress you choose, check the price on the brand’s website to see the deals on offer, as well as retailer websites. Take note of any other extras offered, too.
• Check our monthly deals page Head to our best mattress deals to see the current offers. We update it monthly and highlight if we’ve seen a mattress on sale before at a similar price or cheaper. This should help you find a good deal.
• Know your rights If you change your mind when buying online, a 14-day cooling-off period applies from the date you receive your mattress. You can cancel the order from the moment you place it up to 14 days from the date it arrives and the seller must refund you.

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* Over eight weeks between August and October 2023, we checked the prices of a selection of mattresses from brands that regularly feature on our best mattress deals page. We recorded list and ‘sale’ prices, and made a note of countdown timers, sales that didn’t end when stated, terms and conditions that weren’t easy to find and any other potential pressure selling tactics. We looked only at direct-to-consumer brands and did not include all brands, or mattress retailers.