*(screen capture from sleep country canada's website)*

Sleep Country Canada is taking a page from online mattress brand Casper, by launching its own mattress-in-a box that can be ordered online for home delivery. Similar to Casper, as well, Sleep Country has launched a line of pillows designed for enhanced restfulness.

Sleep Country’s new mattress-in-a-box is called Bloom™ Mattress, and it’s described as featuring advanced gel memory and latex foam that conforms to one's body and as well, it was designed with air channels and mesh sides to help regulate one's body temperature. The mattress is finished and wrapped in a natural organic cotton fabric, that is both removable and machine washable.

The Sleep Country mattress comes with a guarantee as well as a 10 year warranty. "If your Bloom™ doesn’t bloom your mind within 100 nights, you can exchange it at any Sleep Country location for one of our other 50 mattresses. We’ll even pick up your Bloom™ and deliver your new bed,” says its website. Prices range from $695 for a twin mattress to $1,195 for a king-sized version.

Casper, in a similar fashion, sells memory foam mattresses that are delivered to consumers in a similar-sized box. Launched in New York City 2014 and financially backed by Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Adam Levine and Ashton Kutcher, Casper is a direct-to-consumer online mattress retailer, with its product delivered in a "how did they do that?" sized box. Casper's memory foam mattress comes in a variety of sizes, ranging in price between $725 and $1275 (Canadian), depending on size. Recently, the company has expanded its product assortment to include a "perfect pillow" pillow-in-a-pillow and soft, breathable sheets, and even dog beds.

Casper also offers free shipping, and a 100 night guarantee. Unlike Sleep Country, however, Casper will refund the purchase price instead of offering a substitute.

Casper is growing extremely rapidly, and its phenomenal growth saw it being declared one of Fast Company's "Most Innovative Companies in the World" and in 2015, Casper won the title of TIME Magazine's "Best Inventions of 2015”, with sales in excess of US $100 million in its first year.

Sleep Country Canada has a brick-and-mortar/brand awarenss advantage over Casper — Sleep Country continues to open physical stores nationwide and as of December 31, 2016, it had 235 Canadian retail locations coast-to-coast, as well as 17 distribution centres. A new Calgary distribution centre opened last week. While Casper lacks physical retail stores in Canada, it recently partnered with West Elm in Toronto to offer consumers Casper products in a cash-and-carry model — the first time that Casper has done so, anywhere.

Sleep Country Canada and Casper have a third significant competitor in Canada, Endy Sleep, which is based out of Toronto and was founded in 2014. Endy Sleep, which manufactures in Canada, features memory foam mattresses and pillows that can be purchased online. As with Sleep Country and Casper, Endy’s mattresses ship to consumers in boxes, feature a 100 day home trial, and have a 10 year warranty. Endy’s twin-sized mattresses retail for $675, with prices going up to $950 for king and ‘California king’ sized versions.

*(Endy advertising on ttc subway car in toronto: photo: endy via twitter)*

It remains to be seen if Sleep Country Canada will advertise its new mattress on public transit, as have Casper and Endy Sleep. TTC Subway riders in Toronto, for example, have become accustomed to significant marketing by both Casper and Endy in subway stations, as well as on and in transit vehicles themselves. Both companies have been known to occupy all available ad space on some subway cars, in order to gain maximum exposure to consumers.

Canadian Retail News From Around The Web: May 10, 2017