Mattress Firm

Optimizing E‑Commerce and Launching Private‑Label Innovation for America’s Leading Mattress Retailer

Background

Mattress Firm, the largest mattress retailer in the United States, has been transforming how Americans shop for sleep since 1986. With a nationwide network of stores under its flagship brand and multiple acquired retail brands including 1800‑Mattress, Sleep Experts and Sleepys, the company has long offered a wide selection of brand‑name bedding at competitive prices, delivered by knowledgeable in‑store and digital teams. 


As consumer shopping behavior increasingly shifted online — and Mattress Firm also sought to bring its own “bed‑in‑a‑box” products to market (including Dreambed and its distinct branded line Tulo) — the company turned to UpTop to evaluate, refine and accelerate its digital commerce and product launch strategy.

Challenges

Despite having launched an enterprise e‑commerce platform, Mattress Firm realized it wasn’t meeting performance expectations. Key elements such as category landing pages were missing, hampering product discovery and browsing across both the flagship site and the various acquired‑brand sites. The shopping cart and checkout flows lacked clarity, created friction, and left users questioning trust and ease of purchase. 


At the same time, Mattress Firm was acquiring and integrating multiple brands in parallel (1800‑Mattress, Sleep Experts, Sleepys) and launching its own private‑label mattresses (Dreambed and Tulo). Each of these required aligned digital experiences, brand positioning, product launch readiness, and standalone CX (customer experience) flows — adding complexity. 


Conversion rates, especially at checkout, under‑performed, and the company needed a partner who could bring a customer‑centric design lens, analytical rigor, and stakeholder alignment across multiple brand streams and product launches.

Partnership Info

client
Mattress Firm
Industry
Retail / Consumer Goods / Omnichannel Commerce
type
Enterprise Multi‑Brand E‑Commerce & Private‑Label Launch
services
UX Strategy, Website Design, Visual Design, Analytics, Multi‑Brand Integration, Digital Brand Launch, Front‑End Development

Partnership Info

client
Mattress Firm
Industry
Retail / Consumer Goods / Omnichannel Commerce
type
Enterprise Multi‑Brand E‑Commerce & Private‑Label Launch
services
UX Strategy, Website Design, Visual Design, Analytics, Multi‑Brand Integration, Digital Brand Launch, Front‑End Development

Background

Mattress Firm, the largest mattress retailer in the United States, has been transforming how Americans shop for sleep since 1986. With a nationwide network of stores under its flagship brand and multiple acquired retail brands including 1800‑Mattress, Sleep Experts and Sleepys, the company has long offered a wide selection of brand‑name bedding at competitive prices, delivered by knowledgeable in‑store and digital teams. 


As consumer shopping behavior increasingly shifted online — and Mattress Firm also sought to bring its own “bed‑in‑a‑box” products to market (including Dreambed and its distinct branded line Tulo) — the company turned to UpTop to evaluate, refine and accelerate its digital commerce and product launch strategy.

Challenges

Despite having launched an enterprise e‑commerce platform, Mattress Firm realized it wasn’t meeting performance expectations. Key elements such as category landing pages were missing, hampering product discovery and browsing across both the flagship site and the various acquired‑brand sites. The shopping cart and checkout flows lacked clarity, created friction, and left users questioning trust and ease of purchase. 


At the same time, Mattress Firm was acquiring and integrating multiple brands in parallel (1800‑Mattress, Sleep Experts, Sleepys) and launching its own private‑label mattresses (Dreambed and Tulo). Each of these required aligned digital experiences, brand positioning, product launch readiness, and standalone CX (customer experience) flows — adding complexity. 


Conversion rates, especially at checkout, under‑performed, and the company needed a partner who could bring a customer‑centric design lens, analytical rigor, and stakeholder alignment across multiple brand streams and product launches.
"We can go to them with any problem or task we have, and they're always willing to figure out a way to solve it or get it done."
– Director of Digital Development, Mattress Retailer

Approach

UpTop began with a deep‑dive assessment of Mattress Firm’s newly launched digital environment and its brand‑acquisition / product‑launch portfolio. We used a combination of analytics review, user feedback, heuristic UX evaluation, and best‑practice benchmarking to uncover friction and opportunity. We mapped the broader brand ecosystem (Mattress Firm + acquired brands + private‑label launches) to identify common user flows, cross‑brand synergies, and key differentiators in the “bed‑in‑a‑box” market.

What began as an initial remediation of the flagship website evolved into a multi‑year partnership. UpTop supported not only ongoing UX optimization for Mattress Firm’s core site, but also digital optimization and CX flows for its acquired brands (1800‑Mattress, Sleep Experts, Sleepys) and the product launches of proprietary brands (Dreambed, Tulo). UpTop became a trusted partner in continuous digital innovation, product‑launch readiness, brand‑experience alignment, and conversion‑optimization strategy. 

Solution

Early in the engagement, UpTop focused on site‑wide navigation and usability improvements for Mattress Firm’s core e‑commerce experience. This included redesigning the homepage, header, footer and nav bar to create a more intuitive and consistent user journey. A pivotal update was the introduction of category landing pages, which improved browsing and product discovery significantly. 


Following that, we addressed the shopping cart and checkout experience. Because users expressed concerns around trust, transparency and ease of purchase, we revamped the entire checkout flow: clearer UX copy, streamlined design, support for simplified one‑click purchasing, and mobile‑first considerations — all aimed at reducing friction and improving conversion.
Parallel to that work, UpTop supported Mattress Firm’s brand integration and acquisition work: ensuring that acquired brands (1800‑Mattress, Sleep Experts, Sleepys) were onboarded into coherent digital flows, while preserving differentiated brand identities; we helped define the digital architecture and user journeys so that each brand could share core commerce infrastructure but maintain a unique brand voice. 


Additionally, UpTop partnered with Mattress Firm to bring its private‑label “bed‑in‑a‑box” mattresses to market — notably Dreambed and its Tulo brand. For Tulo, UpTop helped define the brand identity, design and launch a standalone website, craft the overall customer experience (CX) for the direct-to-consumer/bed‑in‑a‑box model, and align listing, product discovery, checkout and fulfilment flows. This enabled Mattress Firm to expand from being a retailer of many brands into a creator and marketer of its own sleep‑brands. 


Finally, UpTop conducted a Post‑Purchase UX audit covering six customer scenarios (for Mattress Firm and its newer brands). Through persona development, journey mapping, sentiment analysis, usability testing and competitive benchmarking, we identified and enhanced touchpoints after the sale — including delivery, unboxing, returns, customer‑support, and cross‑brand loyalty pathways — often an overlooked area in e‑commerce.

Results & Impact

  • 43% increase in overall conversion rate for the flagship e‑commerce experience.
  • 60% increase in shopping‑cart conversion rate after checkout flow improvements.
  • Reduced cart abandonment and increased customer confidence in the digital purchase path.
  • Seamless integration of multiple acquired brands (1800‑Mattress, Sleep Experts, Sleepys) under a unified digital platform and governance, enabling cross‑brand scale without diluting individual identities.
  • Successful launch of Mattress Firm’s proprietary brands (Dreambed, Tulo) with dedicated digital experiences, thereby opening new revenue streams and moving the company toward product‑owner status in addition to retail.
  • Strengthened, long‑term digital‑strategy partnership: Mattress Firm and UpTop continue to collaborate on conversion optimization, product‑launch readiness, brand evolution and cross‑brand customer experience improvements.
Mattress Firm’s enduring partnership with UpTop demonstrates what’s possible when design excellence, brand clarity and data‑driven UX meet the scale of a large national retailer. Together, they elevated a major mattress retailer’s e‑commerce ecosystem into a best‑in‑class experience — while simultaneously enabling brand expansion, product innovation and strategic transformation.

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