Ashley Furniture recently announced its new mattress store concept, ZZZ’s. The first shop opened in April and the company hopes to have 40 open by the end of the year.  ZZZ’s is unique because customers are not greeted by salespeople when they enter; rather, each shopper gets her own tablet to navigate her around the store.  The tablet acts as a sleep consultant.  Once the customer receives the tablet loaded with the ZZZ’s app, the customer enters information like height, weight, gender and sleeping pattern. Customers are given recommendations and can walk around the store and test mattresses without a salesperson following them around.  Sales associates are still available to answer questions or assist customers when they are ready to buy.

Other stores, like Apple and Sears, have been using tablets for a while to facilitate in-store sales.  ZZZ’s was built around the use of tablets from the very beginning.  Ashley Furniture is targeting higher-end shoppers and believes that these shoppers want more scientific evidence to make a decision, and technology assists with that.

Discussion Questions:

1. How is ZZZ’s different from other mattress retailers?

2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this retail concept?

3. Would you buy a mattress from ZZZ’s?

 

SOURCE: Sarah Maloney, Marketing Daily, April 22, 2013