- Introduction
Using an exploratory research method, thirty-five local Australian mattresses, in both the online and offline Singapore markets, were examined from April to July 2019. The writing section reviews relevant literature on australia queen mattress marketing, Australian export policies, and the intensive characteristics of international mattress brands. It summarizes the recent experience of international mattresses on the Singapore market and presents a rationale for the research focus. The fourth section of research discusses the data collection, indicating the type of mattress and properties examined. The conclusion and further study suggestions are abstracted.
The research paper aims to provide a comparative analysis of Australian queen mattress in the Singapore market with the intent of understanding theaustralia size mattress in singapore offerings in terms of their branding, online availability, and pricing. Mattresses have rapidly evolved from a commoditized necessity to personalized lifestyle products where one type of mattress will not meet everyone’s requirements and comfort expectations. In Singapore, we often select from well-known international brands like Sealy, Simmons, and Tempur, with very high-end brands like Hästens being the ultimate symbol of luxury and exclusivity, catering to only the wealthy few. The discussions on Australian mattress brands are often omitted, and this study aims to showcase several Australian mattress quality beddings in the Southeast Asian market. Often, not much attention is paid to the production origin of mattresses, and Australian beddings are frequently left out of the competitive international market.
1.1. Background and Significance
This work will be addressed in the qualitative phase with a focus group and multidisciplinary panel with postgraduate researchers. We emphasize throughout the research process the journeys of the product in the shopping context, brand, point of purchase, size, dimensions, and perception of color differences that can influence the dimension of perception of quality and satisfaction. Any business marketing consists of planning, meeting six stages, needs and demands, products, satisfaction, metrics, and results. It is designed to meet the needs and demands of two main market actors, buyers themselves and potential customers who work with each other. The purpose of this study is to identify the perceptions and the differences in the dimensions that can influence the satisfaction of Australian brand products in Singapore. These perceptions and differences are considered important to better manage customer satisfaction.
The Singaporean company, our company’s local partner, is one of the most successful retail companies in Singapore known for providing branded products at a very competitive price. It is a fact that the price of the product in Singapore, including Australian products, is more expensive than the price of that same product in Sydney. Our company intends to leverage this price difference in our planned research aimed at conducting comparisons of Australian Queen Size mattresses at The Sydney Company and The Singaporean Company. We also plan to assess the impact of the context of the sale, size, color, brand, language, and size parameters on perceptions of loss of quality dimensions and customer satisfaction. The buying context (products offered, point of purchase, and current situation of the sector) can influence the purchase decision and the buying journey before a purchase occurs.
- Australian Queen Size Mattresses
Of the many we found, only those few who gave up a part of their retail space because they felt that the Australian queen size mattress is something worth sharing with the other “not-so-well-to-do” or brand-conscious customers. We sincerely feel that those merchants who made the effort or who have shared their retail space with the Australian queen size mattress had rendered a signal service to the customers. Because of these few who gave the Australian queen size mattress some retail attention, it opens up the opportunity of our research on the Australian queen size mattress found in Singapore. In summary, why research Australian queen size mattresses in Singapore? The objective of the paper is to compare some of the Australian queen size mattresses found in the Singapore market. Of the few brands, we hope this paper can give some basic knowledge to the one who might want to buy an Australian queen size mattress but do not know how to choose one.
Queen size mattresses are known for their huge sizes and extraordinary luxury. Australia is well-known for its spacious living environment, and the queen size mattress is one of many products that is usually put in for the furnishing of a spacious master bedroom. Australia is also well-known for its good mattress quality and world-leading mattress technology. With the increasing number of Australians staying in Singapore and preferably using the similar mattress, the number of Australian queen size mattresses found in Singapore has also increased. Among the many shops you might go to, you can hardly find a place where you can find a variety of Australian queen size mattresses.
2.1. Features and Specifications
2.1. Features and Specifications. This section uses four Malaysian mattresses and an Australian brand called Store DJ (in section 3) as examples to compare their features and specifications. The mattresses have terrifemale2, EkoGel/natural oil latex, Kapok Pain Relief Fibre, Winn Sleep System—Arctic EPS (Quad), and Eva Tex. Adagio, Dahlia, Flora Plus, Lily Plus, and Jasmine are among the Malaysian mattresses in a brand called Serta. The first four mattresses and Eva Tex are among the Australian brand’s collections. The characteristics of the two Malaysian queen-size mattresses are similar. Female2 is made with a foam material, a pressure bag memory foam, natural latex, and a firm foam in its order. Eva Tex is also a foam mattress that uses a premium memory foam on top, standard memory foam, and standard latex at the base. I-Gel is then utilized in all Queen Serta-sized mattresses, followed by cotton and knitted fabric.
Australian size mattresses are 1.5 times the size of Asian queen size mattresses at 152 cm by 203 cm. However, bedrooms in Singapore are typically small due to the limited living space in Singapore and are not able to accommodate Australian queen size mattresses. Therefore, the use of Australian queen size mattresses in Singapore is limited by size restrictions and little is known about these mattresses in the Singapore market. This paper provides a comparative analysis among four Australian queen size mattresses. They were chosen as their sales count constituted the highest sales count among other Australian queen size mattresses available. These data were drawn from the Lazada online shopping platform. Data were obtained from relevant websites of Australian queen size mattresses and their retailers. The results suggest that Australian queen size mattresses are suitable for the Singaporean market given the extensive features and specifications provided.
2.2. Popular Brands and Models
King Koil offers a range of mattresses using different nickel and coil combinations and latex in all their mattresses. Foam is used in the King Koil World Luxury Mattress. King Koil can range from S$1,336 for a King Koil Euro King Size Spinal Guard Trella Spring Mattress to S$7,577 for a King Koil Horizon-Plush Veloute Mattress. A seven-zone SleepSHIELD Latex gives more sleeping area and absorbs pressure, providing comfort and relief from body aches. The mattress has Milano knit finishing and an unbleached cotton treatment, adding to its visual appeal.
The primary manufacturers of Australian Queen Size mattresses sold in Singapore are King Koil and Slumberland, and selections are based on the models still available for sale in Singapore. As the study was meant to provide international students with options to purchase Australian Queen Size mattresses other than from international or local online sources, models are not compared if they are no longer available for sale in a retail store in Singapore. As of the start of 2010, there has been a mass reduction of available models, and few choices are left.
- Market Analysis in Singapore
3.1. Demand and Trends
3.2. Competitive Landscape
- Consumer Considerations
When it comes to choosing a mattress of the right firmness, even a little testing is required. Those who have the opportunity should lie on the mattress in their typical sleep position. In keeping with this, and assuming that no regulations prevent such activities at mattress exhibitions, Jurong Health Services surgical spine department reinforced the practice of testing by recommending those seeking mattresses to physically try them out.
To evade back pains and other discomforts, a good quality mattress can provide a vital difference. According to the American Sleep Association, a mattress that provides comfort and good support assists in attaining a good night’s rest while promoting healthy spinal alignment. Although everyone’s requirements and body types are different, a satisfactory or inappropriate mattress can make a significant difference between an orchid-blossomed day and suffering from allergic rhinitis.
In addressing consumer queries, manufacturers should also be sensitive to the different cultural dimensions in their various target markets. Given that sleep is an important aspect of human life, it is not surprising that a greater portion of a person’s lifetime is spent in bed compared to others.
Singaporean reviewers appeared particularly detail-oriented, noting the pricing of mattresses, type of springs used inside, detailed structure of mattresses, the exact weight of mattresses, methodologies used by mattresses in restraining movement while sleeping, mode of mattress packaging and testing of the mattress. These are practical concerns that make a significant impact on the consumer. For instance, mattresses with double-sided layers of foam may present storage problems, and mattresses occupying larger space volumes necessitate larger freight charges.
4.1. Price Comparison
Consumer welfare continues to be hampered when international trade leads to a monopolistic competitive market in the horizontal economy, and brands are given the freedom to impart brand premium to promote market invasion. While Oz mate’s generalization of brand premium applies predominantly to all Australian products, my pricing results are an amalgamation of yin and yang. In the realm of the Singaporean retailing domain, both homogeneity and heterogeneity prices of the product spectrum are evident in this paper. The type of offerings could be perceived homogeneously, with products extending along a spatial continuum, or different assumptions could be made based on the bundle of the product. Australian product offerings could be deemed homogeneous in material terms, qualitative and aesthetic terms hedonism, while differentiation in attributes and brand premium are emphatically represented to Singaporean consumers through the conspicuous price differential.
Having introduced the market structure and sampling characteristics of Australian queen size mattresses available in the Singaporean market and the multi-perspective product differentiation for comparison, this section embarks on delineating their price composition. The price observed among the Australian mattresses in the Singaporean market displays, by and large, a level of homogeneity in terms of structure, philosophy, and nature. Most Australian brands have conditioned their pricing based predominantly on three functional dimensions. The price composition predominantly consists of top, middle, and base layer factors. These factors mainly encompass changes in merchandise, hedonistic elements, and brand premium features. This work extends the necessity to incorporate additional conditioning variables to segregate the source of price differentiation and effectively account for the noticeable price premium observed for the Australian products.
4.2. Quality and Durability
The main physical store factors that both researchers and shoppers agreed would lessen stress and encourage shopping would be good sound insulation and comfortable sales staff. The retailing strategy to minimize the effect of ‘lying down on the job’ would be to distribute literature to the other party and when they are holding the line they can offer advice and assistance. To some extent investment in physical enhancements such as security services, privacy booths, and a customer rest area could promote a sensual feel and face-to-face ‘customer-customer-touch’ without being intrusive to the promotion of a sales environment. Personal design and service provided by the sales staff were not important, and seemed to be something of an Australian contentment and luxury lifestyle ‘advantage’ not relished in Singapore where personalized retail service is often dictated by the relationship with the customer. Use of product claims and performance was very important, as a well-informed, in-control customer possessing a wealth of product information and a clear sense of consumer pool and value would outweigh the use of personal design and service.
4.2. Quality and Durability A few Singaporean shoppers specifically mentioned that Australian mattresses that are made for the Asian market are not up to the same quality and standards of mattresses made for the Australian market hence would not consider them. Other factors that were believed to contribute to the long life of a mattress were hypoallergenic properties, usage of natural materials such as wool, silk or latex, and other comfort and health-related properties. Product related marketing would take precedence on the website.
Australian-made mattresses were perceived to be of high quality and durable by Singaporean shoppers, who had quite conservative views on the lifetime of their mattresses. The most common replacement cycle noted by shoppers was every 10 years, while generally, anytime they thought that it was wearing out or when they could afford it were also stated as common reasons. Unlike their Australian counterparts, who often buy a new mattress for their second bedroom, guest room or holiday home, Singaporeans have limited floor space in their bedrooms for only one queen-sized bed, and work long hours so lack of sleep or back problems may not be as pressing a concern. The comfort and quality issues were discovered almost immediately upon lying down on a mattress, and the key factors that influenced purchase were noted as being foam quality, coil gauge and general components of the mattress. As with other case analyses, aesthetics played a role in adding perceived value but custom options, not available in Singapore, such as custom zips on bushes, different feels for either side and different densities of foam for the partners to sleep in a ‘common groove’ were discounted as important only for strange situations.
- Conclusion
The mattresses that can be bought online through Shopify of Myla Mattress, Macoda Mattress, Sleep Republic, Eva Mattress, Onebed, Noa Mattress, and the Manchester and wooden bed base of Koala (King and Queen Mattresses) were included in this empirical study. Upon conducting the comparative analysis, the study found substantial observed information imperfection in the Michigan model, as consumers do not really know the attributes of the mattress that they intend to get from the internet. Many of the attributes related to the mattresses are unseen, hidden, and incomplete. The big price gap did not coexist with the big BWSW or Shopify score or rating, and some high BWSW mattresses had small Shopify ratings. This shows that there is great information imperfection on Shopify, for some mattresses. Consumers are hence unable to effectively assess the quality of the mattresses and only possess incomplete and partially asymmetric information.
By conducting a comparative analysis of Australian queen size mattresses in the Singaporean market, this study demonstrated the significant differences in price, attributes, Shopify ratings, and potentially also the quality of the Australian mattresses currently being distributed in Singapore. As the physical properties of mattresses are difficult to effectively evaluate without a proper test site, this study is timely and relevant to consumers thinking of buying Australian mattresses via Singaporean Shopify. The research provides some shopping guidelines on how to choose the best online Australian mattresses being sold in the Singaporean market.
5.1. Summary of Findings
The price of the Australian queen size mattresses in the Singaporean market is generally more affordable. The average price of the Australian queen size mattresses is $2600.29 compared with MattressPicks’ publication, the average price of the queen size mattresses in the U.S. is US$2524 (1USD = 1.34SGD, the exchange rate as at 6 May 2020). The price was also researched and the cost difference in the Australian and U.S. manufactured queen size mattresses were significantly different.
Summary of Results The findings indicate that companies manufacture different types of queen size mattresses to suit the preferences of consumers. Some mattresses offer unique features such as having memory foam pillow tops that provide exceptional comfort and can transform the mattress. The interesting feature of having a 100-nights free trial was noted. Seventy-nine percent of the mattresses had this feature. Consumers can receive a full refund if they are not satisfied with the mattress. There is also a relatively small number of mattress companies that also contribute to the community such as providing a mattress for the homeless for every mattress sold. The average price of the mattresses is $2600.29. The main method of transporting the mattresses is by moulding and developing a box for a more efficient and cost-friendly service. Consumers may expect free delivery, traditional shop purchases and mattress removal services for these mattresses. The demand for Australian-manufactured products is expected to increase, and this study provides a timely understanding as consumers are increasingly becoming more interested and want to support local and regional brands.
5.2. Recommendations for Consumers
Prior to purchasing an Australian queen size mattress in a Singaporean store or from an Australian exporting company, it is recommended that the shopper first lie down on it. Novel mattress buying tips which consumers can follow to ensure they buy mattresses that will provide them a full night of sleep are also given. This list of mattress buying tips includes advice on the mattress buying process, characteristics to look for in a mattress to get a restful sleep, such as prices, sizes, and salespersons, and delivery, refund, and warranty policies. A conventional mattress guide suggesting sleeping positions that mattresses can be used for, and the suggested mattress types and characteristics for use in beds for the elderly, and sufferers of allergies, insomnia, back problems, and staff infections, is also available. With a non-profit mattress testing centre, which will incur no cost to manufacturers, retailers, and shoppers, set up by The Singapore Bedding and Upholstery Manufacturers and Suppliers Association, it is believed that all mattresses made available to consumers will qualify to be purchased based on the capitalistic motto of ‘let the buyer determine the true value’.
Recommendation for consumers and the domestic mattress industry is suggested. Mattress buying tips, including advice on characteristics to look out for in a mattress to ensure good restful sleep, are offered. Suggestions to The Singapore Bedding and Upholstery Manufacturers and Suppliers Association for maintaining its standard of quality in mattresses made available to Singaporeans are also made, with the recommendation that a non-profit mattress testing centre be set up where consumers can do a ‘test drive’ on any mattress at no additional cost to them.