Amazon
Amazon is now selling mattresses under its own private label.
- Amazon has released its own brand of AmazonBasics mattress.
- The prices start as low as $130 for a twin-size bed.
- It means Amazon now competes with the likes of Casper and Tuft & Needle, as well as the many other startups making foam mattresses that are shipped directly to customers in a box.
- The new mattress is another example of Amazon creating its own version of a best seller from a third-party merchant on its website.
While Amazon's new mattress doesn't seem complicated, its launch shows why some critics are concerned about the e-commerce giant's business practices.
The mattress, which starts at $130 for a twin size and is made primarily of foam, was released on September 28. It comes in three depths: eight inches, 10 inches, and 12 inches deep. Sizes twin through California king are available.
The move expands Amazon's private-label Basics brand, which sells everything from batteries to doggie bags. AmazonBasics was Amazon's first in-house brand, and it's one of its most developed, with 120 products.Amazon already sold bedding and furniture including bed frames, but this is the first mattress being sold by the company directly.
The move puts Amazon in direct competition with mattress startups, a number of which have launched in recent years. Though Casper arguably started the bed-in-a-box trend with its foam mattresses, dozens of imitators have sprung up due to the low startup costs involved. The market has contracted in recent months, as shown by startup Tuft & Needle merging with Serta Simmons at the end of September. Walmart has developed its own mattress and bedding brand, Allswell, while Target invested $75 million in Casper.
The new mattress also puts Amazon in direct competition with its own third-party partners, however. The current best-selling mattress on Amazon is the Zinus Memory Foam Green Tea Mattress. It's been written up in online publications for years and has been praised for its combination of comfort and low price.
Amazon's new mattresses, however, are several dollars cheaper than the various configurations of the Zinus mattress.
A spokesperson for Amazon did not immediately return Business Insider's request for comment on the pricing of the new mattresses.
Amazon's private brands have come under fire lately, as some critics have pointed to the problems inherent with the company's overall strategy to be both a retailer of goods and a marketplace platform for other sellers.
Critics including the European Union's competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, and US Sen. Elizabeth Warren have said that Amazon limits competition, as it can use its sales data to help launch its own brands and products like the new mattress. The EU has opened a preliminary investigation into whether Amazon has violated antitrust rules by using third-party data to launch its own products, though it has not yet become a formal inquiry.