While some furniture and mattress retail stores remain open amid the coronavirus crisis, BEDGEAR, the fast-growing Performance® bedding company with a focus on health and well-being, has created “clean” guidelines to ensure consumers feel safe and comfortable shopping in-store today and after the pandemic.
The company is encouraging retailers to take a fresh approach to every aspect of the customer journey, especially envisioning the store through a new customer’s eyes. In-store customers now have a new set of expectations and will carry these standards with them as stores begin to fully re-open when the coronavirus subsides.
Sleep Napkins
Central to BEDGEAR’s recommended best practices during the pillow and mattress fitting process is the use of the company’s patented Sleep Napkins®. Perforated and disposable, Sleep Napkins cover the entire pillow or a body-size portion of a mattress to maintain a clean surface between the shopper and the bedding product. The hypoallergenic napkins are used only during the fitting process with a consumer—enhancing the shopper’s enjoyment and ensuring each retail guest has a clean environment in which to test products.
“The retail community doesn’t need to go overboard with social distancing and have their front-line members wear hazmat suits; we don’t want to create a fear of in-store shopping and push away consumers, forcing them to shop only online,” says Eugene Alletto, founder and chief executive of BEDGEAR. “Shoppers must continue to have the opportunity to touch and interact with products, which is integral to the bedding journey, and retailers must make them comfortable with the entire transaction from in the store to the final delivery.”
Other clean guidelines BEDGEAR suggests include creating a more welcoming and spacious environment in the sleep department by decluttering, especially in smaller stores, allowing shoppers to roam more freely during this social distancing period. In addition, they say, retailers should deploy front-door greeters to visibly disinfect door handles and common surfaces and ensure neat grooming for all staff, as well as enable the use of masks, gloves and slip-on booties for delivery teams.
PPE Donations
In related news, since many hospital staff members are unable to return to their homes and must sleep in shifts at the medical facilities without basic sleep necessities like pillows during the pandemic, starting this week, the BEDGEAR Foundation is distributing tens of thousands of KN95 respirator masks and Performance pillows to hospitals, nursing homes and first response teams based on Long Island (home of the company’s corporate office), as well as in the Rock Hill, SC, area (home to BEDGEAR’s production facility).
Additionally, BEDGEAR is donating 19 percent of all of the brand’s Performance Pillow sales from bedgear.com through the month of April to the Foundation, its registered 501c3 arm. All proceeds donated will be used by the BEDGEAR Foundation in its COVID-19 relief efforts. “BEDGEAR is proud to offer our online shoppers a way to make a difference in the lives of others by combatting the coronavirus and directly helping the medical staff on the front lines,” Alletto says.
BEDGEAR is encouraging other companies within the bedding and home furnishings industry to make a monetary donation to the BEDGEAR Foundation which will be used to produce and ship the KN95 respirator masks and performance pillows. The public too, is encouraged to make donations. For more information, visit bedgearfoundation.org.
