The Q1 2026 benchmarking report for UK sleep retailers has just been published. Learn how the top 12 UK sleep retailers perform across the digital space.
The latest Q1 2026 benchmarking report for UK sleep retailers has just been published. It covers the largest 12 national sleep retailers, including Beds.co.uk, Dreams, Mattressman, And So To Bed, Land of Beds, Mattress Online, Happy Beds, Bedstar, MattressNextDay, Feather & Black, Soak & Sleep, and Bensons for Beds.
The research gives an inside track on who is winning the biggest share of voice online, and quantifies the gaps, risks and missed opportunities for other sleep retailers to win brand exposure, drive online orders, and even generate in-store footfall. The report highlights quick wins that will improve enquiries from your online strategy and identifies the barriers that may be reducing your site’s ability to optimise digital performance.
To see a preview and contents page of the Q1 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call.
For a glance into just 6 of the metrics, we evaluated these top 12 sleep retailers on, check out our quick-look table below;
Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's top and poorest-performing sleep retailers, or request a copy of the report for the full review.
The 70+ pages of research benchmarks each retailer based on 50+ metrics and indicators of successful digital strategy, including organic visibility, domain authority, paid media ads, conversion performance, technical performance, site speed, universal search, content, social ads, accessibility, and mobile performance.
Some of the leading players in the space are high spenders on paid media channels such as Google, Bing & Facebook - but have a poor or sub-optimal conversion improvement strategy. Without an optimised, sophisticated conversion strategy that maximises the conversion rate, the return on investment is unsustainable or will underperform. Scaling spend on paid media is not achievable unless the conversion rate delivers optimal performance in the sector. Some in the space have paid media spend levels from 30k+ per month but dedicate minimal resources and budgets to conversion testing. Given the cost per clicks on ad networks will continue to rise, we recommend spending at least 10% of your paid media budget on ongoing conversion optimisation testing schedules to ensure your paid media ROI maintains long-term viability, competitive advantage, and sustainability.
Pay-Per-Click marketing is constantly evolving, with more and more advertisers being forced to hand over a lot of control to Google's algorithms as the push for automation grows ever stronger. There are still key elements of control that we have though, the main one of these being budget which is ultimately something the algorithms can't take from you. That's why being smart with your budget and ad coverage is essential to achieving strong results and bettering what your competitors have to offer.
For Q1 2026, the average monthly budget wastage across these UK sleep retailers was £48,603, with some of the top players in the market spending a considerable amount on areas and audiences unlikely to deliver a return. We can see this in more detail when looking at the average monthly cost per cost-per-click (CPC) amongst advertisers, with the average of this metric being £12 . This highlights how competitive the market is and how important it is to control your budgets effectively.
There are varying monthly ad budgets across the competitors in the report. While this gap highlights the competitive advantage that larger budgets can provide, it's not just about spending more; it’s about spending smarter. By focusing on driving efficiency in campaign management, targeting, and budget allocation, businesses with smaller budgets can still effectively compete with larger players. Investing in data-driven strategies and refining ad performance can help close the gap and maximise the return on every pound spent, enabling growth even in a competitive landscape. Relative to their spend, Feather & Black reported the lowest monthly cost-per-click (CPC) at £3, and both Bedstar and Bed Factory Direct have the highest at £20.
The report highlights the importance of budget efficiency by comparing monthly ad spend with estimated CPC in relation to your competitors, see who has the highest and lowest CPC. To maximise the effectiveness of your budget, it’s essential to focus on driving CPC down while maintaining or improving campaign performance. In this report, Bedstar has the lowest estimate monthly ad spend at £4,890, and Dreams has the highest at £1,126,000.
By optimising targeting, refining ad copy, and leveraging data to identify high-converting opportunities, you can ensure every click delivers maximum value. This approach not only stretches your budget further but also boosts your return on ad spend (ROAS), enabling you to achieve stronger results without simply increasing expenditure.
Savvy digital marketers know that having a technically sound website is an essential component of a successful fully integrated digital strategy - plus a site capable of maximising conversion performance. Sleep retailers will need to ensure they're keeping on top of changing lines in stock, and that key pages such as product comparison content and delivery information are clearly signposted.
In our previous audit, Feather & Black received the most 404 errors (191). This quarter, Feather & Black has reduced their 404 errors to 16, no longer putting them at the bottom of the leaderboard. Currently, the sleep retailer with the most 404 errors is Dreams (reporting 112). Websites should pay attention to server and CMS configuration to avoid technical causes of 404 errors. Issues such as incorrect URL parameters, case sensitivity, or trailing slashes can result in broken pages. Ensuring consistent URL formatting and correct server rules helps prevent these errors from appearing.
When 62% of consumers are less likely to convert if they have a negative mobile site experience, ensuring that your site is quick and easy to load makes a significant improvement on your overall conversion rates. For sleep retailers, they'll be offering similar, if not the same, products as competitors, so it's essential that users are able to access what they're looking for quickly, to avoid them turning elsewhere.
In our last audit, Bedstar received the slowest mobile site speed (26). This quarter, Bedstar has increased their mobile site speed to 31 — moving them up the leaderboard. Currently, the mobile site speed ranges between 19 and 14, with And So To Bed reporting the slowest speed. Mobile site speed affects how users perceive trust and credibility. A slow website can make users question whether it is secure or technically sound. This is especially important for websites that ask users to fill in forms, make purchases, or share personal information. Faster load times help reassure users that the site is dependable.
Domain authority is an essential metric for measuring the effectiveness of SEO performance and helps create a reliable overall gauge of how effective your site is at achieving organic traffic, i.e. ‘free’ traffic that isn’t gained through sponsored ads. For sleep retailers, who are selling similar product lines to their competitors, an effective digital PR campaign will not only help improve DA, but gain valuable backlinks that may refer customers to their site.
A ‘good’ DA really comes down to how your competitors are performing, however, it’s generally considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60. In our last audit, Bed Factory Direct reported the lowest DA score (25). This quarter, Bed Factory Direct remains the sleep retailer to watch, and they’ve since decreased their DA score to 14. Domain authority reflects the overall health of a website’s SEO strategy. Improvements in technical performance, content quality, and link-building efforts all contribute to stronger authority over time. By focusing on these areas, websites can build sustainable growth and long-term search visibility.
A strong organic performance is strategically important as it ensures your site ranks above competitors for key, transactional keywords. When 93% of your customers won’t go past the first page of Google, your absence or lack of targeting for essential keywords will cost you conversions. As with many e-commerce sectors, we are seeing a sector-wide fall in traffic to sleep retailer sites, indicating this is an area consumers are cutting back on during the cost-of-living crisis.
Five brands reported a drop in organic traffic on desktop, with Mattress Online receiving the biggest loss (-38%). On mobile, 6 brands received a drop in organic traffic, with MattressNextDay reporting the biggest drop (-32%). Building high-quality backlinks remains an important strategy for increasing organic visibility. Links from authoritative and relevant websites strengthen domain credibility, making it easier for pages to rank well on both desktop and mobile search results. Consistent link-building supports long-term growth rather than short-term spikes.
Google Universal Search Results is an evolving opportunity to make your pages visible on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Universal results often appear before traditional listings and are eye-catching for users. Universal search results refer to rankings on a SERP that are not the traditional ‘blue line’ Google link, and a retailer can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. For sleep retailers, 'reviews' and 'image pack' results are a useful way of grabbing attention from potential customers directly from the SERP, and standing out from competitors.
Dreams continues to secure the most Universal Search appearances (25,736) — an increase from 15,864 previously. The majority of their appearances came from ‘images’ (13,700).
Longtail keywords are often considered high intent and potentially more likely to convert as a searcher is being more specific. Optimising for longtail keywords also puts your content strategy in a strong position to rank for retailer new search terms as they enter Google’s index. As mentioned, when retailers are selling similar, if not the same, products, capitalising on organic visibility and being strategic with keywords is essential for capturing opportunities for sales.
Dreams continues to secure the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (8,234) — a decrease from 8,583 previously. Dreams also continues to secure the most appearances for positions 4–10 (10,417) — a decrease from 9,992 previously. Longtail keywords help websites build sustainable organic traffic growth. While individual keywords may bring in smaller numbers of visitors, their combined impact can be significant. By targeting many relevant long-tail queries, websites can create a stable and diverse stream of organic traffic over time.
With the number of Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) hitting over 44 million users in 2023, it is not surprising that companies have jumped at the opportunity to advertise on the social media platform. Facebook’s UK digital advertising revenue has been estimated to have breached 2.6b GB pounds in 2019. For supermarkets, they can use Facebook ads to drive in-store and online footfall in high-competition areas, along with ensuring visibility on key events and product lines.
We’ve included screenshots of Happy Bed’s sponsored Facebook posts. This UK sleep retailer utilised vertical imagery, demonstrating they’re catering for mobile users.
When it comes to social media and on-site content strategies, it is important to release content that has a longer shelf life. An article is considered 'Evergreen' if it has maintained its relevancy to an audience for longer. It's great for your retailer engagement, but great for Google too, who will recognise content which achieves traffic over a long period of time. Though we generally see brands favour Facebook and Instagram as their platform of choice, Pinterest is an exciting avenue for sleep retailers to consider, as they can tap into a comparatively affluent audience who are immersed in the consideration stage of the buying cycle.
Dreams secured the most Facebook Likes (76,200), and Bensons for Beds secured the most Instagram followers (69,800). Twitter was the most popular social media platforms of all brands. Dreams received the highest total engagement rate (6,966), and Mattress Online secured the highest average engagement (134).
20% of people in the UK have a disability – 2 million of which are people living with sight loss. In addition, 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some degree of colour vision deficiency. When websites are not designed to meet these needs, retailers lose customer interest as they turn elsewhere. With blue often being a favoured colour within the sleep sector, sleep retailers using blue as part of their brand colour must ensure there is sufficient contrast between text and background colours, in order to remain accessible.
In our previous report, Bedstar flagged the most accessibility alerts (571). This quarter, Bedstar remains the sleep retailer with the most accessibility alerts, and they’ve since increased their total to 590. Accessibility alerts harm how a brand is perceived by their audience. When users encounter accessibility barriers, it can suggest that the brand has not invested enough effort into user experience. This perception can be especially damaging for organisations that promote inclusivity or customer-focused values.
To get a copy of the full report, please complete the enquiry form. If you want to talk to us about accelerating your digital performance, please call us on 01543 410014 or schedule a call with Rory Tarplee.