Today, Sleepopolis sends more traffic to Casper’s website than to any other mattress brand, according to data from SimilarWeb. This raised questions about a conflict of interest when Sleepopolis’ review of Casper suddenly improved.

After Casper sued three of the sites, the high-profile mattress company financed the takeover of one of them, called Sleepopolis. The power these websites amassed has not gone unnoticed in the industry.

But the rise of online mattress sellers has created a perfect recipe for these content chefs: A high-priced item that results in a large commission, coupled with a heavy consumer reliance on reviews, since many of these new mattress brands are not widely sold in physical stores. This model has been around almost as long as the internet. These sites make money from so-called affiliate fees, commissions earned when a reader clicks a link in a review and goes on to purchase that mattress afterward. But in his place are a slew of website owners proficient in the art of search-engine marketing, funneling you with the help of Google toward the mattress that lines their pockets the most. Gone is the slick-talking store sales guy directing you toward the mattress with the best profit margin or the highest commission. There was a time when a new breed of mattress companies like Casper were supposed to usher in an era of mattress buying that was more transparent for consumers - and one that would make the dishonest store salesperson a thing of the past.īut as these brands have risen, so too have new entities that have filled the salesperson’s old role: Mattress review websites - purported to provide honest reviews - led, in some cases, by everyday people who have no experience in the mattress industry or in product reviewing.

Nectar mattress review on sleepopolis