Banking On A Good Night’s Sleep

A good night’s sleep is a precondition to wellbeing. An adequate eight hours of sleep and sleeping well are known to improve memory, help weight loss and improve the human immune system. An uncomfortable mattress can be a hindrance to a good night’s sleep and this notion inspired a company called Wakefit.co.

Said Ankit Garg, Co-Founder and CEO, Wakefit.co “With over ten years of experience in the professional domain, I initiated Wakefit’s journey in 2015. Prior to that, I served in the new product development wing at Bayer Chemicals. I was also associated with Tapzo in the process excellence department.”

Even so, Garg was undoubtedly, born to be an entrepreneur. He developed a product through research and innovation and a model of business that makes the product available to customers at the lowest possible cost. Wakefit.co adopts a direct-from-factory model of delivery that lowers the cost of its mattresses for customers.

Talking of Wakefit.co’s vision Garg said, “We have transformed from simply being a sleep solutions company to a sleep and home solutions company. At Wakefit.co, our vision is to become a pioneering, one-stop shop for all sleep and home solutions in India. Our future plans entail strengthening the brand and ramping up production capabilities as well as distribution networks across Indian markets and expanding product lines to include lighting, decor, furnishings, and more, in addition to sleep and furniture products.”

The industry itself has massive headroom for growth, given that there is a huge untapped market. The size of the global mattress market is also expected to accelerate, fuelled by a rising demand for customised mattresses and enhanced experience.

“Leveraging our first-mover advantage as the first D2C brand in the sleep and home solutions space, we have been able to address the unmet needs of Indian customers in a previously unorganised industry that was fraught with inflated costs, middlemen, and minimal innovation,” said Garg.

The idea of the factory- to-the-home delivery of mattresses was fuelled by the growing popularity of e-commerce. Garg came up with the idea of an online startup where products manufactured at a centrally located plant, could be shipped directly to customer households. Garg had previously worked in the foam industry and realised that there was a huge unfulfilled demand in the mattress industry.

His biggest insight was that customer service was poor among mattress manufacturers. There was little to no innovation in the industry and customers always ended up paying more for a mattress. Brainstorming on these issues with his co-founder led to the inception of Wakefit.co.

Garg attributed the reasons behind his brand’s success to opting to sell Wakefit.co products online. “The most important decision we took was to go the direct-to-customer way, ensuring that we did not lose sleep over the middlemen increasing costs and decreasing quality. Choosing to sell our products online worked in our favour and it also helped regulate quality and prices far more easily.”

Garg and his team are now excited to set up larger experience centres both in the cities in which they exist and new cities. The decision, he said, was in response to growing customer feedback, demanding more ‘experience centres’ so that customers may experience the look and feel of the products before purchasing them”.