Bedroom specialist Beter Bed has reported a growth in fourth quarter sales, resulting in full year sales of €229.4m, up 7.1%.
According to its latest trading update, Q4 sales rose 3.5% to €62.7m year-on-year, while also rising 15.3% on the previous quarter. Like-for-Like order intake Q4 increased by 17.3%, resulting in an increased order book of €23.1m.
Online sales were up 12.8% in Q4, leading to an online channel share of 16.9%, compared to a channel share of 15.5% in Q4 2021. Full year online channel share resulted at 18.3%.
Beter Bed shared its ongoing social media success to drive leads. “To position Beter Bed as a leading sleep expert on social media, we increasingly create more ‘advising’ content on the topic of sleep. The reach and engagement on social media channels have increased immensely, leading to a 152% growth in followers on Instagram and an increase of 73% in reach compared to last year, taking steps towards transforming the company from a pure retailer to a brand of choice.”
Meanwhile, the Benelux division further improved order intake and showed 4.4% sales growth compared to last year’s fourth quarter. Once again, Beter Bed experienced a very successful commercial program in Q4, with a strong Black Friday period and in which M line was able to increase sales significantly.
“To sharpen the in-store experience, the Beter Slapen ID configuration was rolled out to over 40 Beter Bed stores during 2022. All these stores have seen an uplift in customer satisfaction, ticket value and conversion rate and showed lower product returns, in line with the in-depth tests done at the first store in Groningen (Sontplein). In the first six months of 2023 the remaining network will be completed,” the company said.
“The online customer experience has also been significantly improved, as we continue to build out our product offering. Furthermore, Beter Bed has introduced a Marketplace specific assortment, which is starting to get traction. The newly introduced Kårlsson box spring and Beddenreus box spring and bedding collection have already proven to be successful assortment updates, resulting in additional customer demand and higher average order values.
“DBC recorded a decrease of sales in Q4 of 2022 of 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. This was mainly driven by a decline of sales in the wholesale channel to independent retailers.”
John Kruijssen, CEO of Beter Bed Holding, added: “We continued to deliver solid results both on- and offline in Q4 2022, despite the challenging macro-economic environment with high inflation and low consumer confidence. Our strategic initiatives keep gaining momentum. We opened a second Beter Bed Experience store in Eindhoven and have rolled out our revolutionary independent sleep advice tool, Beter Slapen ID, now in half of our store network.
“Our digital team is taking steps forward in improving the on-site customer experience and their culture of experimentation is helping and encouraging the rest of our company to innovate, test, experiment and learn as a way to make our business more efficient. We have taken significant steps to improve our positioning towards our sleep better, live better purpose and will continue our strategic journey to raise sleep awareness, increase spend on sleep, and create brands of choice.”
