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COVID-19: Surge in Kiwis ordering beds & mattresses online as more work from bed
COVID-19: Surge in Kiwis ordering beds & mattresses online as more work from bed
![Bed, bedroom, Ecosa](/sites/default/files/styles/cropped_image_16_7_/public/2020-08/Ecosa-bedroom-1.jpg?itok=8glB9NAs)
A local online retailer of a new flat-pack bed base and mattress in a box has seen a surge in demand through the country with more time being spent in bed during lockdown.
Alice Allen spokesperson for Ecosa says the New Zealand market is growing at more than 40 percent per month over the past 12 months and the recent lockdown has accelerated that even faster with sales now growing at a rate of 80% per month.
“The feedback we are getting from a number of our consumers is they are spending more time in bed - many of them working from their beds. The online model where you can get a bed, mattress and bedding products delivered next day in a compressed format which makes them easy to manoeuvre inside the house is proving particularly popular at the moment.
“This trend is in line with other international studies which show one in four people working from home during the coronavirus lockdown admit to at some point logging on from their bed.
“The research has found that after the dining table (45%) and couch (40%), 25% of respondents admit to working from their bed[1].
“We know that the more time people spend in bed, the more likely we are to want to upgrade their bed and mattress,” she says.
Allen says a new research programme, The International COVID-19 Sleep Study (ICOSS), is underway at the University of Oxford which is investigating the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on sleep in adults[2].
Quality sleep she says is essential for our physical and mental health and the new survey will examine what sleep problems have emerged and how sleep patterns have changed along with which groups are most affected.
Allen says the data will be shared with a large international database to improve understanding of the global impact of COVID-19 on sleep.
Allen says in contrast to the last lockdown where they were not deemed an essential service provider, their online retail model has allowed them to remain open at Level 3 and helped distribute hundreds of beds around the country to their customers.
[1] uSwitch Research. Accessible here.
[2] Oxford University Study, accessible here.