Dive Brief:

• Neiman Marcus on Tuesday announced it will begin selling mattresses for the first time as part of "The Art of Sleep" collection. The department store teamed up with four "luxury mattress companies" — Aireloom, Royal-Pedic, Sferra and Shifman — to sell the products.

• The collections are available exclusively online on Neiman Marcus' and Horchow's websites, according to a company press release. 

• The Art of Sleep collection will also include loungewear and sleepwear, as well as an "editorial step-by-step beauty regiment."

Dive Insight:

The luxury department store's decision to venture into the mattress category indicates the already saturated space isn't losing steam yet.

The category has changed quickly in recent years as more direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands are cropping up, and legacy players like Mattress Firm and Innovative Mattress Solutions have filed for bankruptcy protection.

A major leader in this disruption has been Casper, which in March reached a post-money valuation of $1.1 billion, pushing it to unicorn status. But Casper wasn't alone in the charge; it's joined by other DTC brands like Purple and Nectar in fueling the bed-in-a-box trend and changing the way consumers traditionally shopped for mattresses. 

And while the acceptance of buying products online before seeing them in person has grown tremendously over the years, when it comes to home goods items some consumers still want to see them in person. This drove brands like Casper to open stores across the country​, and has led to others playing around with showroom-style pop-ups or forming retail partnerships, like Purple and Nectar.

However, the luxury department store appears confident that these brands have primed consumers to shop for mattresses online, and won't be using any of its 45 Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman stores to showcase the products. The move may end up serving the retailer well, however. J.C. Penney in February made the decision to remove furniture and appliances from its stores in order to free up valuable real estate. 

But where the luxury department store differentiates itself from many of the digitally native brands are its luxury prices. Mattresses within "The Art of Sleep" collection range from about $1,500 all the way up to about $25,000, according to the company's website.