Hello’s Sense Sleep Tracker Lands On Amazon

Sense sleep tracker maker Hello has signed up with one of its first major retail distribution partners, Amazon, as it heads into the holiday season.

Originally selling directly through its website, and shipping devices from its Kickstarter campaign, Hello’s new presence on Amazon gives it a major front for selling to consumers. With this partnership Hello could find itself with a major distribution channel as it heads into the all-important holiday retail season. Commerce is increasingly shifting online, and shoppers are looking for more and more gifts through sites like Amazon — giving Sense an opportunity to capture that demand.

The Sense sleep tracker consists of a small device that sits next to a person’s bedside and a small “Sleep Pill” that sits inside a pillowcase. It tracks a number of data points, such as noise, air particulates and lighting, and then provides more in-depth data about a person’s sleep quality. Sense then provides consumers with a score of how well they slept, giving them ways to think about improving their sleep quality.

Part of that is the mainstream appeal that a device like Sense could have by definition, since it is centered around sleep, Proud said. A whole industry of wearables and other devices has cropped up around sleep tracking, with major fitness trackers like the Jawbone.

Still, that’s not to say there hasn’t been any adjustments necessary since launch. The software has constantly been improving, Proud said, and they’ve run into some interesting consumer behavior that the company has had to work around. Part of the advantage of a piece of hardware like Sense is that it can be constantly improved with software, he said.

Of course, it could prove to be difficult to entice consumers with a sleep-tracking device — and the industry is starting to get a little crowded. But there’s a big focus on wearables at the moment, while Sense basically sits on a nightstand. But Proud said that , for the most part, people are interested in the space because sleep is so closely tied to their health — and that means the implications of a sleep-tracking device like Sense are pretty obvious.

Hello raised $2.4 million in its Kickstarter campaign prior to launching, and began shipping earlier this year. The company last raised $40 million in a financing round led by Temasek that valued the company between $250 million and $300 million.