Buying a bed online in South Africa is easy, but there are loads of options. In order to get the best value for money deal it's best to examine what each company offers.

Many of what appear to be lots of different companies are actually all the same - Beares and Dial a Bed, for instance, both belong to the Ellerines Group (which is owned by African Bank, the JSE listed company).

The main independent retailers of beds in South Africa are : Ellerines (Dial a Bed & Beares), Brothers, Bednet, The Mattress King and Bedroombasics.

However, the retailers of the beds don't actually manufacture the beds, so it makes sense to shop around and find who sells the same make for the cheapest price. It's much like purchasing a certain brand of TV - it's the same thing, no matter who you purchase from.

The main decision you'll need to make surrounds what type and brand of bed you want to buy. Once you've made those decisions, you are ready to shop around.

The various brands of beds to choose from are:

• Dunlopillo

• Forty Winks

• King Koil

• Restonic

• Sealy

• Serta

• Simmons

• Slumberking

The easiest spot to start is by deciding what size of bed you want:

• King size is the largest

• Queen size

• Double-bed

• Single-bed

To try out the beds you can go into a store like Dial a Bed, and they will let you lie on the beds in the store, but they will obviously not let you spend the night there, which is what you really need to be doing to find out whether a bed is for you. A great way to test out beds without actually buying them is by spending a night at a hotel. Here's a few lists of hotels in South Africa you could stay at:

• Durban : http://www.hotelclub.com/South-Africa/Durban-hotels/

• Cape Town : http://www.booking.com/city/za/cape-town.html

Don't be so focussed on the bed that you forget the importance of the pillow. These also come in all shapes, sizes, materials and levels of firmness. Here's some tips on buying a pillow.

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