See also Blue Apron et al. If you're selling something to a customer base that is almost certainly going to have a lot of churn, that acquisition cost
has to be built into your business model.
Maybe if churn is low and the main cost is initial acquisition you can sustain losses for a time but not if it's ongoing.
ADDED: And a mattress is an example of a product that people buy very rarely so the marketing/advertising to acquire a customer is mostly a cost of a unit sale. Yes, maybe they get some residual word of mouth but it's mostly effectively part of the product cost.
