Badeloft is an online retailer of boutique bathroom fixtures.
Its modern and efficient freestanding bathtubs are the cornerstone of its luxury range. Customers can select from a wide range of models and finishes and customize it using the Badeloft custom tub builder. The company is highly regarded in its industry and is a multiple Best of Houzz award winner.
Cedric Christiani founded Badeloft GmbH in Berlin, Germany, back in 2009. After experiencing initial success in his home country, Cedric set his sights on the US market.
He enlisted some friends from high school – Eric Jensen and Tyler Kuhlman – and together, the three of them established Badeloft USA in late 2013. Today, the company has rapidly grown to the point where sales now exceed its European counterpart.
“The business is always evolving – we’ve been lucky.”
“The business is always evolving – we’ve been lucky,” explains Eric. “We try to provide the consumer with as much information as possible because they are purchasing these products directly [from us].”
Eric and his team soon realized that certain people still preferred to visit a showroom instead of purchasing online. In a savvy move to accommodate these potential customers, Badeloft opened a physical location in the San Francisco Bay Area.
“We are a little fish taking on the sharks of the plumbing industry, but we are doing it differently.”
“Sales are incredibly strong, and we continue to introduce new styles and products. We are a little fish taking on the sharks of the plumbing industry, but we are doing it differently,” Eric says.
In 2017, Badeloft decided to migrate from X-Cart to WooCommerce due to its impressive customizability and the number of extensions available. When WooCommerce Payments launched in 2020, it proved to be the solution that Eric had been searching for.
“It was only recently that we moved to WooCommerce Payments – we chose it because it neatly integrates with the back-end of [our] WooCommerce site. It’s pretty hassle-free and very easy to use.”
“WooCommerce Payments has really helped our business.”
“This has really helped our business. Until we started using it, we were sending out manual invoices that we had to process. With WooCommerce Payments, our customers can pay right in the shopping cart.”
For Badeloft, 2020 has been a “different” year, but the business has still managed to succeed. “We were worried about the ongoing pandemic in the spring, but many people are focusing on renovating vs. traveling, and sales have been quite robust for us.”
Eric has some parting advice for aspiring entrepreneurs who may be on the fence about shipping their idea. “Start a business. There are ups and downs, but in the end, it’s very rewarding.”
