MissPompadour GmbH

For a class project as a university student in 2016, Erik Reintjes designed a website for his mother’s antique furniture and paint shop in Regensburg, Germany. Though her brick-and-mortar store has since closed, Erik’s website has grown into a modern family business: MissPompadour GmbH — an online retailer of high-quality chalk paints — which he runs with his sister, Astrid.

Customers often send MissPompadour photographs or videos of the room or furniture they want to paint, and the team uses this inspiration to find the perfect hue; sorting through more than 670 colors — from Persian grey to velvet plum — and sending them links to MissPompadour products.

Selecting paint is a very detailed and time-intensive process. To ensure that each client’s very specific needs are met, Erik says personalized communication is crucial. But with growing demand — from across Germany, Austria and Switzerland — came the need to better organize customer exchanges, which can include dozens of messages over many days. So, in May 2018, Erik transitioned his business’s communication from WhatsApp to the WhatsApp Business app.

Today, MissPompadour receives about 9,000 to 10,000 orders per month, and the WhatsApp Business app helps facilitate 30 percent of this business. Erik uses the app’s labels feature to keep track of all customer connections — between 120 and 200 daily — and says the business profile feature directs customers to MissPompadour’s website where ideas are converted into sales.

A customer who purchased paints from MissPompadour to paint her kitchen says connecting with Erik and his team via WhatsApp was great because she could “Send photos quickly and receive fast replies.”

Satisfied customers often share photographs of their freshly painted rooms with Erik who says this kind of personal connection defines his business and is a big reason why MissPompadour sells more than 100,000 cans of paint every year. “We are not e-commerce,” he says. “We are a community with an e-commerce shop.”

Even the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t slowing down the business. In fact, it’s thriving. MissPompadour has remained open with its no-contact ordering, and Erik says that they have seen a 40-60% increase in sales.

Erik wants to expand this virtual paint venture — and community united by shades of paint — across Europe. And with the WhatsApp Business app ensuring that his customers “don’t feel like they’re talking to a company,” but rather a friend, he can more confidently grow MissPompadour — one fresh coat of paint at a time.