Quarks Klaviyo Case Study: Email & SMS Growth

How Quarks Turned Email and SMS Into a Growth Engine with Klaviyo

Quarks has been putting Canadians in the right pair of shoes since 1977. Today, The Quark Group is the largest privately-owned footwear retailer in Western Canada, operating two banners, Quarks and Urban Trail, with shelves featuring names like Blundstone, Birkenstock, and Clarks. For nearly five decades, its stores earned customer loyalty the in-person way. The company's owned digital channels told a different story, with email and SMS bringing in a small share of online revenue. When The Quark Group came to Northern, the ask was direct: double our email list. Delivering it, uncovered opportunities that would grow Klaviyo-attributed revenue more than fivefold. So how does a retail-first institution turn email and SMS into a real revenue channel without losing what makes it a retail-first institution?

+535%

Klaviyo attributed revenue growth vs. the previous nine-month period

3% → 15%

email and SMS share of online revenue

email list growth, exactly what the client asked for

Key Challenges

Challenge #1: Missing the Flows That Drive Revenue
Each brand had exactly one automation, which was a welcome series with limited delivery. No other automations were present. The core revenue-generating eCommerce flows, cart abandon and browse abandon, didn't exist. Most of the owned-channel revenue relied on manual campaign sends. Because of this, owned channels made up just a small part of online revenue.

Challenge #2: An Email List That Needed to Double
The mandate from the client was explicit: double the email subscriber base. Opt-in points across both brand sites had room for improvement, and nearly fifty years of in-store customer relationships had never been translated into consented digital audiences. Growth alone wouldn't be enough either: without engaged and unengaged segmentation, a bigger list would only mean bigger sends, not better ones.

Challenge #3: SMS Existed on Paper Only
SMS had been added to the Klaviyo account but never activated. No welcome series, no presence in the core abandonment flows, and no strategy for growing a consented audience. A channel with real revenue potential was sitting idle.