How Quarks Grew Email and SMS Revenue 535% with Klaviyo
3% › 15%
email and SMS share of online revenue
+535%
Klaviyo-attributed revenue in nine months
2x
email list growth, exactly the client's ask
Quarks has been putting Canadians in the right pair of shoes since 1977. Today it's the largest privately-owned footwear retailer in Western Canada, running two banners on nearly five decades of in-store loyalty. Email and SMS were barely part of the story. Then the client asked Northern to double the list.
Nine months, in one picture
Flow revenue did not exist before Northern took over the account. In red, it went from nothing to out-earning every campaign on the calendar.
Quarks didn't change their business to make this happen. The subscribers were already customers and the stores kept doing what they'd done since 1977. What changed was the order things were built in: the list first, then the lifecycle, then the targeting.
How this could work for you
Quarks didn't change their business to make this happen. The subscribers were already customers, the demand was already there, and the stores kept doing what they had done since 1977. What changed was the order things were built in.
First, the list
Every opt-in point rebuilt before a single new flow launched. Flows only earn if there's someone to send them to.
Then, the lifecycle
Cart abandon, browse abandon, post-purchase and SMS, built once and earning every day after.
Then, the targeting
Engaged and unengaged segments, so a bigger list means better sends rather than just louder ones.
If your Klaviyo or Mailchimp account is underbuilt relative to the size of your customer base, that's the same starting point.
Enter Northern.
The Quark Group had moved to Klaviyo from their previous email platform, Mailchimp, at the start of 2025, but a platform is only as good as what's built on it. When Northern took over the account, the first priority was the client's own ask: grow the list.
Doubling the List, the Right Way
Every opt-in point across both brands was rebuilt. Northern optimized the multi-step email and SMS pop-up forms for Quarks and Urban Trail, launched a new SMS-only pop-up retargeting existing email subscribers, added opt-in embed forms for each banner on their corresponding sites, and built a dedicated email and SMS digital catalogue landing page. Paid social pulled its weight too: a Meta lead generation campaign, connected directly to Klaviyo through the Meta integration, turned ad spend into consented subscribers rather than one-time clicks.
The client asked for the email list to double. That's exactly what they got. Consented email subscribers grew 100% in nine months, and SMS subscribers nearly tripled over the same period.
From One Automation to a Full Lifecycle
With the list compounding, the focus shifted to what happens after the sign-up. The existing welcome series for both brands were rebuilt and optimized. Next came new flows: cart abandon and browse abandon with branded follow-ups, both extended to SMS, a birthday flow, a post-purchase thank you flow, and a brand-new SMS welcome series, a flow that had never existed.
Read the full case study
Get the whole story: what we built, the order we built it in, and why. Inside the case study:
"Most Klaviyo accounts we look at are built for sending, not for earning. The distance between one welcome flow and a full lifecycle is usually the largest revenue opportunity a retailer has sitting in front of them."
"We asked Northern to double our email list, and they did exactly that. What we didn't expect was everything else: the flows, the SMS program, the strategy behind it all."
Ryan Krahn, Vice President, The Quark Group
quarkshoes.com