Founded in 2008 during the peak of the recession, KURU Footwear was created to manufacture a shoe that would offer superior heel support and enhance the wearers physical performance.
Infatuated with the possibility that the products we wear have the potential to change the way our body performs since the 5th grade, KURU’s founder Bret Rasmussen, researched patents & foot biomechanics which lead to the technology that, unexpectedly, alleviated conditions like plantar fasciitis, fallen arches, and heel pain.
Today the brand boasts $4M+ in sales month-over-month from their DTC
e-commerce store.
So what made KURU want to get their feet wet using Recart?
Guess We Should Do “Something” With SMS
KURU wasn’t new to using SMS, but it was new to being optimized for success.
“I approached Recart with significant reservations,” says Stacey Bishop, Email & SMS Marketing Manager for KURU Footwear.
Stacey Bishop
KURU Footwear's Email & SMS Marketing Manager
"I had concerns. We had recently migrated KURU’s entire tech stack the previous year, and were exhausted and wary of another migration. On top of that, we primarily catered to an older demographic, including myself, who generally dislike receiving text messages. And I was immensely worried about the bandwidth needed to take this on”
All of which to say was giving her cold feet in making the jump.
So she told Recart upfront, “I’ll look at your platform, but you're going to have to make it pretty sweet for me to want to migrate my list."
And they delivered on that.
Recart responded by de-risking the whole engagement by simply stating, “We’ll run a demo & onboard you, but if we don’t work out, fine. Move back. No big deal”.
There was no pressure, and it gave her a solid 3 months to really test if popups were going to work or if Recart was blowing smoke.
It gave her time to vet Recart’s claims, but still have the safety net of falling back into Klaviyo because she knew it worked.
Level Unlocked: Two Maneuvers Achieved
To attack Stacey’s pain points head on — and alleviate its limping SMS + email list growth — the strategy focused on two levers with simple goals:
- Upgrade their popups: To grow their SMS + email list
- Introduce Stacey to her new Client Support Manager: To help alleviate her time constraints
The Popups:
Within 6-months KURU ballooned their email from 934,000 subscribers to 1.2 million & catapulted their SMS to over 100,000 new subs — within 8 months.
All within a time commitment of under 4 hours per week.
Stacey Bishop
KURU Footwear's Email & SMS Marketing Manager
“Those are the kinds of numbers, when you see them double that quickly, you think — it's a fluke, this can't be real. It's because it's a new pop up. It’s because it’s fresh. We'll see what happens in a couple of weeks. And here we are six months later with a pop-up that captured 10.8% for email and 8.03% for SMS — last week."
“I was getting opt-ins I was never able to get in [in our previous platform]. I was getting 2.5-3% before, on average, no matter what I did! Our first week with Recart I was seeing 5, 6, 7% opt-ins”, she spotlighted.
Because of Recart’s engineered popups that are:
- 75% lighter (reaching untapped audiences with phones that are 6+ years old)
- Loading faster via your theme through Shopify components
- And 300+ tests run on the pop-up for full effectiveness
Through SMS popups, alone, it was responsible for $2.47M+ in SMS attributable sales.
On top of that, KURU Footwear was able to catapult their list growth without sacrificing profitability.
Meet Your Client Support Manager:
It wasn’t until the day after Stacey signed up, that she knew Recart took fully-managed services to a new level.
“What I wasn't expecting was Barbi. That gal is a doll and my favorite person on the entire planet. She has design skills in-pocket, she provides spreadsheets when I need to know how things are performing, she’s creating 3-different versions of our current pop-up and gets things running before the steam from my morning coffee has lifted!”This support was a huge win for Stacey.“It's allowed us to really lean into the list and start to find out how far we can take SMS with Recart,” she explained.
This support was a huge win for Stacey.
“It's allowed us to really lean into the list and start to find out how far we can take SMS with Recart,” she explained.
Stacey Bishop
KURU Footwear's Email & SMS Marketing Manager
Take it seriously. Yes, you can set up the campaign on a platform and it’ll convert. It always converts. But it needs its own intention. It’s still considered a “nice to have” that we’re supposed to do something with for some unknown reason vs it being the major revenue driver that it is.
“Because of the fully-managed support from Barbi & Recart I realized, I can swap [the popups] out more often than every six months without the heartache of trying to figure out the design and making it look good, and checking off all the boxes, and making sure compliance was on par, etc.”
While popups can successfully capture one’s attention, integrating them into broader campaigns ensures a consistent and impactful marketing strategy.
For example, here are (3) campaigns that swept KURU off their feet:
Solely from these (3) campaigns — KURU sent 233,890 texts, spent $3,063, and made $213,456 with a ROI of 240.28X.
Which contributed to the $1,318,240 made in those 3 months.
Substantial Results with Long-Term Benefits
There’s no more tip-toeing into SMS for KURU.
Seeing how it plays an important role in their growth — and having such an engaged subscriber list (that has no signs of slowing down in numbers), it will open more opportunities throughout the entire company.
Stacey Bishop
KURU Footwear's Email & SMS Marketing Manager
“The better I perform in SMS & email, the more we have to spend in paid. If I'm driving enough incremental revenue then they have more dollars they can spend in our paid media channels. So it really benefits all of our channels when our owned and earned channels are just really efficient, because then we have more dollars to put towards the more expensive parts of the business.”
Relishing in the Long Term Benefits
& Next Steps
What’s around the corner for KURU now that they have such an engaged (and still growing) email & SMS list?
Retention.
Stacey Bishop
KURU Footwear's Email & SMS Marketing Manager
“KURU’s main focus moving forward is all about retention”, Stacey explained. “Over the past couple of years, we’ve focused a lot on brand awareness. And while that will continue to be a big initiative, we are moving towards more retention strategies across every channel — aiming to improve overall customer experience with us & keeping people coming back for the same pain relief footwear they were seeking in the first place.”
Predictions for the Future of Ecommerce
Stacey knows she’d still be dinking around in other SMS platforms with the attitude of, "Oh yeah, SMS is a channel we have. I should probably do something with it."
And that’s the attitude of many brands.
But with the evolution of technology happening rapidly, these are Stacey’s most important tools to keep-up-to-date on:
- AI & machine learning
- Finding ways to make shopping easier than it is now
- Personalization. Personalized product recommendations backed by data will be the easiest way to keep customers returning
8-Months with Recart Summed Up
Between October 2023 and May 2024,
KURU Footwear has acquired:
- 580,930 total new subscribers at a 15.89% visitor-to-email/SMS conversion rate
- Generated $2.47M in click-only SMS-attributed revenue
- 34X ROI from $38,393 in costs
Stacey Bishop
KURU Footwear's Email & SMS Marketing Manager
“We’ll continue to pursue strategies in direct mail, better personalization in email and SMS, and a variety of other retention strategies across other channels.”
