When your retail workforce spans hundreds of locations, operates in two languages, and balances countless competing priorities, communication has to work… or everything else suffers.
That was the reality for Mark’s, a Canadian apparel and footwear retailer part of the Canadian Tire Corporation family of brands, before rolling out Zipline in 2023. With more than 380 retail locations throughout Canada, Mark’s supports store teams operating in both English and French while aligning with broader enterprise initiatives across the Canadian Tire Group.
As Reanna Smith, Communications, Customer Service & Jumpstart Manager at Mark’s, explained during her ZipTalk at NRF, the challenges were rooted in both tools and process.
Before Zipline, Mark’s experienced “constant roadblocks in communication that led to miscommunication, inconsistent execution, and just lack of engagement.” These issues were compounded by an outdated platform, fragmented communication channels, and the added complexity of operating bilingually.
At NRF, Reanna walked through how Mark’s addressed these challenges by rethinking not just what they communicated, but how—anchored in four clear levers of engagement.
The Challenge: When Communication Becomes Noise
Before Zipline, Mark’s faced several compounding challenges:
- An obsolete communication platform with no ongoing updates
- Mass Monday messages paired with ad hoc emails throughout the week
- Inconsistent execution across stores due to unclear priorities
- Delayed French translations, often arriving days after English communications
- Fluctuating engagement, as teams struggled to track where and when information lived
For a bilingual retailer, the translation gap was especially painful.
The team previously relied on a third-party translation service, which could take anywhere from 24 hours to several days to return content.
As Reanna described it, “we always communicated in English first,” and while the team did its best to follow with French, “sometimes we’d think of English first and French would be a second thought.” The result was that bilingual teams didn’t always feel fully included or able to collaborate in one shared space.
Mark’s didn’t just need a new tool. They needed a new way of thinking about communication.
Lever 1: Messages That Matter
The first shift was deceptively simple: make communication predictable.
Working with their Zipline account team, Mark’s audited their communications and quickly saw how inconsistency made it hard for stores to anticipate what was coming.
As Reanna put it, “we were having a big miss in our stores being able to predict when things were going to be announced.”
A weekly cadence store teams could count on:
- Monday: Business and compliance (LP, HR, Canadian Tire Group)
- Tuesday: Visual merchandising and product
- Wednesday: Store operations (RFID, SOP changes)
- Thursday: People-focused content (engagement, contests, incentives)
- Friday–Sunday: Limit communications during the busiest store days
Easy identifiers = faster clarity
To reinforce predictability, Mark’s built communication categories for each business partner. “Each business partner has a specific communication category that has a color associated with it,” Reanna said, helping store teams quickly recognize what they’re looking at and filter when they need to find something fast.
And when updates are unavoidable, Zipline’s blue lightning bolt helps prevent conflicting messages. As Reanna explained, “you can update the original message,” and if a store team has already read it, “a blue lightning bolt is going to appear. The message is going to bold itself,” signaling they need to revisit the update.
Lever 2: Total Translation for Inclusive Communication
As a bilingual retailer, inclusivity isn’t optional—it’s essential.
Mark’s operates in both English and French, and before Zipline, the team relied on a third-party translation service that could take anywhere up to 5 days to turn content around.
With Zipline Total Translation, Mark’s eliminated third-party translation delays and brought language equity directly into the platform.
Instead of waiting days for translated content:
- Messages are translated automatically
- Reviewed by internal bilingual specialists
- Published in both English and French simultaneously
The impact was immediate. Over the last year, the team has saved anywhere between thirty minutes to an hour per communication by utilizing this tool.
Translation doesn’t stop at announcements. In groups and discussions, store teams can post in their preferred language, and Zipline automatically translates for others.
“I’m not fully bilingual, and I can also engage with our French teams, which I’ve never truly been able to do before,” Reanna said. “That’s fantastic.”
Lever 3: Help Forums That Reduce Friction
When Zipline released Help Forums, Mark’s adopted them immediately. Because store teams don’t just need information, they need answers.
Help Forums give associates:
- One place to ask questions when a communication is released
- Direct access to the “helper” or subject matter expert tied to the message
- Visibility into questions and answers others are sharing
For HQ teams, it reduces back-and-forth and keeps answers tied to the original communication.
“It truly does reduce friction,” says Reanna. “No more chasing answers through emails or phone calls or trying to find out who the subject matter expert is.”
Even team members without questions benefit by following conversations and learning in real time.
Ultimately, Help Forums do one critical thing exceptionally well: they make store teams feel heard.
Lever 4: Content That Becomes a Single Source of Truth
Mark’s final (and favorite) lever is building content hubs that actually matter.
Rather than scattering information across messages, links, and emails, Mark’s uses Zipline to create rich, centralized hubs for key moments—like the holidays.
Their Holiday Hub includes:
- A welcome video introducing the experience
- All related communications, tagged and organized
- Widgets for customer service, promotions, visual setup, training, and learning
- Cashier scripting and in-store guidance
- Full English and French parity
Each hub mirrors in-store branding, creating a seamless experience from HQ to the sales floor.
“We can ensure that it’s providing engaging content that is multi-format,” Says Reanna. “So no matter how they learn or how they receive information, there’s a way to connect with them.”
The result is consistency at scale. Every store sees the same priorities, the same setup, and the same expectations—without hunting for information.
Together, these four levers reshaped how Mark’s communicates.
The outcomes:
- Increased engagement by honing in on these specific areas and features
- More inclusive communication for teams who prefer English or French
- Stronger alignment and consistency across stores and districts
- “A hundred percent improved collaboration” between HQ and the field
Most importantly, this approach helps store teams stay focused on the work that matters without chasing answers across email and multiple systems.
“It’s bridging that gap between corporate office and our store teams, and ensuring that we truly build a culture on a growth mindset,” says Reanna.
A Blueprint for Retail Communication at Scale
Mark’s transformation wasn’t about sending more messages. It was about building a clearer system for how information is delivered, translated, discussed, and stored—so store teams can prioritize and execute with confidence.
And for Mark’s, the goal goes beyond comms; it’s about strengthening how teams work together across the business.
Want to see how Mark’s brought this strategy to life?
👇 Watch Reanna Smith’s full ZipTalk from NRF:
Ready to streamline communication at scale?
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