LTV LAB: We Bought From Buckeye Brownies (Featuring CEO, Zach Buckeye)

Brand Overview

Buckeye Brownies is a direct-to-consumer dessert brand specializing in oversized, indulgent layered brownies (approximately half-pound to one-pound each). Founded in 2020 by Zach Buckeye, a former civil engineer with no culinary background, the brand emerged from his competitive bodybuilding experience—his mother created a layered brownie recipe to satisfy his post-competition cravings, which friends encouraged him to sell. What started as apartment kitchen production selling brownies at gas stations has evolved into a nationwide e-commerce operation with over 250,000 social media followers. The brand targets dessert enthusiasts ages 18-65 who appreciate over-the-top, Instagram-worthy treats, with approximately 10-15% of sales coming from gifting. Operating debt-free with a made-to-order model that minimizes risk, Buckeye Brownies maintains extremely low overhead by only baking after orders are placed. The brand's competitive advantages include exceptional shelf life (7-10 days in transit due to high sugar content), American-made production, and consistently rotating limited-edition flavors every three weeks—similar to Crumbl Cookies' weekly rotation strategy.

Website Experience

First impressions: Visitors immediately encounter a popup offering a mystery discount in exchange for email signup. The popup features mouthwatering imagery that effectively communicates product quality, though it lacks the micro-commitment or zero-party data collection elements that could significantly improve conversion rates (potentially by 50% based on industry testing).

Product navigation: The site is well-organized with easy browsing of collections and best sellers. Product detail pages (PDPs) excel at providing comprehensive information—flavor descriptions are detailed and enticing, ingredient lists are clear, and an extensive FAQ section addresses common questions including shipping timelines, storage instructions, and product details. However, customer service data reveals that despite thorough FAQs, most customers don't read them and still email with questions already answered on-site.

Checkout: The checkout process is standard Shopify with one notable addition—an optional tip feature at checkout, though adoption rates are low (1-3% of orders, typically when purchasing gifts). The post-purchase upsell implementation is exceptionally strong, recently pivoting from rush baking and custom notes to "flash sale" product offers at 30-50% off. This strategic shift added $28,000 in October revenue alone by improving day-zero customer lifetime value and lowering effective customer acquisition costs.

Social proof: Product pages feature customer reviews and testimonials that effectively build excitement and reinforce purchase decisions.

Compliance concerns: The SMS opt-in on the popup lacks proper legal language placement—compliance text must appear above the submit button rather than below it to protect against lawsuit risk from ambulance-chasing lawyers. Given the brand's previous encounters with compliance-related legal issues (ADA, SMS), this requires immediate correction.

Email & SMS Marketing

Current state: Email drives 25-40% of total revenue with approximately 10-12 campaigns sent monthly, plus standard automated flows. SMS was recently discontinued due to poor ROI, though significant opportunity exists to reimplement it strategically for high-impact moments like limited edition launches. The brand currently has no formal SMS compliance infrastructure in place.

Welcome series: Two-email welcome sequence lacks personalization based on customer intent or preferences. While discount codes are delivered promptly via email, there's no dynamic content adaptation based on zero-party data that could be collected at signup (flavor preferences, shopping motivation—self vs. gifting).

Post-purchase flows: Multiple transactional emails create redundancy—both Shopify and Klaviyo send order confirmations and shipping notifications with nearly identical content. A loyalty program email arrives post-purchase but uses generic platform branding rather than custom Buckeye Brownies branding, missing the opportunity to properly introduce the program as a "welcome" benefit. The referral offer (10% off code for sharing) is buried at the bottom of the Klaviyo order confirmation where 90% of customers never scroll, severely limiting its effectiveness.

Abandoned cart flow: Lacks dynamic product imagery—all recipients see the same generic brownie photo regardless of what they added to cart. The first abandoned cart email includes a discount reminder opportunity but doesn't mention the mystery offer customers likely already have access to. No filters prevent recently converted customers from receiving abandoned cart emails post-purchase.

Campaign strategy: Campaigns heavily emphasize new limited edition flavor launches (necessary given the 3-week rotation cycle), but execution lacks urgency and scarcity tactics. Most campaign emails feature beautiful product photography but bury critical information—flavor names, descriptions, and CTAs often appear below the fold, requiring scrolling that most recipients won't do. The brand sends last-call emails for retiring flavors but doesn't create pre-launch hype or teasers for upcoming products.

Review requests: Two separate review platforms (Judge.me and LOOX) create duplicate review request emails with different branding, causing customer confusion and diluting the review collection process.

Copywriting & design: Product photography is exceptional and consistently described as "mouthwatering"—the strongest element of the email program. However, text size is frequently too small (especially in multi-product grids), white text on light backgrounds reduces readability, and CTAs are positioned too far down in emails. The brand creates beautiful branded emails but doesn't leverage Instagram content, behind-the-scenes footage, or UGC that performs well on social media, missing opportunities for deeper brand storytelling and engagement.

Transactional gaps: Critical information about 3-4 day baking timelines before shipment is inconsistently communicated, leading to frequent customer service inquiries about order status and shipping delays.

Unboxing & Product Experience

Packaging: Unboxing delivers a premium experience with substantial weight that exceeds expectations—brownies marketed as "half-pound" often weigh closer to a full pound. The box features clear heating and storage instructions printed directly on packaging (impossible to lose), though customers who discard boxes lose access to this guidance. Products arrive fresh with noticeable aroma immediately upon opening.

Product quality: Brownies are massive (bigger than a hand), visually match e-commerce photography, and taste as indulgent as advertised. The brand successfully sets and meets high expectations, with product quality cited as the strongest retention driver. Shelf life and shipping durability are exceptional due to sugar content and careful packaging.

Labeling challenges: Variety packs include a paper insert identifying which brownie is which, but individual brownies aren't labeled with stickers or wrappers. For specialty flavor boxes with 13 flavor options, customers must play "brownie roulette" to identify each variety—an intentional choice to avoid labor costs of hand-labeling 2,000-3,000 brownies daily, though it creates minor friction in the customer experience.

Customer service: Founder Zach personally responds to every customer service inquiry with quick turnaround times, using templates for common questions. This hands-on approach keeps him closely connected to customer pain points and operational issues, enabling rapid improvements. However, the volume of FAQs answered daily via email (questions already addressed on website) indicates customers don't proactively seek information before reaching out.

Loyalty & Subscription Programs

Loyalty program: Managed through LOOX (integrated with rewards platform), customers earn points on purchases, birthdays, and through reviews. Redemption options include free shipping at 250 points and a free box of brownies at 500 points. The program recently introduced a refer-a-friend feature offering 500 points for successful referrals—an economically favorable customer acquisition strategy since a free box of brownies (500 points) costs less than the $20-25 paid media customer acquisition cost.

Program visibility: The loyalty program suffers from severe under-communication. Customers receive one generic loyalty email shortly after first purchase but hear nothing about the program thereafter. Current customers have no ongoing visibility into point balances, redemption tiers, or available rewards in campaigns or flows. The program is never surfaced as a retention tool in the customer journey beyond day two.

No subscription program: Operating on a made-to-order model with no recurring subscription option, though the 3-week limited edition flavor rotation creates natural repurchase cycles.

What Works Well

• Exceptional product photography that consistently "makes mouths water" and drives email engagement

• Product quality that meets or exceeds expectations set by marketing

• Profitable post-purchase upsell strategy that improved day-zero LTV and reduced effective CAC

• Debt-free, low-risk business model with made-to-order production

• Founder-led customer service ensuring deep operational awareness and quick response times

• Strong social media content creation (250K+ followers) with consistent posting cadence

• Comprehensive FAQ sections on product pages addressing common questions

• Clear heating/storage instructions printed directly on packaging

• Rapid shipping fulfillment (3-4 days baking + transit)

• Strategic limited edition flavor rotation creating natural urgency and repeat purchase drivers

  
  

Opportunities for Higher LTV

• Implement micro-commitment popup with zero-party data collection: Test two-step popup asking if customers want the mystery offer before requesting email, and collect data on flavor preferences or shopping motivation (self vs. gift) to enable dynamic personalization in welcome series—could improve popup conversion by up to 50%

• Relaunch SMS with strategic compliance and use cases: Fix compliance issues (legal language above CTA), then use SMS exclusively for high-impact moments like limited edition launches, early access offers, and last-chance alerts rather than as a general promotional channel

• Consolidate transactional emails: Disable duplicate Shopify notifications since branded Klaviyo versions exist, and clearly communicate 3-4 day baking timeline in post-purchase emails to reduce customer service volume

• Redesign loyalty program communications: Create branded welcome email introducing program benefits, add dynamic point balance displays to all campaigns and key flows, and continuously remind customers of redemption tiers and refer-a-friend opportunities

• Surface referral program prominently: Move 10% referral offer from buried position in order confirmation to dedicated standalone email, and reference it in multiple post-purchase touchpoints

• Build launch hype and scarcity: Send teaser emails 2 days before new flavor drops with ingredient details and behind-the-scenes content, clearly label limited editions as "NEW" and "LIMITED" in subject lines and hero modules, and create countdown urgency for retiring flavors

• Optimize email layout for mobile-first consumption: Move flavor names, descriptions, and primary CTAs above the fold in all campaigns; increase image and text sizes in product grids; improve contrast for white text on light backgrounds

• Implement dynamic abandoned cart images: Show customers the specific products they added to cart rather than generic brownie photos, and remind them of existing mystery discount codes

• Create educational post-purchase flow: Send pro tips on reheating, serving suggestions (dunking in milk), storage best practices, and flavor pairing recommendations 3-7 days post-delivery when customers are actively consuming products

• Repurpose Instagram content in email: Leverage strong organic social content (behind-the-scenes baking, founder story, UGC) in campaigns to build brand engagement beyond pure merchandising, especially since Instagram algorithm limits organic reach

• Consolidate review platforms: Choose either Judge.me or LOOX to eliminate duplicate review requests with conflicting branding

• Promote vegan/gluten-free collections for gifting: While these represent only 1% of sales and require extra kitchen prep, they create valuable gifting opportunities for customers with dietary restrictions—position them as thoughtful gift solutions rather than trying to drive mass adoption

  
  

Summary

Buckeye Brownies has built a successful, debt-free dessert business by combining exceptional product quality with strategic limited-edition flavor rotation and mouthwatering visual marketing. The brand's greatest strength is its product—oversized, indulgent brownies that consistently exceed customer expectations and drive organic word-of-mouth through Instagram-worthy presentation. Founder Zach's hands-on involvement in customer service keeps operational awareness high and enables rapid pivots, as evidenced by the successful post-purchase upsell implementation that added $28,000 in a single month. However, significant revenue is being left on the table through under-optimized lifecycle marketing. The popup form lacks micro-commitment psychology and zero-party data collection that could dramatically improve conversion rates. SMS was abandoned entirely rather than being strategically redeployed for high-impact launches. The loyalty program exists but is essentially invisible after the first purchase, missing countless opportunities to incentivize repeat purchases through point reminders and referral mechanics. Most critically, the brand's competitive advantage—constantly rotating limited edition flavors similar to Crumbl's model—isn't being maximized in email campaigns. Launch excitement is muted, scarcity isn't emphasized, and crucial information (flavor names, descriptions, CTAs) is buried below the fold where most customers won't see it. With better email optimization, strategic SMS reintroduction, prominent loyalty program communication, and launch hype tactics, Buckeye Brownies can significantly increase repeat purchase rates and customer lifetime value while reducing reliance on expensive paid acquisition channels.