This holiday season seemed to be in favor of the luxury retail brands. Tapestry and Michael Kors reported better-than-expected earnings last week. Melissa Armo, Owner of The Stock Swoosh and Melissa Gonzalez, CEO & Founder of The Lionesque Group, join The Long and The Short to discuss trends in the luxury market.
Tapestry credits the boost in sales to its Coach brand. Sales rose 2% to $1.23 billion last quarter. In order to get Coach back on track Tapestry cut flash sales and discounts, bringing it back to its luxury roots. Many believe it should do the same thing for its struggle division of Kate Spade. Kate Spade's global same-store sales fell 7% last quarter.
Plus, Michael Kors is making a comeback. Sales rose over 6% last quarter after trimming back promotions and expanding its footwear collection. However, Armo still isn't impressed with the company. She's disappointed the stock dropped so heavily right after earnings and is still concerned about its ability to get people into the store.
A new mobile app has launched just in time for Valentine's Day. Our.Love bills itself as an A.I.-powered, gamified, relationship wellness app for couples. The app is set in what the company calls the Coupleverse, a virtual world where each couple can build a virtual relationship home as they also build their real-world relationship. Founder and CEO Tal Zlotnitsky joined Cheddar to discuss how the app works. "The concept behind Our.Love is to give people the opportunity to understand where they stand in their relationship through very simple metrics that we provide within the app that will help them in real-time, see where they stand, see where their partner is, and be able to get closer together," he said.
The Super Bowl is just 48 hours away and things are definitely heating up in the social media space, especially on Twitter. Fans across the country are quickly engaging in color commentary as they call it, and actively sharing their views on who's expected to take the big win, which players they are looking forward to seeing. Senior Sports Partner Manager at Twitter, David Herman, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Director and producer Ivan Reitman passed away over the weekend at the age of 75. The filmmaker was the mastermind behind some of America's favorite films such as "Ghostbusters". Reitman’s family released a statement explaining how they are comforted by the lives he has touched through his films.
The 21st Annual Food Network and Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival (SOBEWFF), is returning to Miami on February 24 with proceeds to benefit the future leaders of the hospitality industry. Lee Schrager, the founder and director of the festival, and Food Network star Jeff Mauro joined Cheddar News to discuss what ticket holders can expect, how the festival benefits students, and how Mauro will be paying tribute to fellow food celebrity, Guy Fieri, by hosting a charity auction dinner. "I mean there's nobody bigger, nobody more magnetic right now in the food space than Guy," Maura said. "I mean the guy had a Super Bowl commercial on last night. That's a dream of mine, so I'm one step closer there just by doing a tight 20 minutes at his tribute dinner."
Jeff Softley, direct to consumer president at Experian, joins Cheddar News to discuss what it means to be credit invisible, how big of an issue this is in the U.S., and what resources are out there to bridge this gap.
