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Throughout Kim Kardashians two-decade career in the public eye, the reality TV stars entrepreneurial endeavors have included shapewear clothing brand Skims, makeup brand KKW Beauty, cofounding a private equity firm, and a super popular mobile game. But with her latest venture, Kardashian is stretching her mogul credentials into beverages, which has been familiar terrain for celebrities. She has become a cofounder of the energy drink company called Update. Though the startup has existed for four yearsmeaning Kardashian wasnt a day-one founderUpdates CEO and cofounder Daniel Solomons tells Fast Company that she has been a steady customer since 2023 and two years ago, began to offer feedback on the brands formula and packaging. Update isnt disclosing if Kardashian took an equity stake in the brand as part of her appointment as a cofounder, though Solomons says that she genuinely loved how the product made her feel. On Tuesday the upstart energy drink also announced a 4,000 store distribution deal with Walmart that begins on March 1. Before the Walmart deal, Update was primarily sold through direct-to-consumer channels, and Solomons noticed on his Shopify account that especially large orders were being placed by Kardashians team. He was able to reach out to her through mutual connections. Daniel Solomons [Photo: Update] That organically just turned into a situation where she was really excited to get involved, reached out, and wanted to partner up and formalize it, says Solomons. Im really bullish about the growth of the category and how we can add to that. REBRANDING THE TECH BRO ENERGY Solomons says Kardashian helped advise on Updates new packaging and product formulation. Solomons says the startups initial labeling was too masculine, tech bro and Update wanted to aspire to a design thats more gender neutral. The relaunched portfolio adds new grape and pineapple flavors and Update made tweaks to the berry, peach, and mandarin flavors, a process called reformulation. It is especially common for food and beverage startups to reformulate after they debut when they are able to get in-market consumer feedback. Solomons says the changes were intended to make the beverages more true to fruit, meaning as close to the real taste profile of, say, an actual pineapple. Update also involved Walmart, sending the retailer formula samples and packaging assets to get its feedback. Later this year, the brand expects to expand into additional major retailers and will launch more products beyond the core lineup. Solomons says Update also brings a distinct proposition to the market by using the lab-produced paraxanthine, rather than caffeine, as the active ingredient to deliver energy. There have been few studies on paraxanthine, though early research suggests that it is relatively safe. Paraxanthine is a compound that the human body produces after consuming caffeine and Solomons claims that it has a similar bitter taste profile, but doesnt have the jittery side effects that some experience when drinking caffeine-based coffee or energy drinks. BETTING ON A BUZZY, BOOMING CATEGORY Update is aiming to get a firmer foothold in the fast-growing U.S. energy drinks and shots market whose sales grew by 65% to $23.9 billion during a five-year period ending in 2024, according to Mintel. The market researcher estimates sales will hit $33.4 billion by 2029. It is a darling category right now, Duane Stanford, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest, tells Fast Company. He says energy drinks sales are far outpacing coffee and tea, two rival caffeine-focused beverage categories. The market is dominated by three players that command 70% of sales: Monster Beverage, Red Bull, and Celsius Holdings. The larger players Monster Energy and Red Bull have lately reported double-digit sales increases, while Celsiuss revenue for the first nine months of 2025 jumped 75% from the prior year, as the core brand grew, but also due to the recent acquisitions of Rockstar Energy and Alani Nu, the later sold in colorful packaging and marketed heavily to women. Alani Nu was founded in 2018 by fitness influencer and coach Katy Hearn and sold five years later for $1.8 billion to Celsius. Monster and Celsius are expected to release their fourth-quarter earnings this Thursday. Energy drinks have benefited from a decades-long trend of favoring cold drinks over hot and, more recently, the skyrocketing price of coffee due to tariffs, which has led some shoppers to defect when looking for their energy fix. Celsius, in particular, has been credited with luring more female drinkers into a category that was traditionally marketed to extreme sports lovers, branding that was the core of both Red Bull and Monster. CELEBRITIES BOOST MARKETING, BUT DONT ENSURE LONGEVITY While Kardashians involvement will give Update a marketing jolt, especially through any support the star may offer through her Instagram and TikTok channels that have a combined 364 million followers, theres no guarantee that a celebrity-backed beverage brand will be a hit with consumers. Look no further than sports and energy drink brand Prime Hydration, which was founded by internet personalities Logan Paul and Olajide “KSI” Olatunji. Bloomberg reported it was set to surpass $1.2 billion in annual sales by the end of 2023, a mere two years after it launched. But sales have sputtered, with the Primes energy drink volume dropping 57% for the first nine months of 2025 from the prior-year period, according to Beverage Digest. Zoa Energy, cofounded by actor Dwayne The Rock Johnson, got a boost when it sold a majority stake to Molson Coors in 2024. But the five-year-old brand has less than 1% of the total U.S. energy drink market, which is also where Prime stands in the category. I suspect consumers are starting to get wary of it now, says Stanford. Because every celebrity has a beverage brand now. People can only consume so many drinks.
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E-Commerce
Home Depot’s fourth-quarter performance was muted by ongoing caution from American consumers in a weak housing market, but the home improvement retailer topped Wall Street expectations.The Atlanta company earned $2.57 billion, or $2.58 per share, for the three months ended Feb. 1. Stripping out one-time charges or benefits, earnings were $2.72 per share, topping analyst projections for per-share earnings of $2.53, according to FactSet.A year earlier it earned $3 billion, or $3.02 per share.An extra week in fiscal 2024 added approximately 30 cents per share to the year-ago quarter.Home Depot’s stock rose more than 3% before the market opened on Tuesday.Revenue totaled $38.2 billion, down from $39.7 billion a year earlier. The extra week in the prior-year period added about $2.5 billion of sales.Wall Street was looking for revenue of $38.09 billion.Sales at stores open at least a year, a key indicator of a retailer’s health, edged up 0.4%. In the U.S., comparable store sales climbed 0.3%.Chair and CEO Ted Decker said in a statement that Home Depot’s quarterly results “were largely in-line with our expectations, reflecting the lack of storm activity in the third quarter and ongoing consumer uncertainty and pressure in housing. Adjusting for storms, underlying demand was relatively stable throughout the year.”Customer transactions dropped 1.6% in the quarter. The amount shoppers spent rose to $91.28 per average receipt from $89.11 a year earlier.Home Depot and other retailers have seen customers cut back on their spending amid concerns about inflation and economic uncertainty. A frozen housing market has added to more tepid spending, particularly for Home Depot.The U.S. housing market has been in a slump dating back to 2022, the year mortgage rates began climbing from historic lows that fueled a homebuying frenzy at the start of this decade. And consumer confidence declined sharply in January, hitting the lowest level since 2014 as Americans grow increasingly concerned about their financial prospects.Neil Saunders, the managing director of GlobalData, said there has been a shift in the behavior of homeowners because of the housing market and the economy, with more people taking on smaller projects now.“The broader truth here is that Home Depot does best for big scale improvement tasks and major DIY jobs and is a major destination for consumers undertaking such work,” Saunders wrote Tuesday. “Unfortunately, the market did not play ball over the final quarter with the number of projects undertaken down by 1.5%, mostly driven by a sharp decline in bigger ticket projects, such as full remodels.”That sent more homeowners to local hardware stores, which can easily fulfill orders for smaller projects.For fiscal 2026, Home Depot anticipates adjusted earnings to be approximately flat to up 4% from fiscal 2025’s $14.69 per share. The company foresees total sales growth of about 2.5% to 4.5% and comparable sales growth to be approximately flat to up 2%. Michelle Chapman, AP Business Writer
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E-Commerce
Its another bad day for Bitcoin. Over the past 24 hours, the digital token has declined nearly 4.5%, putting it just above $63,000 and within range of its 52-week low. But this time, Bitcoins fall seems to have nothing to do with the token itselfor the broader cryptocurrency market. Rather, its steep drop seems to be driven by three unrelated factors, to varying degrees. Here’s what you need to know: Bitcoin approaches 2026 and 12-month lows Since Bitcoin hit an all-time high of just over $126,000 per coin in October, the digital token poster child has had a dramatic fall from grace. The coins momentum, which seemed unstoppable last fall, has sharply reversed course. At its current price of around $63,192, it is now down 50% from its all-time high. And this isnt even the worst drop that Bitcoin has suffered recently. Earlier this month, Bitcoin fell to $62,353 before rebounding. Now, Bitcoin is again within touching distance of this Februarys low. To be fair to Bitcoin, it isnt the only major cryptocurrency seeing steep declines over the past 24 hours. Heres how Bitcoin compares to other major coins as of the time of this writing: Bitcoin: down 4.5% Ethereum: down 4.7% BNB: down 3.2% XRP: down 4.5% Crypto de-risking may be a driving factor Why are all these tokens down so much over the past 24 hours? Interestingly, the fall seems to have little to do with the cryptocurrencies themselves. Instead, today’s crypto decline seems to be spurred by de-risking activity. De-risking is when investors take their money out of high-risk, volatile assets, by selling those assets and investing the proceeds of those sales into other assets that are considered lower risk, and thus less volatile. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general are high-risk, volatile assets because their prices can swing widely over a short period of time (hello, todays drops and Bitcoins 50% fall over the last six months). Besides cryptocurrencies, other high-risk, volatile assets can include various types of stockslike those in the tech sector. In contrast, safe-haven, low-volatility assets include things like gold and government bonds. High-risk, volatile assets can see their prices swing wildly in response to external factors unrelated to the assets themselves. These swings occur because external factors can introduce significant uncertainty into markets. Uncertainty can lead to losses, so investors try to mitigate future losses by selling high-risk assets to lock in any gains or prevent further declines from affecting their portfolio. And over the past 24 hours, there has been a hat trick of external uncertainties that is likely leading some crypto investors to derisk. Trumps new tariffs, Iran, and AI are weighing on investors minds Over the past 24 hours, three events have occurred that risk injecting significant uncertainty into the economy, and they are likely weighing heavily on the minds of crypto investors. Most significantly of the three is that Trumps new tariffs are now in effect. Last week, the president suffered a dramatic loss when the Supreme Court struck down his signature tariff policy, and thus, the majority of his Liberation Day tariffs could no longer be collected. In response, Trump vowed to use other methods to impose tariffs on countries around the world. Those tariffs, of up to 15%, are now in effect. However, in many cases, the new tariffs’ timeframe may be limited to just 150 days without additional approval from Congress, which the legislative body may or may not give. All this is causing great uncertainty for businesses and governments, and ultimately risks impacting the economy and marketsagain. Also, in the past 24 hours, America is closer than ever to invading Iran. Trump administration officials are due to meet Iranian counterparts in Geneva on Thursday, and if those talks fail, many fear that the president will make good on his threat to attack the country. Many experts say a war with Iran could be a prolonged one, and prolonged wars have habits of negatively impacting the global economy. Finally, yesterday, an announcement from Anthropic spooked investors in legacy SaaS (software-as-a-service) companies. As reported by CNBC, Anthropic announced that its Claude AI could now modernize legacy COBOL systems. COBOL is a computer programming language that has been around since the 1950s and is still the backbone of most corporate systems. After Anthoripics announcement, shares in IBM sank, as IBM generates significant revenue from maintaining these legacy COBOL systems. Now Anthoripic says its Claude tools can quickly Identify [COBOL] risks that would take human analysts months to surface. As a result, IBM shares dropped 13%. But Anthropics news also spooked investors with significant holdings in legacy software companies. Tech stocks can already be volatile, and more proof that AI could have a significant impact on legacy tech companies sent shivers down investors spines. Given the triple uncertainties of tariffs, Iran, and AI, its no wonder why investors seem to be de-risking from volatile assets like Bitcoin in an attempt to protect their gains or prevent further portfolio losses.
Category:
E-Commerce
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