Luxury flash-sale site Gilt Groupe’s recent lay-offs and office closings are leading some in the luxury industry to question the longevity of the flash-sale business.

Precision-cut crystal maker Swarovski is attempting to increase ecommerce transactions for St. Valentine’s Day by offering discounts via email offerings and through paid search, but experts fear this could set a pattern for slashed prices and harm the brand’s luxury status.

Lifestyle Asset Group is aiming for an ultra-affluent group database for PortfolioOne, its second-home ownership model in which consumers can become homeowners with unrestricted use of luxury homes in multiple locations.

Luxury brands often find it useful to include videos, mobile commerce or gaming options in tablet advertisements, but this did not seem to be the case in the iPad application for Condé Nast’s Vanity Fair February issue.

Mobile shopping proved to be on the rise for the 2011 holiday season with 14.3 percent of Black Friday Web traffic attributed to mobile, according to a new report from IBM Coremetrics.

Today in luxury marketing – Versace Yellow Diamond free samples; Chanel parties in Vegas; Tag Heuer opens second boutique at mall in Aventura; Veuve Clicquot and Fresh team-up.

Despite soaring mobile usage and engagement rates, mobile advertising revenue continues to lag significantly behind desktop display. Why is there such a mismatch?