Shortly after her father, Donald trump won the US elections in 2016, there were protests against his victory and spread to his businesses including that of his children.
American shoppers began to protest against the first daughter Ivanka Trump’s fashion line to protest her father’s policies, however, the president of the company says recent sales are among the best in the brand’s history.
Abigail Klem, a former lawyer who has worked at Ivanka Trump HQ since 2013 and took over the role of company president in January, insisted that the brand has experienced a major boost.
“Since the beginning of February, they were some of the best performing weeks in the history of the brand,” explained Klem to Refinery29.com. “For several different retailers Ivanka Trump was a top performer online, and in some of the categories it was the [brand’s] best performance ever.”
Lyst, which monitors purchasing data from thousands of retailers, revealed that from January to February, Ivanka Trump sales increased a whopping 346 percent.
“We often noticed sales and search data are related to current events,” explained Lyst’s U.S. public relations director Sarah Tanner to Fox News. “During the presidential campaign last year, we saw a 460 percent increase in searches for pantsuits, which we likely tied to Hillary Clinton’s affinity for the style. In the same vein, the Trump brand has largely been in the news many times during February, and it wouldn’t be surprising to say that resulted in increased sales, in many calls for supporting the brand that we’ve seen online and throughout the last couple of months.”
In February, it was reported that Trump’s namesake eau de parfum held two top-selling spots on Amazon.com: one for the full-sized bottle, the other a roll-on, which is still out of stock. Current reviews showed that customers were specifically purchasing the fragrance in support of the 35-year-old mother of three.
“Whether this is a long-term trend, we can’t say,” said Tanner on the growing demand for Ivanka Trump merchandise. “We’ve tracked the sales from March thus far and, if sales continue, we’ll see an 8 percent increase, in relation to January sales, but nothing as large as what we saw in February. [But] it’s still stronger than it had been in January.”
Tanner also added that shoppers typically gravitated towards Trump’s heels and dresses, which was the number two seller. However, every categroy of the brand sold much higher in February than what they’ve normally seen.
“We actually feel super optimistic because, I think, one, a lot of people support Ivanka, even across both political parties,” said Klem to Refinery29. “And then I think a lot of other people feel like, ‘Oh, I didn’t know Ivanka had a shoe line.’ ‘Oh, I didn’t know she had a handbag line.’ And they’re buying it.”
The beauty news site reported that while Klem declined to share internal sales data, available products online support the statement. Out of 134 pairs of Ivanka Trump shoes on sale at Zappos, 43 are marked “new,” indicating the site is still adding stock. Macy’s had new products from Trump, and both Bloomingdales and Dillard’s still carry the brand on their sites.
Trump stated on January 11 that she was stepping down from her posts at the Trump Organization and her fashion brand.
“When my father takes office as the 45th President of the United States of America, I will take a formal leave of absence from The Trump Organization and my eponymous apparel and accessories brand,” Trump wrote on Facebook. “I will no longer be involved with the management of operations of either company.”
In February, Nordstrom announced it would no longer sell Ivanka Trump’s clothing and accessories. The move came amid a weeklong campaign known as “Grab Your Wallet,” which called for a boycott of retailers that carry Ivanka Trump or Donald Trump merchandise.
The Seattle-based department store chain said the desicion was based on the sales performance of the first daughter’s brand.
Tanner said that the boycotts didn’t seem to dramatically affect Trump sales.
“And with that, there was also another movement to support the brand as well that we’re seeing,” she said. “That’s definitely what we’re seeing here.”
