Ivanka Trump fashion brand reports record sales despite retailer boycotts

'They were some of the best performing weeks in the history of the brand,' says company's president

Increasing numbers of stores have dropped the line launched by Ms Trump, the President’s second child who is said to be his 'favourite', in the wake of the boycott (Getty)

Ivanka Trump’s brand generally makes the headlines for all the wrong reasons. If companies are not dropping the collection, Donald Trump’s senior advisor, Kellyanne Conway, is being accused of violating federal ethics law for making an on-air sales pitch for the line of clothes and accessories.

But it appears the slew of controversies have not had a negative effect on the brand’s recent sales. Despite a mounting campaign to boycott President Trump’s daughter’s line of products, the brand claims it saw record sales in February.

Abigail Klem, the brand's new President, told The Independent the company had some of the highest performing weeks since the brand was launched last month.

“Since the beginning of February, they were some of the best performing weeks in the history of the brand. 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.” she said.

​Lyst, an e-commerce aggregator which tracks purchasing data from thousands of retailers, said the brand's sales increased by 346 per cent between January to February of this year.

What’s more, it found February 2017 brand sales had increased by 557 per cent when compared to average orders in 2016. The brand was ranked as no 11 in sales on Lyst for the month of February, a sharp increase from no 550 in January.

“Ivanka Trump brand has never ranked in as a top seller on our site,” Sarah Tanner, Lyst's US public relations director, told Refinery 29. “To see such an extreme spike in one month is completely unheard of and came as a huge surprise to us.”

The reason for the increase could potentially be linked to Trump supporters explicitly deciding to purchase the products to counter the boycott.

"I bought a pair of her shoes, they are great and classy just like Ivanka trump. Boycott all stores that drop her line," said one person on Twitter.

"On behalf of the anti Trumper's and boycott Trump products. I bought an Ivanka Handbag. Shoes tomorrow," chipped in another.

The latest figures come after a Wall Street Journal report from the beginning of February found sales of the range fell by nearly a third in the past financial year with a steep decline in the weeks before her father was elected President.

The Journal cited internal Nordstrom data as showing sales of the products were more than 70 per cent lower in the second, third and fourth week of October compared to the same weeks the previous year. The presidential election was on 8 November.

The Grab Your Wallet boycott campaign (a reference to the President’s leaked sexually aggressive 2005 “pussy-grabbing” comments) emerged last autumn and urges consumers to boycott shops which sell products affiliated with the billionaire property developer’s family businesses.

Increasing numbers of stores have dropped the line launched by Ms Trump, the President’s second child who is said to be his “favourite”, in the wake of the boycott. Most notably, US department store Nordstorm announced it was dropping the products from its stores due to a steep decline in sales since the campaign.

Mr Trump condemned the retailer’s decision, immediately rushing to the defence of his daughter on Twitter. White House press secretary Sean Spicer called the department store’s decision to stop selling some of her merchandise a “direct attack” on the President. But Ms Conway was seen to have taken it too far after she endorsed the range on live television.

Ms Trump announced in January she would be taking formal leave of absence from the brand after her father became president, saying she would “no longer be involved with the management or operations” of the company.

In November, the mother-of-three’s jewellery company used an interview appearance to promote a $10,800 diamond bracelet from her fashion line. The company later apologised for promoting the jewellery.