The effect of the Trump brand boycott is beginning to take greater form.
Over the past few days, Ivanka Trump’s eponymous label — which she announced she’d be stepping away from last month — has been given the ax by two large luxury department store chains: Nordstrom Inc. and Neiman Marcus.
While Nordstrom’s announcement came early last week, Neiman Marcus confirmed over the weekend that shoppers will no longer be able to find the first daughter’s line of jewelry on its website.
Both firms — which appeared on an infamous public boycott list — said their decision to drop the line had to with the brand’s overall performance.
“Each year we cut about 10 percent [of brands carried] and refresh our assortment with about the same amount,” a Nordstrom rep said last week. “In this case, based on the brand’s performance, we’ve decided not to buy it for this season.”
Meanwhile, Neiman Marcus told Footwear News today: “Neiman Marcus has a very small Ivanka Trump precious jewelry business, which is comprised 100 percent of consigned merchandise (merchandise owned by the vendor). Based on productivity we continuously assess whether our brands are carried in stores, on our website, or both.”
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Nevertheless, the 80-plus boycott list started by Shannon Coulter, a marketing specialist in California, in response to last year’s release of a 2005 video in which Donald Trump made sexually aggressive statements about women, has placed significant pressure on retailers over the past several months. (Macy’s, TJ Maxx and Zappos are among the retailers still on the list — and Business Insider reports that Macy’s is the latest to face increased pressure, both internally and externally, to drop the Ivanka Trump line.)
While now-defunct Canadian e-tailer Shoes.com was the only major corporation to publicly address the boycott and reveal its plans to discontinue carrying Ivanka Trump merchandise in response, the effect of the call for a boycott is perhaps now showing up in the sales of Trump-branded product.
Meanwhile, a series of executive orders — most notably an immigration ban handed down on Jan. 27 — by President Trump has put the Trump name at odds with several industry power players.
Nike president and CEO Mark Parker and Tim Boyle, CEO of Columbia Sportswear Co., were among those to publicly speak out against Trump’s immigration ban.
