Consumer “Interest” In Ivanka Trump’s Brand Has Fallen Since The Boycott Began

New data from ShopRunner suggests that online consumer “interest” in Ivanka Trump’s brand has dropped 54% since the #GrabYourWallet boycott campaign began a few weeks ago. “Interest” indicates the number of people who viewed an Ivanka Trump product in one of the six online retailers included in the study: Bon-Ton, FragranceNet.com, LastCall, Lord & Taylor, Neiman Marcus, and OnlineShoes. The study reviewed the online behavior of 71,713 ShopRunner members. These numbers do not include post-election behavior.

Does online “interest” correlate with sales? It’s hard to say, though ShopRunner CMO Angela Song told me a few weeks ago that “in e-commerce, browse always comes before purchase. The more people you can get interested in just browsing your products, it definitely is highly correlated with sales.” ShopRunner would not reveal actual sales figures to me.

An Ivanka Trump brand spokesperson sent me the following brief statement through its publicist: “Based on Q3 results, we expect to meet or exceed our projections for the year.” What those projections were exactly, I don’t know, though we do know that net sales of Ivanka Trump clothing were up $11.8 million during the first six months of 2016 compared to the first six months of 2015 and that the company reportedly generated $100 million in revenue last year.

It’s hard to say for sure whether it’s the boycott or something else that has caused the drop-off in interest in the brand, though ShopRunner seems to think the correlation could be real, writing in a statement that “The recent boycott on the Ivanka Trump Collection appears to be impacting interest in the brand…ShopRunner’s data shows a significant drop in interest in the brand since the boycott began.”

For her part, when asked on 60 Minutes if the campaign has hurt the Trump brand, Ivanka said, “I don’t think it matters. [The presidency] is so much more important. And serious.”