Trump brand doesn’t sell: now Sears, Kmart drop products

Trump-branded consumer products have suffered new blows, with US retailers Sears Holdings Corp and Kmart Corp discontinuing online sales of 31 Trump Home items.

They joined Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus, which announced last week they were dropping first daughter Ivanka Trump's eponymous collection (See: Trump claims Ivanka treated unfairly by Nordstrom). Sears and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Kmart, disclosed their decision on Saturday, saying it was part of a push to focus their online business on the most profitable items.

"As part of the company's initiative to optimize its online product assortment, we constantly refine that assortment to focus on our most profitable items," a spokesman for Illinois-based Sears Holdings – the parent company for Sears and Kmart - said in a statement Saturday.

"Amid that streamlining effort, 31 Trump Home items were among the items removed online this week. Products from the line are still offered online via third-party Marketplace vendors. Neither Sears nor Kmart carries the line in brick-and-mortar stores."

Meanwhile, new details emerged showing sales of Ivanka's brand fell in the weeks before Nordstrom Inc stopped carrying her products.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that Nordstrom sales of Ivanka Trump's brand had dropped sharply before the retailer discontinued sales this week.

Citing internal Nordstrom data, the Journal reported sales of Ivanka Trump-branded clothing and shoes had dropped more than 70 per cent in the second, third and fourth week of October compared with the same weeks the previous year. The election was held on 8 November.

After Seattle-based Nordstrom said it was dropping Ivanka Trump's collection "based on the brand's performance," President Trump jumped to his daughter's defence.

"My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom," the president tweeted last Wednesday. "She is a great person - always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!"

The developments were the latest in a week of controversy swirling around commercial activity connected to the Trump name. And the moves may be a rare sign of companies taking calculated risks in making business decisions that might invite criticism from President Donald Trump's Twitter account.

Neil Stern, a retail consultant for McMillan Doolittle, told Reuters Nordstrom may have felt insulated given its stores tend to be located in cities and affluent suburbs, which tend to tack Democratic. ''If there is a political blowback they will survive it given where there stores are,'' he said.

For Sears, which last month announced plans to close 150 stores, any publicity that draws attention away from the retailer's financial struggles is welcome, Stern added.

On Friday, three athletes sponsored by Under Armour Inc took to social media to distance themselves from comments by the company's chief executive, Kevin Plank, in support of President Trump.

Earlier in the week, a congressional committee said it was seeking a review into whether senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway had violated ethics rules by using her position to promote Ivanka Trump's product lines (Top White House aide promotes Ivanka's products; counselled). The Trump Home collection includes lines of furniture, bedding and lighting, often from makers that supply Trump hotels, according to the collection's website.

Nordstrom, in announcing the discontinuation of Ivanka Trump's line last week, said sales had "steadily declined to the point where it didn't make good business sense" to continue selling the products

Spicer in defence
White House press secretary Sean Spicer defended Trump's tweet, saying said he had "every right" to stand up for his daughter. "This is a direct attack on his policies and her name, so there's clearly an attempt for him to stand up for her because she's being maligned because they have a problem with his policies," Spicer said.

Nordstorm fired back, reiterating that the decision to pull the clothing line was based on performance.

"Over the past year, and particularly in the last half of 2016, sales of the brand have steadily declined to the point where it didn't make good business sense for us to continue with the line for now," Nordstrom said in a statement. "We've had a great relationship with the Ivanka Trump team. We've had open conversations with them over the past year to share what we've seen and Ivanka was personally informed of our decision in early January.''

Similarly, Neiman Marcus last week said in a statement that it has "a very small Ivanka Trump precious jewelry business which is comprised 100 per cent 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."

The decisions to no longer carry the line follows a grassroots campaign spearheaded by foes of Donald Trump called "Grab Your Wallet," which called for a boycott of retailers that carried Ivanka Trump or Donald Trump merchandise.

None of the retailers, though, cited the "Grab Your Wallet" campaign as a factor in dropping the collection.

(Also see: Macy's under pressure to drop Ivanka Trump line of merchandise).