Fears for Meghan’s lifestyle brand as website visitor numbers drop

There are fears for Meghan’s As ever brand after it was revealed just 392,000 US residents visited the website between January and May this year − far less than the number needed to use up the 650,000 units of stock held in January if each visitor purchased one item.

US media outlet Newsweek used data from online traffic tracking site Similarweb to find out the number of visitors to the website over the five-month period, which began the same month online sleuths were able to deduce the exact volume of inventory being held.

According to Newsweek, there were 392,114 US visitors to the site from January to May. Currently, the Duchess of Sussex only sells to those with a US address.

Total site visits rose to one million if you include other countries, such as Britain, Canada, Australia and India, where the product range is yet to be sold.

If each of the US site visitors went on to purchase one item, they would not empty the backlog of stock that was reportedly being held in January when an online sleuth was able to work out inventory.

Newsweek said Similarweb was also able to track the “bounce rate” of As ever − that is the percentage of people who view only one page before leaving in order to get a clearer picture of sales.

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Those people who only visited one page would not have made a purchase as you need to visit multiple pages to buy goods. 

As ever’s bounce rate was between 34 per cent and 40 per cent during that period, meaning 382,000 visitors viewed one page, while about 675,000 viewed more than one.

However, this is total traffic and not just the US, which is currently the only market where As ever is sold.

As ever’s inventory was revealed in January when a Reddit user claimed they were able to work out the exact amount of items available by selecting large amounts of each item until they reached the limit available.

They claimed it showed there were 220,000 jars of spread in stock, 32,000 jars of honey, 90,000 candles, 80,000 tins of flower sprinkles and roughly 79,200 bottles of wine. 

The total amount of stock came to 650,190, which was worth about $31 million based on the sale price.

At the time, Netflix was As ever’s brand partner. It reportedly funded the brand as well as promoted it in its first 11 months as part of its production deal for the With Love, Meghan series that ran for two seasons.

It was announced in March this year that the partnership between Netflix and the brand had ended.

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Earlier this year, Page Six reported the stock was being held in two buildings located on the Netflix lot in Hollywood.

At the time, it was reported that Netflix was left with huge amounts of stock it had been holding since the partnership was announced in April 2025.

“Apparently, there are two storage rooms packed with As Ever product,” a source told Page Six.

“They’re literally just giving it away to employees – one (staffer) walked out with 10 products for free.”

A second source told the outlet that “there’s so much overstock”.

However, Newsweek reported that a “person with knowledge of As Ever” said the business was doing well and it was anticipated it would “double in size this year”. 

“People are attempting to paint a negative narrative and are choosing how they present things, choosing how they share information to fit a particular narrative to perpetuate certain negative storylines.”

“It’s exceeded everybody’s expectations in terms of how well it’s gone… across the holiday period. That period has been incredibly successful.”

Meghan first teased a lifestyle brand called American Riviera Orchard in 2024 after she sent her celebrity friends samples of her fruit spread.

She later changed the brand’s name to As ever, and it was launched in 2025 to coincide with the debut of her Netflix series With Love, Meghan.

Two eight-part series’ and a one-off Christmas special were aired before it was announced in January this year it had been shelved.

Then in March, both As ever and Netflix released statements confirming the streaming giant had also parted ways with the brand.

Since then, Meghan has continued to grow the brand with new products but has at times come under fire.

In April, Meghan attracted controversy when she launched a special Mother’s Day range, which included candles inspired by her two children.

A press release announcing the release of the Signature Candle No. 506 said it was inspired by the birthdate of Meghan’s son, Prince Archie, May 6 − in the US dates are listed as month then day.

Another candle, Signature Candle No. 604, was inspired by “Princess Lilibet of Sussex’s Birthdate”.

The use of the children’s royal titles to sell candles caused an uproar. Their royal titles were removed from the website five days later.

The Duchess faced further ridicule in May when she teased a new product before adding “curated limited edition” matches to her product range.

Then just this month, unearthed footage from the 2016 Create Cultivate Atlanta conference for female entrepreneurs showed the then-Meghan Markle labelling expensive candles “so obnoxious” and claiming you would not find a $100 candle on her website.

Meghan made the comments while promoting her former lifestyle website The Tig, which she closed down in 2017.

“I’ve always sort of crafted [The Tig] as aspirational, girl-next-door,” she said.

“You can aspire for it, but you can totally attain it too. There are no $100 candles on my site − that’s so obnoxious. I just want things that you can have.”

As ever candles start at $89, but go up to $358 for a pack of four candles with signature matches. A set of two candles with matches will set you back $180.

Meghan recently gave the As ever website and Instagram account a revamp, along with her private Instagram account, replacing the previous profile pictures with new images and a video which again welcomed her followers “to the world of As ever”.

The video featured the duchess tasting a raspberry, picking flowers from a garden, selecting spreads from a pantry, reading a book and looking whimsically out the window while seated on a kitchen bench.