WOM Index October 2025: Holiday is En Vogue (Just Ask Apparel)

Year-over-year WOM is down 0.47 percentage points, but 19.29% of all consumers cited WOM as their key purchase driver, up 0.39 percentage points from the previous month and 0.71 percentage points from July, indicating that consumer behaviors (and chatter) are ramping up according to plan. Let’s see how other categories are tracking: 

🚗 Automotive: 24.71% 
👗 Apparel and Accessories: 21.70% (⬆️ over September)
📱 Consumer Electronics: 19.91% (⬇️ over September)
🏈 Sporting Goods: 18.78%
🩷 Specialty: 17.57%
💊 Food and Drug: 17.55%
🛋️ Housewares and Home: 16.89%
🧴 Health and Beauty: 15.82%
🗂️ Office: 10.12%

Our key takeaways 

As Fairing CEO Matt Bahr noted in a recent LinkedIn Live, apparel spend tends to ramp up in Q4, as wardrobes change with the seasons and folks pick up new fashions for holiday parties and New Year’s Eve soirees. Conversely, the slight decrease seen in electronics aligns with consumer pullback as they await holiday deals and sales. 

Office WOM popped above 10%, which is ironically better than the back-to-school season’s peak. But Health and Beauty is still not performing its best. Hopefully, brands will get a WOM glow-up going into BFCM. 

How to apply the insights 

• Specialty brands and retailers should lean heavily into the unique storytelling that makes their brand stand out. While many consumers are flocking to mass merchants to save, you can incorporate consumer feedback and photos to bring your brand to life.
  
• Fashion, footwear, and accessories: lean into the spirit of the season! Embrace curation and fold in styling tips from your brand’s fans to add credibility to your recommendations.
• Grocers, now’s the time to harness the power of tradition. With the holidays ramping up, people are looking for recipe ideas and to bring back beloved culinary traditions. Explore ways to spotlight these customs and incorporate them into marketing campaigns and offers.