Word of Mouth Index
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This exclusive collaboration between Future Commerce and Fairing quantifies the traditionally unmeasurable force of personal recommendations across industries and over time.
Track seasonal patterns, benchmark your performance against industry standards, and discover the true value of your most satisfied customers. Updated monthly with fresh data directly from Fairing's post-purchase surveys, these insights help you transform your strongest advocates into your most powerful marketing channel.
WOM Index August 2025: Late-summer referrals hold their ground
Back‑to‑school noise tempered big swings, but the referral engine kept humming. Late August firmed up, signaling that shoppers are asking friends for the “is it any good” check before making early fall purchases.
Who's winning and who's lagging
📱 Consumer Electronics - Shoppers want proof before they tap "buy." Invite side‑by‑side UGC, comparison checklists, and shareable “ask a friend” prompts on PDPs. Look out for the Apple event ripple effects.
🏈 Sporting Goods - Up nicely. Tryouts, camps, and early BTS chatter juice referrals.
🚗 Automotive - Referral still rules the driveway. Community clubs and owner forums are doing acquisition work for manufacturers and dealers.
👗 Apparel and Accessories - Micro‑trend velocity is high and shoppers are talking about how they curated their take on the latest social fad.
🛋️ Housewares and Home - Despite a slump through most of August, we're seeing momentum going into September and peak decorating time for Spooky Season.
🧴 Health and Beauty - WOM is softer despite BTS buzz. Right now, it's all about laying the foundation for holiday.
🗂️ Office - Still the least WOM‑driven. Expect more utility‑led buying and fewer brag‑about‑it purchases.
How to apply the insights
- Lean into customer‑led content and service perks that reaffirm the value of your brand.
- If you're in Health and Beauty, sampling, referral‑for‑refill offers, and micro‑community seeding can close the trust gap.
- Housewares and Home brands should lean into all things Spooky Season, kitsch and all. Focus on thematic inspiration and what's trending on social media.
- Routine categories like Office and Food and Drug should focus messaging on reliability and value.
- If you are Sporting Goods or Auto, pour gas on top-performers and capture the lift while the convo is hot.
WOM Index July 2025: The group chat took a beach day
Word of mouth cooled a smidge in July. No plot twist, just summer hours. The Index eased a bit vs June and spring. Electronics kept the crown, Sporting Goods and Auto warmed up, Office face-planted before true back-to-school.
By category, quick vibes
📱 Consumer Electronics - Unbothered, moisturized, in its lane. Still the gravity well.
🏈 Sporting Goods - Up nicely. Tryouts, camps, and early BTS chatter juice referrals.
🚗 Automotive - Model-year teasing has the group chat debating trim packages again.
👗 Apparel and Accessories - Took a breath after a strong June. Sun dresses did their job.
🛋️ Housewares and Home - Patio projects and mini makeovers keep the recs flowing.
🧴 Health and Beauty - Steady baseline. SPF and lip oil keep showing up in texts.
🥫 Food and Drug - Mostly noise this month. Routine buys rarely hit the timeline.
🗂️ Office - Ouch. Seasonal trough before BTS. Expect an August bounce if you show up with the right offer.
What to do with it
- Spotlight real customers in PDP callouts and store signage, not slogans.
- Nudge for a one-line share post-purchase, then turn the best into Reels and Shorts.
- If you are Office, front-load BTS UGC and bundle deals now.
- If you are Sporting Goods or Auto, pour gas on top-performers and capture the lift while the convo is hot.
Chart: Share of Word-of-Mouth Responses Over Time
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This chart tracks the percentage of customers who report word-of-mouth as their purchase driver from early 2022 through 2025.
Chart: Comparison of WOM and Total Responses Without Last-Click Attribution
This chart tracks the percentage of customers who report word-of-mouth as their purchase driver from early 2022 through 2025.
Chart: Word-of-Mouth Responses Over Time by Shop Industry
This multi-line visualization tracks industry-specific word-of-mouth trends over time. The synchronized peaks across industries in January 2023, January 2024, and January 2025.
Chart: Average Order Value Comparison for WOM vs. Total Responses
This chart tracks the percentage of customers who report word-of-mouth as their purchase driver from early 2022 through 2025.
Chart: Share of Word-of-Mouth by Shop Industry
This chart tracks the percentage of customers who report word-of-mouth as their purchase driver from early 2022 through 2025.
Data by Fairing. For Future Commerce+ Members Only.
The Word of Mouth Index dashboard provides interactive visualizations to help you understand how personal recommendations impact purchasing behavior across different industries and time periods. Each chart offers unique insights:
- Interactive filtering: Use the toggles in the multiline time series charts to filter data by industry, date range, or product category. Click on the interactive legend to toggle lines on and off to filter the view.
- Data exploration: Hover over any data point to see detailed information about that specific metric. Zoom in and out by using the lasso tool, or by clicking and dragging.
- Comparisons: Toggle between views to compare your industry against others or see trends over time.
- Benchmarking: Use the industry averages to compare your own word-of-mouth performance based on your post-purchase survey data.
