Word of Mouth Index
presented by
This is best experienced on Desktop
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 September 2025: Summer Slump Gets a BTS Bump
Back-to-school spending continued through the end of September, with many consumers continuing to hunt for the best brands and the best deals. As a result, we saw WOM rates tick up slightly month over month, even though there were not many significant shifts at the category level.
Nearly 19% of all consumers cited WOM as their key purchase driver, up 0.16 percentage points from June 30. The leading categories for the month are a testament to typical buying patterns during this time of year. But with overall WOM rates up 0.66 from September 2024, there is heightened urgency for consumers to make savvier decisions:
🚗 Automotive - 24.59%
📱 Consumer Electronics - 22.12%
👗 Apparel and Accessories - 20.63%
🏈 Sporting Goods - 18.42%
🛋️ Housewares and Home - 17.18%
🧴 Health and Beauty - 16.02%
🗂️ Office - 8.38%
Our key takeaways
Consumer electronics and apparel saw consistent bumps throughout the month, pointing to the steady stream of purchase activity. And although beauty remains under the radar, we expect to see a healthy bump as we get into peak holiday spending time in late November and early December.
Office remains at the bottom of the pile, mainly because it’s the most downgradable category. Sure, there are niche audiences for specialty journals and pens, but as more households grow more strapped for cash, or at the very least are attempting to save more for holiday shopping, they’re more likely to shift to private label and dollar store brands for these purchases.
How to apply the insights
- Make it easy for consumers to share and amplify their ratings, reviews, and user-generated content. Start building a referral program (in time for the holidays) that rewards consumers for sharing WOM and getting their friends and family on board.
- If you are in Auto or Electronics, keep fueling owner‑led content and community knowledge sharing. Tap into specialty communities on Reddit for some insights into what people love (or don’t) about your models.
- Despite home decor getting a growing share of Spooky Season sales, it’s struggling in the WOM realm. Now’s the time to amplify your customers’ spaces and ideas, especially if you want to see the same bump we saw in late Q4 2024.
- If you are in Office, lead with value and reliability to capture late BTS holdouts and school-year shopping trips for class projects and holiday crafts.
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
Updated: {$formattedDate}
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.
