Word of mouth drives 13% of consumer sales ($6 trillion)
Outdated Confidence: medium
Source found and quoted correctly, but old enough that the market has changed.
- Commonly cited as
- "Word of mouth drives $6 trillion of annual consumer spending"
- True origin
- Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), analysis by Analytic Partners — Return on Word of Mouth (press release, 18 Nov 2014)
- Type
- Stat check: A widely repeated statistic traced back to its origin.
- Year
- 2014
- Data as of
- 2014
- Last checked
- What the source says
online and offline consumer conversations and recommendations account for 13% of consumer sales, on average, which represents $6 trillion in annual consumer spending.
- Method & sample
- Econometric modeling of confidential sales data from sponsoring brands in six categories; the $6 trillion extrapolates the 13% average to all US consumer spending.
- Drift between quote and source
- Scope: an average across a few sponsor brands extrapolated to the whole economy
- Date: 12 years old
- Interest
- Funded by brand and agency sponsors; WOMMA is a word-of-mouth trade body.
Safe rephrasing
A 2014 WOMMA-sponsored model of six categories estimated word of mouth drove about 13% of sales for participating brands.
Sources we opened
- PR Newswire: WOMMA study release (2014) (primary)
Machine-readable: /api/claims/word-of-mouth-13-percent-sales-6-trillion.json · Last checked 2026-10-16