structural:summarization, quality:correction
Legacy and influence

One of the wealthiest entrepreneurs of the 18th century, Wedgwood created goods to meet the demands of the consumer revolution and growth in prosperity that helped drive the Industrial Revolution in Britain. He is credited as a pioneer of modern marketing, specifically direct mail, money-back guarantees, travelling salesmen, carrying pattern boxes for display, self-service, free delivery, buy one get one free, and illustrated catalogues. He is the subject of Brian Dolan's 2004 book, Wedgwood: The First Tycoon, in which Dolan explains how he revolutionised the business model with innovations that have continued into the present.

" is someone who commercialised creativity. He made an industry of his talent."

— Sir Howard Stringer, chairman of Sony Corporation, 2012.

For devising a number of sales methods, historian Judith Flanders in The New York Times called him "among the greatest and most innovative retailers the world has ever seen". He is also noted as an early adopter/founder of managerial accounting principles by Anthony Hopwood, professor of accounting and financial management at the London School of Economics, in "The Archaeology of Accounting Systems". The V&A historian Tristram Hunt called Wedgwood a "difficult, brilliant, creative entrepreneur whose personal drive and extraordinary gifts changed the way we work and live." The Adam Smith Institute states, " Steve Jobs and Elon Musk are the spiritual heirs of Josiah Wedgwood, developing and promoting the new products and processes that will enrich our world with new opportunities".

He was a friend, and commercial rival, of the potter John Turner the elder; their works have sometimes been misattributed. For the further comfort of his foreign buyers he employed French-, German-, Italian- and Dutch-speaking clerks and answered their letters in their native tongue.

Wedgwood belonged to the fifth generation of a family of potters whose traditional occupation continued through another five generations. Wedgwood's company is still a famous name in pottery (as part of the Fiskars group), and "Wedgwood China" is sometimes used as a term for his Jasperware, the coloured pottery with applied relief decoration (usually white). As early as 1774, Wedgwood began preserving samples of all the company's works for posterity, with the collection later put into the Wedgwood Museum. In 2009, the museum won a UK Art Fund Prize for Museums and Art Galleries (Museum of the Year) for its displays of Wedgwood pottery, skills, designs and artefacts. In 2011, the archive of the museum was inscribed in UNESCO 's UK Memory of the World Register.