Survey Says: Spice Up E-Commerce with Some Bitcoin Flavor

If Bitcoin were a spice that you could sprinkle, it would end up on over 50% of the dishes devoured by Millennials. The Amazon-loving class of customers was surveyed by LendEDU about their appetite for all-things Amazon and their interest in a Bitcoin-type “Amazon Coin”.

The sample size of 1,000 had purchased an item from Amazon within the past 30 days, and 62.3% were Amazon Prime members.

According to LendEDU, “Just a little over half of the respondents, 51.7 percent, answered “yes” to the idea of using an Amazon-created cryptocurrency – perhaps dubbed Amazon Coins – for future purchases on the website. Additionally, of those with Amazon Prime, 58.27 percent said they would consider using a cryptocurrency created by the company.”

Respondents were also open to having a “bank” account with the online e-commerce giant. They would entertain loans, mortgages and savings accounts offered by Amazon.

Digital money doesn’t seem to be a big leap for consumers in their 20s and 30s who watched the birth of the MP3, the death of Blockbuster Video, the rise of digital gaming and hopped the Spotify bullet train for music delivery and Netflix for movie streaming. But is decentralization, which is the core tenet of Bitcoin, that important, or will a company with mad brand recognition and its own coin be enough to tip the scales and get the masses into digital cash? Or is it meaningless speculation to suggest that Amazon is even considering digital cash when the Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon is “in talks with big banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. about building a checking-account-like product the e-commerce giant could offer its customers, according to people familiar with the matter.”?

Amazon will surely maximize its brand recognition and the tremendous sway it has with young customers, but according to the LendEDU survey, here is what those customers want:

?1. If offered, would you be open to the idea of using an account created by Amazon as your primary bank account?

a. 44.50% of respondents answered “yes” (52.33%)

b. 16.40% of respondents answered “no” (12.84%)

c. 39.10% of respondents answered “unsure” (34.83%)

?2. If offered, would you be open to the idea of using a savings account created by Amazon?

a. 49.60% of respondents answered “yes” (57.95%)

b. 14.90% of respondents answered “no” (10.75%)

c. 35.50% of respondents answered “unsure” (31.30%)

?3. If offered, would you be open to the idea of using a mortgage created by Amazon for future home purchases?

a. 30.20% of respondents answered “yes” (36.28%)

b. 31.60% of respondents answered “no” (26.81%)

c. 38.20% of respondents answered “unsure” (36.92%)

4. If offered, would you be open to the idea of using a personal loan created by Amazon for future large purchases, debt consolidation, or home improvement projects?

a. 50.30% of respondents answered “yes” (57.46%)

b. 24.00% of respondents answered “no” (19.58%)

c. 25.70% of respondents answered “unsure” (22.95%)

Read the full survey.