In my house, we have an Amazon Prime membership, regularly watch Prime Video, and listen to Amazon Music as our go-to streaming service. We have an Echo device and a Fire Stick too.

But we also have three iPhones, three iPads, two Macbooks, an iMac, and use iCloud for our storage. We also have three Samsung TVs, one Galaxy tablet, a Galaxy Book laptop, and other Samsung appliances. I use Google Chrome as my default browser, Gmail, Google Calendar, Docs, Drive, and Maps. There’s probably more I’m not even thinking about. Oh, and Verizon.

I’m an ecosystem maniac – if a fragmented one. I wish I could consolidate but some companies are still much better at certain things and so it’s worth it to split. That’s going to change.

THE WAR FOR OUR EVERYTHING  

Every bit of data we collect at CivicScience points to a rapidly-accelerating consumer trend toward tech and media ecosystems. Take our emerging stay-at-home economy, add rampant device addiction, the forces of tribalism, and the benefits of seamless UX. What you get is an unstoppable freight train with only one final destination. The consumer of the future will be as identifiable by their tech and media ecosystem as they are by their favorite sports team, their political party, or their religion.

This may be news to you but it’s certainly not news to the companies who are vying for you. Amazon, Apple, Google, Samsung, Verizon, Comcast, and others – like Microsoft, AT&T, or even Facebook – all want to be your one-and-only. They all know that the further you fall into their clutches, the harder it will be for anyone else to steal you away. They know it will create avenues to sell (and advertise) more and more products and services to you.

They also know that YOU want all of that. The fewer log-ins we have to remember, the fewer tech support numbers we need to call, the fewer interfaces we have to learn, and the fewer bills we have to pay, the better. Those benefits might even outweigh the idea of our refrigerator talking to our grocery list or our doorbell talking to our smartwatch. Who doesn’t want all of that?

START PAYING ATTENTION OR PAY HANDSOMELY

According to our most recent data, over 35% of U.S. adults say that alignment with an ecosystem is at least “somewhat important” when buying a product or service. That number skyrockets to over 47% among Millennials. 1 in 10 Millennials purchased a new product in the last month because it fit into a given ecosystem. Those numbers will only keep climbing.

So, we’re going to be tracking and studying this phenomenon like crazy. And it’s all starting with an initial look at the Amazon ecosystem and its customer. We recently analyzed the adoption rate and profile of consumers across the Amazon suite of services. We examined how many consumers have fallen further and further down the Amazon rabbit hole, comparing users of only Amazon Prime shipping to users of one or more other services. We studied the profiles of these various adopters, their demographics, media habits, and lifestyle, in an attempt to forecast what the next wave of Amazon ecosystem adopters will be. Finally, we looked at how this ecosystem is creating “stickiness” among Amazon customers and what impact it’s having on brand loyalty.

Unfortunately, here’s where we throw some cold water on the discussion. This report is only available to CivicScience clients. If you happen to be one of those people, you’re in luck. Download it HERE. If not, here are a few tidbits to thank you for reading this far:

  • Brand loyalty among Amazon customers has grown by over 16% in the past three years;
  • The deeper someone is in the Amazon ecosystem, the more likely they are to be: male, better educated, price-conscious, environmentally-conscious, and a fan of the NHL;
  • Using Amazon Music has the highest correlation with being an Amazon Prime shipping subscriber at 86%;
  • FireTV has the lowest correlation at 65%

We’ll probably push out more free tidbits as time goes by. This initial report only touches the surface of a deep ocean of data – and we haven’t even started looking at the other prevalent ecosystem combatants yet.

 

Stay tuned.