Amazon has expanded its domestic goods-ordering Dash Buttons program beyond U.S. shores, bringing the devices to Germany, Austria, and the U.K. for the first time.
The buttons have been available in the U.S. since March of last year, and enable Amazon Prime customers to reorder specific household items like coffee, toilet paper, and washing up liquid by pressing a physical button that's wirelessly linked to their Amazon account.
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Amazon has added over 100 popular household brands to its Dash program in the 18 months since its launch, in a bid to make reordering goods online a seamless process. Daniel Rausch, Director of Amazon Dash, said of the launch:
"We've all experienced the frustration of running out of something we need—Dash Button and Dash Replenishment Service are designed to make that moment a thing of the past.
"Dash Buttons offer the convenience of 1-Click shopping from anywhere in the home — they can be placed near those frequently used items you don't want to run out of, and when you see supplies running low, the Dash Button makes it easier than ever to order more. Just press the button and your item is on its way."
Dash buttons cost $4.99 (£4.99 / 4.99 euros) each, but Prime members get the same amount discounted off their first order, making the first device essentially free.
Amazon also announced it is launching its Dash Replacement Service (DRS) in the above countries. DRS lets connected devices like water filters and printers link up to the Dash system, either by manufacturers incorporating manual Dash buttons into the hardware, or enabling the devices to automatically reorder supplies when they are running low.
Companies including Bosch, Siemens, Samsung and Whirlpool are currently working on integrating Dash Replenishment into their products, according to Rausch.
Amazon Prime costs $99 (£79 / 49 euros) and grants customers access to a range of Amazon services.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)I don't think Amazon has a guarantee on the pricing... but it's obviously a little more stable than normal items on Amazon. ...
It makes sense in a way; if people were hit by sneaky-seeming price increases when using the button, it'd lead to people not wanting to use all those Dash Buttons that Amazon has given away (cost $5 but you get $5 back) - giving you $7-ish worth of electronics (by one estimate I read), in order to score $5 extra once or twice, before you realized the price was too high and developed a negative opinion of Amazon, doesn't actually help them much....
I tried a Google search to see if anyone had written anything up on this topic but couldn't find anything useful (no matter what I tried I just got a bunch of idiot bloggers proclaiming Dash to be the end of the universe).
There is some truth to the idiot blogger's fears, though - the first Dash Button was found in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947, under suspicious circumstances, and it was still glowing at the time. And each time they've pressed that button, a new Dash Button appears - that's where they're all coming from.
Although I share the general sceptisim, they do have a system for preventing over-order: once pushed, the button will not register any new pushes until the order has been delivered to you.Back to the buttons though, they are ugly and if you have children I would imagine it would leave open the possibility of mass orders being generated. Do they have a system in place where they will prevent over order?
Not just the parts cost, it'd blow the power budget. It runs, for its lifetime, off one non-replaceable AAA battery, and it uses practically no power until the button is pressed, at which time it wakes up for just a few seconds, to send one message. That isn't likely more often than once a week, and more typically probably once a month. Even though e-ink can display for a very long time without power, what you suggest would mean having the device polling Amazon likely at least daily, to get the latest price, plus the additional power spent on rewriting the display each time the price changes (not to mention the inevitable lawsuits when the number displayed didn't match the current price because it hadn't updated in 18 hours). This would reduce the device's useful life from years to months, at which point it wouldn't be cost effective (if it lasted 3 months, and you used it 3 times, that's ballpark $7 worth of parts, plus paying to ship it to you, to get you to purchase a single item 3 times, that you might have purchased from Amazon anyway - not a very good return for them).
It could be: first press: display price - second press: order