Seattle – Amazon.com, Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) announced on Thursday that it was ready to expand its Dash Button service from the nearly 30 brands whose products have been available for instant order through the devices to more than 100. The company is about to introduce buttons to order Trojan condoms, Slim Jims and Doritos with a single push.
Dash Buttons are only available to Amazon customers who pay for the $99-a-year Prime service. They are charged for $4.99 per device, but the company refunds that amount after its customers order the first item through the device. Products are delivered within two days with Prime’s free shipping.
The program’s expansion includes Red Bull beverages, Energizer batteries, Zico Premium Coconut Water and Stayfree feminine pads. Arm & Hammer cat litter, Peet’s Coffee and Orville Redenbacher’s Gourmet Popping Corn will also have their own Dash Buttons.
“What we’ve heard from customers is they want more,” said Dash’s director Daniel Rausch, as reported by The New York Times. “Brands have been clamoring to be in the program.”
The plastic buttons are not bigger than a car key remote. Each device has a strip of adhesive so people can stick them wherever they like around the house, as well as a logo for Orbit gum, Tide or whatever brand the button happens to be serving. Some analysts have said that the brands may be covering the cost of the Dash Buttons bearing their names since the devices represent effective in-home advertisement.
Rauch said more customers are using the innovative tech. The number of instant orders made through the devices increased 75 percent during a week in mid-March compared with a mid-December week, he noted. Rauch also pointed out that all Amazon customers combined now press Dash Buttons more than once a minute.
Jeffrey Bezos’ firm launched the Dash Button a year ago to allow customers to order products they will never not need such as toilet paper, toothpaste and garbage bags while saving as many calories as possible. Because the device was introduced just before April Fool’s Day, many people thought it was some sort of a joke.
Amazon’s innovation through shopping patterns analysis
Amazon seems to be clearing the way to eventually start sending replenishments of household items even before customers have ordered them, according to Scott Galloway, who teaches marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He predicted that the company would one day be able to analyze his shopping patterns and send him a box once a week with items they realize he needs.
Well, Galloway’s comments are not that insane. A few years ago, Amazon received a patent for “anticipatory package shipping”, which consists of speculatively sending products to customers before they have ordered them. The company has also started helping makers of pet food dispensers, washing machines and other products design them for automatically order replenishments by their own.
Source: Tech Crunch