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posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday June 29 2016, @09:14PM   Printer-friendly
from the dash-might-be-a-dud dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Amazon is reportedly trying to attract more consumers to its Dash push-button ordering devices by beefing up the brands offering goods for sale through the gadgets.

The internet retail giant is expected to announce this week the addition of dozens of new brands for Dash buttons, according to a Wall Street Journal report Sunday that cites documents and people familiar with the matter. It wasn't immediately clear which brands might be added to the lineup of Dash buttons, which are small, Internet-connected buttons that people can click to purchase household goods like paper towels or detergent through Amazon.

The new batch of brands comes roughly two months after Amazon unleashed dozens more of them to mark the first anniversary of the tiny widgets in April, tripling the current lineup to surpass 100 different buttons. Because the Dash button was introduced just before April 1, 2015, some reporters wondered if the concept was a joke.

Despite the reinforcements, consumer response to the tiny devices has been tepid, according to one market researcher. In a study released in march, Slice Intelligence found that less than 50 percent of people who bought the buttons actually placed an order with them.


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 29 2016, @09:18PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 29 2016, @09:18PM (#367734)

    Receive Bacon

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 29 2016, @09:38PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 29 2016, @09:38PM (#367743)

      Rub Hands Gently Under Arm

  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday June 29 2016, @09:35PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday June 29 2016, @09:35PM (#367740)

    If they get these buttons in the hands of people who really use them, that's customer lock-in, which is worth quite a bit. Even if only 1/3 people who get the buttons use them, that could still be a success.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 29 2016, @09:35PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 29 2016, @09:35PM (#367741)

    *click* *click* *cl1ck* *click* *click* *clIck* *click* *click*

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday June 29 2016, @10:10PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday June 29 2016, @10:10PM (#367760) Journal

      Wasn't there a class action against Apple for kids making in-app purchases? Might as well get the Amazon button and leave it on the floor.

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      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 2) by archfeld on Thursday June 30 2016, @03:34AM

      by archfeld (4650) <treboreel@live.com> on Thursday June 30 2016, @03:34AM (#367854) Journal

      They have a built in feature which prevents multiple orders being placed. The device will not re-order the product unless the previous order has been fulfilled and delivery has been recorded. While it still won't stop Jr. from reordering 20lbs of Tide occasionally it will stop you from getting 10 reorders within any reasonable time period.

      --
      For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 29 2016, @09:38PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 29 2016, @09:38PM (#367744)

    I would like to have them, and use them, but I consider them dangerous.

    Most Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck. I check my bank account before I go to the grocery sore to get the lay of the land, and if I"m already in the browser it's pretty easy to place an order for anything I might be able to get from Amazon at a reasonable price. If I can't get something from Amazon at a reasonable price, I won't get it from Amazon.

    If I had a Tide button next to my washing machine:
    1) I wouldn't push it because I would want to check my bank account first.
    2) I wouldn't push it because I don't trust Amazon's pricing shennanigans, and I like to know what I'm paying for things ahead of time.
    3) I would probably take it down to keep it from getting bumped accidentally. I don't have kids, but I can't imagine having one of these in a house where a child might play it like a bongo drum.

    The only thing that's tempted me to order one is the prospect of hijacking orders in my router to turn it into a subsidized Wi-Fi light switch (or anything-else switch), but having had my router reset by electrical issues at least twice, even that makes me nervous about the possibility of accidentally ordering Tide I don't want at exorbitant prices.

    It seems like it's explicitly designed to get people to think less about the money they're spending. I'm on the edge of thinking it should be illegal unless they add a live "Current Price" LCD like a gas pump.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 29 2016, @09:41PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 29 2016, @09:41PM (#367746)

      Hear hear!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 29 2016, @09:46PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 29 2016, @09:46PM (#367750)

      a child might play it like a bongo drum

      http://www.songlyrics.com/todd-rundgren/bang-the-drum-all-day-lyrics/ [songlyrics.com]

    • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday June 29 2016, @09:58PM

      by tangomargarine (667) on Wednesday June 29 2016, @09:58PM (#367754)

      I've never understood the idea behind "one-click shopping," either. Why in god's name would I want to do a complete transaction with a single click? It's practically guaranteed that sooner or later you're going to accidentally buy something you don't want.

      But maybe I'm just weird, as I don't even want to set up recurring payments for my bills online; I do individual transactions each month.

      --
      "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 29 2016, @10:04PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 29 2016, @10:04PM (#367756)

        We'll miss you, darling, when you forget to pay the internet bill.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by tangomargarine on Wednesday June 29 2016, @10:02PM

      by tangomargarine (667) on Wednesday June 29 2016, @10:02PM (#367755)

      When the button is clicked, you get a smartphone notification, and you can cancel that order within a half hour. And if somebody in your house pushes the Gatorade button 15 times, you won’t get 15 orders—just one (or none, if an order is already on its way to you).

      Darn it, now I went and did a fool thing like RTFA.

      --
      "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
      • (Score: 2) by Zz9zZ on Wednesday June 29 2016, @10:18PM

        by Zz9zZ (1348) on Wednesday June 29 2016, @10:18PM (#367763)

        Don't be angry, it was useful!

        --
        ~Tilting at windmills~
    • (Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday June 29 2016, @11:53PM

      by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 29 2016, @11:53PM (#367789)

      It's not as scary as it sounds. You'll get an email when the button is pressed that basically confirms your order. From that email there is a link to go cancel your order if you want to. Also, you can press the button 100 times and you'll only get one item. After the item arrives you can press the button again.

      As far as money goes, I have alerts on all my accounts and always check the texts. I've been to two gas stations where what they rung up was not what they actually charged me. One was rounded up to the next dollar and the other was 10$ over. But anyways, if you are living paycheck to paycheck (been there) then i totally agree that dash buttons are a luxury very low on the priority list.

      --
      SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by urza9814 on Wednesday June 29 2016, @09:42PM

    by urza9814 (3954) on Wednesday June 29 2016, @09:42PM (#367747) Journal

    The problem is making them single use. Might be nice for cables and components and such...but there's no way in hell it would make sense to have a separate button for each item. Make it a barcode scanner. Then I can slap a barcode on the bottom of a storage bin, and when the bin gets low just swipe it over a reader and it'll order more!

    The boring crap they let you buy via Dash isn't worth ordering online anyway (what kind of person orders toilet paper off Amazon? Wouldn't that cost more in shipping than the product itself??) and the crap that would really be worth having a service like Dash would require too many devices if you've got one button per product...I don't want a six inch ethernet button and a six foot ethernet button and a twenty five foot ethernet button and a six foot HDMI button and a terminal block button and a heat shrink tubing button...

    Forget Amazon Dash Buttons, I want a Sparkfun Barcode Buyer :)

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday June 29 2016, @10:14PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday June 29 2016, @10:14PM (#367761) Journal

      With bundling and the way Amazon is scaling, you might pay less. Amazon has free shipping for a lot of stuff, and is getting into same-day shipping in many locations (and in the long-term, might be shipping via drones, but it's just PR for now).

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 4, Interesting) by urza9814 on Wednesday June 29 2016, @10:54PM

        by urza9814 (3954) on Wednesday June 29 2016, @10:54PM (#367774) Journal

        With bundling and the way Amazon is scaling, you might pay less. Amazon has free shipping for a lot of stuff, and is getting into same-day shipping in many locations (and in the long-term, might be shipping via drones, but it's just PR for now).

        Man, I find every time I order from there I pay more for shipping and it takes longer to get here. I keep wanting to cancel my account but it's gotten to the point where you can't even Google a specific product to find competitors because all that comes up are Amazon and sites linking to Amazon. But they used to always be $3-4 shipping and it'd arrive in 4-5 days...now shipping is often more than $10 per item and takes over a month! Of course, that's mostly because of the Marketplace crap, but there's no way to filter that out -- or rather, there are ways to filter that out, but they don't work...you filter specifically for "fulfillment by Amazon" and then find out at the order confirmation screen that none of your items are actually coming from Amazon. Same goes for the free shipping too -- you filter specifically for "eligible for free shipping" but then at the order confirmation screen it says they aren't eligible. I've contacted support and gotten them to refund shipping fees because of that one, but it seems they never bothered to actually fix the issue...

        The drone shipping might be nice for those problems though, simply because they'll have to have some way to accurately filter what's currently in their warehouse available for drone delivery. But maybe that's the point of Dash -- get people used to choosing from a small, curated list of products instead of searching the entire inventory. The random bits like Ethernet cables might never even be offered by drone...

        • (Score: 1) by shipofgold on Wednesday June 29 2016, @11:49PM

          by shipofgold (4696) on Wednesday June 29 2016, @11:49PM (#367786)

          Disagree. My son has a prime account because he is a student ($50 a year) which I leach off of. I find a lot of stuff with free 2 day shipping.

          There are a few things I find cheaper elsewhere, but so far Amazon has been keeping my electronics habit fed.

        • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday June 30 2016, @01:48AM

          by urza9814 (3954) on Thursday June 30 2016, @01:48AM (#367819) Journal

          Oh man, I even forgot to complain about the "bundling" part!

          My last order from Amazon.com was five items. Came in five separate packages.
          Before that I ordered ten items which came in seven shipments.
          The one before that was eight items in four shipments.

          And that's WITH that "group items into as few shipments as possible" option enabled. And there's two steps to the order confirmation and often the first step will divide your order into a number of separate smaller orders, and then on the second confirmation page those orders get divided up again into individual shipments...so it's easy to look at the first page and see three orders and think it'll be three boxes...and then you end up with ten.

          Amazon and eBay are trying so hard to emulate each other that if you want to buy something outright it's *almost* easier to do that on eBay now...

          • (Score: 1) by toddestan on Saturday July 02 2016, @02:33AM

            by toddestan (4982) on Saturday July 02 2016, @02:33AM (#368744)

            Amazon and eBay are trying so hard to emulate each other that if you want to buy something outright it's *almost* easier to do that on eBay now...

            Last couple of items I bought on eBay came shipped in Amazon boxes. So ditto...

        • (Score: 2) by RedBear on Thursday June 30 2016, @02:36AM

          by RedBear (1734) on Thursday June 30 2016, @02:36AM (#367837)

          you filter specifically for "fulfillment by Amazon" and then find out at the order confirmation screen that none of your items are actually coming from Amazon.

          Are you sure you understand what "Fulfilled by Amazon" means? It means it's a 3rd-party product that just happens to be hosted in one of Amazon's warehouses so they can ship it quickly via Prime shipping and guarantee it's in stock when you order it. If you have items in your cart that aren't originating from Amazon it means you somehow didn't put the correct item (from a "Fulfilled by Amazon" seller) in the cart.

          Long story short, I've never had the issue you seem to be describing. Both "Amazon.com" products and "Fulfilled by Amazon" products should originate from Amazon itself. When I check the Prime shipping box the only items I end up adding to my cart are either sold by Amazon.com or "Fulfilled by Amazon". And I live in Alaska, so that Prime shipping is important and I do this a lot.

          --
          ¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
          ... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
          • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday June 30 2016, @03:07AM

            by urza9814 (3954) on Thursday June 30 2016, @03:07AM (#367844) Journal

            Right, what I mean is you filter the search on "fulfillment by Amazon" and those items still ship each in their own individual box. Pretty sure I've gotten ones from China that way too but not 100% on that. Perhaps the items are just all in *different* Amazon warehouses? But if I'm applying that search filter, it's because I want it to all ship in one big box together. It's been years since I've been able to do that with Amazon. These days I place a $50 order and spend the next month chasing after packages that get left all over the damn place since UPS is the only carrier that can manage to get a package to *me* instead of dropping it elsewhere without notice...but that's another topic...

            • (Score: 2) by RedBear on Thursday June 30 2016, @05:53AM

              by RedBear (1734) on Thursday June 30 2016, @05:53AM (#367886)

              Well yeah, they have warehouses all over the country at this point to get popular items closer to the buyers and save on their shipping costs. I highly doubt that you've received any foreign shipment after ordering "Fulfilled by Amazon" items. But what that means is that if you're ordering via "free" Prime shipping (or using 1-click buying which I've recently gotten into the habit of doing) your stuff is going to come from different locations, picked by different people at different times. It's no longer practical or affordable for them to group your entire order together even if you're placing a large order all at the same time. Last time I checked there is still an option to place your order in a single shipment, but that costs a lot more and the entire order has to wait for all items to be available. That can be a real pain when ordering 50 different things at once. I have already adjusted to the inevitability that things will just show up when they show up, and if I need something quickly I order it by itself and pay for quicker shipping. That usually works out pretty well.

              I sympathize with your inability to reliably get deliveries to wherever you're choosing to ship the products, but that's kind of a separate problem that you'll have to work out with the carriers. Amazon is certainly taking a longer time to ship things out, but that typically happens when I choose Prime shipping AND use 1-click purchasing. I'm assuming they are using sophisticated algorithms to group items together over time to try and minimize their shipping costs. If they shipped out each individual item separately as soon as I ordered it they'd probably go out of business. Especially given that I am in Alaska. I save a lot more on shipping with that $99 Prime than most people do, so maybe I'm more willing to put up with odd shipment scheduling than others might be.

              --
              ¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
              ... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
    • (Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday June 29 2016, @11:41PM

      by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 29 2016, @11:41PM (#367784)

      My complaint is actually similar. I have two of the buttons dangling from the snack cupboard on a lanyard. I'd probably have 20 of the buttons if amazon actually sold the stuff i want. They need to sell blank buttons with a place where you can write in what each button is for. Then let you pick ANY product on the amazon market at a fixed price. If the price changed then the button would flash red and send you an email to confirm and lock-in the new price.

      Even with the buttons i have the product selection is limited. I have a "David" brand one for sunflower seeds but you can't buy a two pack. You have to buy a dozen bags. So each time i press it i'm good for months. That sort of removes the reason to have an instant buy button! hah.

      --
      SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
  • (Score: 4, Funny) by TheGratefulNet on Wednesday June 29 2016, @10:07PM

    by TheGratefulNet (659) on Wednesday June 29 2016, @10:07PM (#367757)

    I wonder if there's a button to order more buttons.

    call it the yo_dawg() button, I guess ;)

    --
    "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by kurenai.tsubasa on Thursday June 30 2016, @12:00AM

    by kurenai.tsubasa (5227) on Thursday June 30 2016, @12:00AM (#367791) Journal

    And I'm not even over the hill!

    You mean to tell me that they want me to pay $5 for a button that only orders one single, specific product from one single, specific vendor only? Doesn't do anything clever like let me give it a list of laundry detergents and select the cheapest vendor/best sale at the moment?

    Talk about a solution in search of a problem.

    • (Score: 2) by RedBear on Thursday June 30 2016, @03:06AM

      by RedBear (1734) on Thursday June 30 2016, @03:06AM (#367843)

      You mean to tell me that they want me to pay $5 for a button that only orders one single, specific product from one single, specific vendor only? Doesn't do anything clever like let me give it a list of laundry detergents and select the cheapest vendor/best sale at the moment?
      Talk about a solution in search of a problem.

      I'm not a fan of the Dash buttons yet, but to be fair to Amazon I think it's a clever strategy for a large segment of the market. A lot of people settle on one specific brand of a product that they trust to do the job the way they like, and then buy only that product for many years, regardless of small variations in price. It also makes perfect sense to a lot of people to have a button right next to where you use a product, like laundry detergent, where you can just push the button to order more immediately upon noticing that you're running out. Half of modern life is already spent paying for things that make our lives more convenient and less crazy. What's more convenient than pushing a button and having something automatically show up when you need it, without needing to remember to write it down on a shopping list and grab it at the store when you're in the middle of doing a dozen other things.

      Plus, from what I understand they refund that $4.99 when you place your first order. That's probably just to keep people from buying millions of Dash buttons and then never using them. Sooo... while it may not be your cup of tea there are a lot of folks with very hectic lives, big families and whatnot, who care far less about saving 50¢ than they do about saving some time and/or sanity, and obviously they are finding this concept useful. I love to shop for deals but even I have thought about getting a couple of these for certain products I keep having to order because the local store for some reason doesn't carry them. (Small town Alaska.)

      And, just a wild guess here, I am guessing that the specific branded product the button orders will be sourced from the cheapest available seller (that offers Prime shipping) at the time you push the button, and there are many competing sellers for any popular product on Amazon. I doubt very much that you are completely negating any chance at saving money through Amazon when you use an Amazon Dash button. That would be kind of silly, don't you think?

      --
      ¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
      ... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 30 2016, @01:09AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 30 2016, @01:09AM (#367804)

    Reminds me of the old days trolling craigslist, where ACs could post under any unregistered handle and usually chose a single dash:

    So instead of ripping AC, regs would say things like "dash has his head up his arse as usual".

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 30 2016, @01:14AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 30 2016, @01:14AM (#367808)

    Pressing buttons is an inconvenience. There needs to be a machine to do that part.

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by nitehawk214 on Thursday June 30 2016, @01:35AM

    by nitehawk214 (1304) on Thursday June 30 2016, @01:35AM (#367815)

    Yes, I know it is real, but it is a joke.

    --
    "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 30 2016, @07:06AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 30 2016, @07:06AM (#367902)

    So they can order supplies without full access to your Amazon account.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 30 2016, @10:20AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 30 2016, @10:20AM (#367929)

    sweet!
    i have a garbage can. there's a bag in the can. under the bag i stash all the unused
    bags, so if i remove the full one a new empty one is ready to be installed. now i can add a "order" button too!
    garbage can integrated button?

    now we just need a water proof version of the button and then i can add one to the shower ... for new shampoo and soap!

    garbage bag, soap and toothbrush never seem to make it on the shopping list ^_^