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Is it just me that finds the entire concept of the Dash ridiculous? I mean, what's the idea, having a button for every single product we buy? And we need to se
by pelf 11y ago
Is it just me that finds the entire concept of the Dash ridiculous?
I mean, what's the idea, having a button for every single product we buy? And we need to set it up first. How is that any better than recurring ordering or just opening the website and ordering it? Are we expected to have an entire wall of dashes at our place?
I guess we'll need to sort them alphabetically or by color, so we don't waste time searching for the button we need.
- madprops 11y agoOr you know, why not a phone application that would order the same thing with a single tap.
- joezydeco 11y agoI think the idea is that this is eventually built right into the products. The washer with the built-in Amazon button for detergent, etc.
- madprops 11y agoThat's an interesting thought. There would be deals by detergent companies to include their button in a washer. Also maids could order the products themselves if they're responsible enough.
- joezydeco 11y agoI'm thinking more about P&G giving you a free washing machine if you agree to automatic delivery and billing of their detergent. You can certainly choose other brands to put in the machine, but every 40 cycles another box of Tide Pods will show up on your doorstep.
- seanwilson 11y agoI don't think the concept is so ridiculous: it's easier to press a single button that is placed in the area where you'd normally notice the product you're looking for is running out compared to getting out an mobile app or visiting a website. Ease of use is likely to lead to more sales. Maybe the idea won't work but it sounds worth experimenting with to me.
- akhatri_aus 11y agoIt's also about the sense of seeming control, even if the result is a perfect weekly subscription.
- eli 11y agoSure, but just a few decades ago there were people dismissing all of e-commerce saying "why would I order online when I can just pick up the phone and call in my order?" I'm sure before that there were people saying, Why do I need phone ordering when I can just mail an order form to Sears? I think it's a mistake to bet against a more convenient form of consumerism.
- kbody 11y agoThe problem with Dash is that it doesn't really scale.
- cake 11y agoI see Dash more like an experiment, it may not be the final product or disapear completely to become something else. Even if I find this idea wasteful, I think amazon does the right move with just experimenting.
- jfoster 11y agoWhich part of it do you think doesn't scale?
- jacobr1 11y agoEach product has its own button
- jfoster 11y agoIf each button is seen as ad and paid for by the brand shown on it, the costs likely look good from both Amazon's perspective and the brand's perspective. A button that costs somewhere between $5 and $10 might result in something like $240 worth of sales over its lifetime. (eg. 1 sale per month x $10 sale price x estimated 24 month lifetime) Seems scalable to me.
- lkbm 11y ago
- userbinator 11y agoIt's the mindless-consumerism aspect of the idea that I find most disturbing: "press this button to feed yourself with product".
- soylentcola 11y agoI'm tempted to start a conspiracy theory that these are just phase one of a plan to eventually have us all living in actual Skinner boxes.
- Goronmon 11y agoHow mindful does a task such as "Buy another tube of toothpaste" or "Buy more shampoo" need to be?
- kubiiii 11y agoI especially find the instant delivery order disturbing. Is that even close to necessary in 90% of the use cases? Putting the product in a shopping cart would be more than enough and would allow group shipping.
- swalsh 11y agoI can't speak for Amazon, but I've cancelled every single recurring order I've ever setup. I once had coffee on recurring order. Then I went on vacation, and I was always one tin ahead. Then I had a business trip, and I was 2 tins ahead, then I was sick for a week and didn't want to eat anything. it was too much. I once set up a recurring order on wine, at first I drank a bottle every other day. What fun! but then I just wanted a glass with dinner every now and then. Bottles started piling up, and now I have a good $100 of wine that tastes like vinegar. Recurring orders suck. If you have a huge house to store things if you aren't on a perfect schedule it might work. For normal people, it's not ideal.
- viggity 11y agowe have diapers on recurring delivery (honest company, not amazon), but they send us an email asking us if we still want them or if we want to delay shipment by a week, two weeks, etc. Seems to work fine. Does Amazon not do the same thing?
- sixothree 11y agoAmazon offers subscription services for many products (including windshield wipers). You set your schedule, you get an email, and you delay or cancel any time.
- rtkwe 11y agoI don't see this becoming a single button for ever item in the house. I see the Dash button riding the middle ground between objects that you have highly predictable usage patterns or have a proscribed life span like toothbrushes where recurring orders make sense and less predictable items like paper towels where usage is harder to predict. I think the goal is also to make using the button easier than just opening the webpage and ordering it so that when you notice you're running low you can just press the button instead of doing what most people do and adding it to a grocery list. It's also far easier than figuring out how often to set up the recurring ordering. Their aim is at the utility closet and bathroom consumables like soaps/detergents, paper towels, and maybe cleaning products. Things that are stored an some particular place in the house where when you're getting low on X you push the button and get more 2-3 days later.
- jacobr1 11y agoOr have it built into the bottle, perhaps even measuring the current fill level.
- hammock 11y agoI believe it's not intended to be an actual product for very long. Its a stepping stone to get consumers to the point where they are making purchases in situ, via the Amazon Echo for example. It's a behavior grooming thing, a social test balloon.
- mason55 11y ago> Is it just me that finds the entire concept of the Dash ridiculous? I mean, what's the idea, having a button for every single product we buy? In markets with Amazon Fresh they are also trialing a single-device Dash. It operates as a barcode scanner and microphone and adds things to your Dash List on Fresh. Then you can go in and edit them or actually confirm them to your cart. I have one and it's very, very useful. It hangs from my fridge and whenever I finish something I scan it and when I think of something I need I just speak it into the mic. It made me an instant convert from FreshDiret.
- rickyc091 11y agoAlso a owner of the dash and I'll confirm it's pretty useful. You can also think of it as a registry tool. If you bring it into a store, you can scan a bunch of products and it'll sync up to the cloud when you connect back to wifi.
- mbesto 11y ago> I mean, what's the idea, having a button for every single product we buy? It's a button for every repeatable commodity buy you make. Most applicable use cases are: toilet paper, detergent, cleaning supplies, certain groceries. In other words, it eliminates pretty much all friction to ensuring that you're always stocked with those products. You're right to be skeptical, but even just reducing a small amount of friction to buying means better convenience for the consumer and more money for Amazon.