Amazon Dash after a year on IoT market
Amazon has brought Internet of Things to homes of it’s Prime users. Dash buttons are warmly welcomed in American households with variety of over 160 different brands and 7 main categories, and can be ordered for $4.99 each. What’s the fuss about? Preventing from running out of favorite products within a click.
Basically, the idea behind Dash Buttons is quite simple. We all have products that are oftenly used, run out of & forget to buy. Amazon has approached those with failing memory with a set of favourite brand buttons, that you can physically click to order certain product. You can place them on the coffee machine in order to fill in the coffee order with a click, in bathroom to order more toothpaste or even near your fruit bowl to have bananas delivered straight to your doors. The buttons are connected via wi-fi to your mobile Amazon App, that is connected with your order and products. Each brand has it’s own Dash Button and selection of products that they offer in the reordering service. You have separate dash buttons for Loreal products, Diet Coke or Finish dishwasher tablets, and you can place them wherever you feel they are needed to take action. Then, the Amazon App will track your click and ask about the order, automatically managing the delivery.
Sounds swell? Within just a click you can order toilet paper, water or groceries that will be delivered to your home. Dash Buttons are stick-on, battery powered devices, that have just one pushing action and can rescue some from non-stop mobile connection. “Don’t remember or note down, just push” — seems to be the message — did it get through? There is over a 70% rise of Amazon Dash purchases, but only half of the buyers actually use the device. Also, the consumers complain about the amount of products available in each brands offer. Not everything is in stock when it comes to click & deliver offer. What about special deals, points and promotions? Those are not offered by Dash service, so the price will be settled without any bargains. And remember! Don’t miss the delivery, if you have an apartment… they will not be left by your doorstep, just redirected to closest post office for you to carry.
With that said, you may wonder why developing Dash Buttons is important for Amazon. They cost less than $5 but you can use those money with the order, and companies chipped in to make this idea come true. So, it seems it’s not about the money. The data is the crucial thing here to collect. With online purchases, brands and platforms can track how often clients order the products, how large is the order, and what gender, age and class they qualify in. With a restock options, this data is more than at hand, and companies want to deliver most useful solutions to gather that info. The message that companies receive from grocery stores are not enough — monthly sales, without an option to build a persona without market research. If all the sales would happen online, there would be almost no gap in the statistics. Marketing teams will work on adjusting packages, orders and most used products and Amazon will use it’s Alexa and machine learning to gain the most info on user’s behaviour.
