What on earth is Amazon Dash and will it take off in Britain?

Retailer launched physical instant purchase buttons

Amazon has rolled out its Dash physical instant purchase buttons in the UK which will help consumers purchase an item at a push of a button.

The buttons are linked to your Amazon account and allows users to replace staple products like loo rolls and toothbrush heads.

The director of Amazon Dash, Daniel Rausch, said: “There is no retail therapy in buying toilet roll or bin bags. It’s just work. We wanted to take the one-click experience from our website and put it right where people need it most, in the home, near the products that run out. So that buying them is no longer work.”

Mark Skilton, a Professor of Practice at Warwick Business School and an expert on technology and the Internet of Things, said:

“Amazon is pushing hard to find ways to extend its formidable online marketplace with the ability to connect consumers in particular to its front end through mobile and other devices.

“The recent successes of Amazon Echo – its intelligent speaker – and Alexa – its speech recognition app – in the US has shown where voice activated services can really work well in a home or social setting.

“It’s all about grabbing the attention of people. The Amazon Dash button is such a device to grab the moment: should you need to reorder items such as washing powder, food or other items you have ran out of, it’s quick and easy, one press to setup and go. It is not the Amazon Echo / Alexa system as there is no interaction with the user but it’s another step in the direction to automation when this will be ubiquitous.     

“To that extent I see the Dash button as only a temporary solution, but nevertheless a key step on the road to the connected world it promises, and of course more revenue for the likes of Amazon. It will be interesting how the other major retailers react to this.

“It is still the early days of what is called the ‘Internet of Things’, but it is going to be huge in the way everyday objects will become ‘intelligent’ and ‘Smart’ enabling interaction with people and between object to object ‘talking’ to one another to optimise various outcomes.”