Amazon is currently offering more than 250 Dash Buttons to Prime members. The Seattle-based retailer announced this milestone less than two years after it originally started experimenting with the tiny gadgets designed to facilitate online shopping. The latest expansion saw 50 new Dash Buttons being introduced to the constantly growing lineup of these products and the company claims that its inventions are so popular that some brands are attributing half of their Amazon sales to them.
Last week, Amazon also expanded on this product lineup by introducing digital Dash Buttons for smartphones and tablets that are available to all users regardless of whether they’re subscribed to Prime or not. The virtual buttons are generated automatically when Amazon’s algorithms identify products which you frequently buy online, while Prime users are also allowed to create their own Dash Buttons. The buttons are a part of the Amazon Dash service which also includes the Amazon Dash Barcode Scanner whose revised version was launched in late 2016. While Dash Buttons initially received a mixed response from consumers, they’ve apparently found a significant audience as evidenced by the fact that Amazon is still rolling out new iterations on a regular basis and an increasing number of brands is embracing this new method of online shopping.
Getting your hands on a Wi-Fi-enabled Dash Button costs $5 but that amount is reimbursed as soon you make your first order using the device. Even though adding another piece of hardware to the process of ordering online goods may seem like a complication, the idea behind Dash Buttons is that you only use them for ordering products that are frequently reordered. For example, you can stick a Dash Button next to your paper towels and hit it when you see you’re running out of them. All orders can be canceled within 30 minutes and are shipped for free through the Prime shipping program, meaning only select products can be ordered using Dash Buttons. However, given how there are over 250 variants of these devices in existence, consumers already have a reasonable number of options to choose from. While Amazon isn’t disclosing detailed usage statistics, latest trends suggest that the Seattle-based tech giant is bound to introduce more Dash Buttons in the near future.