Yes, Amazon is still trying to make the Dash Button happen. The company added dozens of new push-to-buy Dash options last week, ignoring the fact that they never really caught on.
Market-research company Slice Intelligence told The Wall Street Journal that fewer than half of people who bought a Dash button since its launch a year ago have actually used it. The people who do use the button press it about once every two months. The last part isn’t terrible given that people don’t usually need toilet paper or detergent more than once every couple of months. But it’s also not exactly a cash cow.
Executives of participating Dash brands have said that they have signed up for the program not because they think it will get them new customers, but because they want an in with Amazon — sort of like throwing some money at your friend’s Kickstarter campaign mostly to show that you’re loyal.
Amazon has been facing competition, both from other companies rolling out their own buttons and from its own devices like Alexa, which let you order by talking to it, which is a lot cooler than pushing a button. (To be fair, though, there is one cool Dash button: The Internet of Things button.)
The roll out included buttons for Play Doh, Campbell’s soup, Nerf products and Cot’n Wash Inc.’s Dropps laundry detergent, which I suppose will now be conveniently at America’s fingertips. The Dash button hasn’t yet made it to Australia. The Journal described Cot’n Wash’s chief executive like this:
Chief Executive Jonathan Propper said he is unconcerned by ridicule of Dash or its practical limitations, real or perceived.
Brave man, that one.