Why Amazon Dash is doomed to failure

Amazon’s bizarre decision to launch a range of branded buttons is one that will fail to gain traction in the UK

At the beginning of September, Amazon’s Dash button launched quietly in the UK, a year after its release in the US.

For the uninitiated, an Amazon Dash Button is a small, wifi-enabled device which can order everything from condoms to cat food straight to your home at the push of a button.

Yes. An actual, physical button. Many assumed it was an early April Fool’s joke when they launched in the US on March 31st, 2015.

According to Amazon, the aim is to do away with the dull, everyday shopping experiences. “Nobody gets retail therapy shopping for toilet paper,” explained an Amazon executive.

Of course, the huge advantage is that millions of these ‘tedious shopping experiences’ will flow through Amazon, neatly lining their coffers should the buttons gain traction.

There’s even a Dash button for Play-Doh.

The appeal is a no-brainer for brands. A consumer who has made the decision to purchase their branded button won’t be swayed by a rival brand offering a discount on the shelf next to it. Andrex can relax in the knowledge that I won’t be tempted by Cushelle’s buy-one-get-one-free sale on toilet paper, because I will have pressed Andrex’s Dash button the evening before.

Once brands have that button in my home, they no longer have to work for my loyalty.

Misplaced loyalty

This is where the branded-button concept falls down. Over the past two years, particularly among the younger generation, the “Tinderization of retail” has started to bite brands fighting in a highly-promotional environment.

“Shopping around for a better deal grew during the recession, and many consumers have continued to shop this way in the time since,” says Victor Stoica, managing director atElectriQ in an interview for The Guardian. “Many are happy to abandon a family favourite for an almost identical product from a less well-known brand, if it means saving money.”

The US experience with pricing so far has not been positive, with customers feeling they have little control over how much products cost each time the button is pressed. Brad Tuttle writing for Time Inc’s Money magazine cites the case of a woman who had a Dash button for Gatorade, a sports drink. Her first purchase of a 12-pack was $9, but she never re-ordered as the price subsequently jumped to $22.

“What’s particularly frustrating to shoppers is that the Dash buttons don’t display prices or order information — customers must go online or wait for text messages after ordering to find these details” Brad explained. “If I have to check on the price every time, it’s not actually saving me time.”

Economics aside, there is the environmental consideration; it feels very wasteful to get something as small as a bottle of washing up liquid individually packaged and delivered. Unless you’re fortunate, and your child presses the button fifty times.

Let’s not even mention that the buttons themselves stick out like a sore thumb in a carefully-decorated home.

Some Dash button critics in the US have said that the convenience factor threatens greater consumer inactivity. But it isn’t even a question of laziness. Almost everyone still goes to the supermarket for food, and this is usually where the washing up liquid, kitchen roll and bin bags are picked up. Remembering is the challenge; many of us will have experienced that sinking feeling on arriving back home with bags of food only to remember that we forgot to pick up replacement toilet paper.

There’s also the major flaw in the convenience argument. Often, we discover we’ve run out of these objects at an unexpected moment, as Amazon’s own advert shows. Even next-day delivery is too late for the unfortunate individual left sitting on the toilet with the last scraps of paper.

However, Ian Betteridge, Editorial Director at Alphr.com disagrees. “Actually, I like them,” he confessed. “I have one for razor blades tucked away inside the bathroom cabinet and it works really well.”

“I can’t imagine using them for a lot of products, but for certain items, it’s nice. It probably depends on how disorganised about shopping you are,” he added.

Smart printer, smart integration

But if Amazon have missed the mark with their mass-market buttons, its sister product, Dash Replenishment Service (DRS), offers real potential. DRS integrates with connected devices like smart printers and washing machines, detecting when supplies are running low and automatically re-ordering them. Detergent, printer ink and dishwasher tablets would be delivered before they had even run out.

Rory Cellan-Jones believes that this is a game-changer. “What Amazon is doing here is providing the first really compelling examples of how the so-called internet of things could transform our homes, with smart appliances talking to the network about their needs” he writes in a piece for the BBC.

Move past the physical

Perhaps it’s the physicality of these buttons which…well…pushes my buttons. I can’t help but feel that Amazon is missing a trick; that it’s so focused on the idea of a ‘sellable’ product that the opportunity to create something great has passed it by.

If they had developed an app around the Dash concept, they would be on to a winner. Imagine a section on their app: ‘Amazon You’ for argument’s sake, with the products you regularly buy all in one area. When you run low on washing powder, you can tap your phone and re-order it.

It could be used beyond simple re-ordering by predicting when that particular product will run low. Three months after I’ve ordered washing up liquid, I get a push saying “Hi Esther. There’s a deal on Fairy Liquid just come up. Do you want to top up?” This kind of flexibility to tailor specific deals not necessarily related to brands is something that the Dash buttons just can’t offer.

The problem is, many supermarkets already offer good online shopping experiences, with ‘favourite’ items and tightly-targeted offers. Can Amazon really compete with this? They’re not just taking on failing bookstores this time, but instead it’s the supermarket behemoths with decades of online retail experience behind them, and the customer data to back it up.

Amazon has been cagey about how the button has performed in the US. It claims that half of Amazon orders for popular items by Bounty, Hefty and Peets coffee have come through Dash buttons, but this is unlikely to be a high number as Amazon are a long way off being known as a grocery retailer.

There is no indication yet about whether the buttons have made any significant contribution to Amazon’s revenue. We suspect that if they had been a smashing success, we’d have heard a great deal more about how consumer lives are being revolutionised.

Perhaps in Amazon’s case, no news speaks volumes about missed opportunities.

This article originally appeared on The Media Briefing