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Amazon Dash Button

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Re: Amazon Dash Button

#281
post #145
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

which is why a button makes so much sense, auto ordering is bad, this seems much better

Sure, I would love to press a button that will order things for me without seeing the price I'm going to pay ... oh wait, no, Amazon would love that, I wouldn't. This is for people who don't care what things cost and that don't have children (children loooove pressing buttons!).

1. It sends an alert to your phone with the price and easy cancellation. (I was actually surprised at this feature, because I cynically agreed that Amazon would use this to constantly be trying to pull one over on customers.)

2. I also believe it said that repeat clicks will not order until the previous order delivers, which should help somewhat on repeat orders.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#283

This makes me envious of you Americans. Here in Norway online shopping involves finding an online store that sells what you need (there's no site that sells everything, like Amazon, here), going through a cumbersome sign-up/payment process, paying a lot of money for the shipping costs, waiting several days and having to go to the post office unless the package is really small (or if you're willing to pay even more fo…

I think it's ridiculous just because it clearly involved a lot of effort to solve a problem that doesn't really need solving. The choice isn't between a button and the massive hassle you describe. The choice is between a button and ordering the product on your smartphone in ten seconds, or picking up the product at the grocery store the next time you're there. How often do you need laundry detergent? Every two weeks?…

I think time savings is the wrong way to think about this. I also don't think people are in the habit of ordering things as soon as they need them. I suspect the item goes onto a list (physical or not), which then has to be processed.

With this system instead of adding an item to your list to process later it's processed immediately.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's ridiculous just because it clearly involved a lot of effort to solve a problem that doesn't really need solving. The choice isn't between a button and the massive hassle you describe. The choice is between a button and ordering the product on your smartphone in ten seconds, or picking up the product at the grocery store the next time you're there. How often do you need laundry detergent? Every two weeks?…

> How often do you need laundry detergent? Every two weeks? If this button saves you ten seconds each time, that's a total of 4.3 minutes per year saved It takes more than 10 seconds to go to the store and get detergent. I suppose it'll save the 30 seconds it takes to order detergent on a phone, but the big gain is that it's RIGHT THERE so you can't forget to order it and then find yourself dead in the water and have…

You don't go to the store to buy detergent. You go to the store to buy a whole bundle of items, and you go regardless of whether or not you need detergent. 10 seconds is IMO a decent approximation of the marginal cost of time for adding detergent to the stuff you buy.

As for the big gain being that it's right there, I figured everybody's phones are right there too. Apparently not everybody does that. Seems like if you really find this to be a problem, you could just keep your phone in your pocket.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This button isn't about saving time, it's about preventing the instances of not having something when you need it. The moment when you realize you need more of something is typically when you're using it. If you can literally just hit a button to order more, that's a significant change from having to do something else to order more.

Apparently carrying one's phone in one's pocket is less common than I thought.

Pressing a button is milliseconds, and can be done as a complete afterthought, while still doing your current task. Taking out your phone, navigating to a website and placing an order means you have to stop what you are doing, and do something else.

When the time to complete tasks changes by an order of magnitude - even going from seconds down to milliseconds - our behavior tends to change. We easily accept this notion with developer related tasks such as compiling and testing. I don't see a difference here.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#286
All I want is to know what products are offered for same day delivery. That way we can make services that empowers the consumer to purchase items they may need on a weekly basis or need by days end. If there is currently such a way, by all means please let me know.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I definitely would not give up amazon for free education, health care, etc... Those socialists implementations come at a very high cost. Yes, our current system is not well, but it's better than the government taking 60% of my earned income.

I agree with what you are saying, but my effective tax rate this year in California was ~40%. All of the above benefits for an additional 20% sounds like a bargain.

I'm in Germany, my tax rate is ~40%, and we do get all those benefits.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#288

This makes me envious of you Americans. Here in Norway online shopping involves finding an online store that sells what you need (there's no site that sells everything, like Amazon, here), going through a cumbersome sign-up/payment process, paying a lot of money for the shipping costs, waiting several days and having to go to the post office unless the package is really small (or if you're willing to pay even more fo…

In major Chinese city like Beijing and Shanghai, it's even possible for "same day delivery" if you order before 11am (Jingdong -- jd.com -- delivers 3 times a day) and it's also possible to "pay when delivered" (i.e. give cash to the delivery man) since many people don't have credit card or web payment is too complicated/dangerous for them.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#290
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similarly, I can definitely see Brita ordering these prematurely, based on their (IMO) very aggressive refill recommendations.

which is why a button makes so much sense, auto ordering is bad, this seems much better

It does give the illusion of control.
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