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Amazon Dash Button

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Re: Amazon Dash Button

#301

Post by ad_hominem »

dogma1138 wrote: post #159
kristofferR wrote: post #144

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'm pretty sure most Americans will give up amazon for free education, health care, paid maternity and paternity leave and the many other social benefits Norway provides to its nationals.

Except Norway is an oil welfare state, so those social programs don't come from increasing the tax rate like we'd have to do in America (and suffer the negative effects of that).

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#302

Post by jessaustin »

exelius wrote: post #254
onion2k wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The IoT is here. Hardware is the easy bit in the whole IoT business model. The tricky bit will be persuading people that it's something they need. For this business model to work it has to solve a big enough problem that taking the time to sign up for something like this button, getting it delivered, setting it up, and actually remembering to press it when necessary is worth the effort. That's a challenging thing to…

This isn't a product for consumers, this is a product for CPG companies. As a result, I imagine a lot of the cost here will be covered by the companies making the products. If Amazon covers the logistics of everything (making the buttons, managing the APIs, stocking and delivering the products, managing payments) then P&G just pays to give you a "Tide" button. CPGs will pay a LOT for this because it makes their brand…

CPGs will pay a LOT for this because it makes their brands "stickier".

Exactly right, and this is exactly analogous to brands (or more often, their distributors) renting shelf space, and sometimes even hiring their own people to stock shelves.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#303

Post by dismal2 »

kristofferR wrote: post #144

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 have been using the Amazon "scan" function (in the app) a lot recently and I really doesn't think it gets any easier than that to reorder things you're running low on. I don't need a freaking button I will need to configure, hope it uses the right payment method and address, hope it I didn't just press it a few days ago... etc.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#305

Post by VLM »

freehunter wrote: post #216
oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now that door-to-door supermarket deliveries are a thing (at least, they are here in the UK) it actually seems that a lot of items would just be more convenient to order on a subscription basis. For example, I'm pretty much always* going to need toilet paper, soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, tea bags, salt, pepper, etc. at about the same rate as I need them now. None of those things will spoil fast enough for it…

Amazon here in the US does that. You can even get a single package of gum sent to you once a week, and you'll get a discount on it. There are other services like ManPacks, Dollar Shave Club, etc that offer subscriptions to everyday essentials.

I'm annoyed they haven't closed the PID loop to track how many oz of mouthwash I consume, or use, per month, so it could predict how often to ship me various sizes and quantities of mouthwash.

Also being individual item oriented every time inflation leaves its mark and bottles shrink in size, my subscription is cancelled and I need to make a new S+S for the "new and improved" one oz smaller bottle. And every time the mfgr decides to play games with 2-pack vs 3-pack of bottles, I gotta resubscribe again. Really annoying.

What I want from amazon is a web interface of "based on order history I seem to be using 412.345 oz of mint mouthwash per year and amazon predicts I have 20.001 oz on hand (click here to update quantity on hand) and to meet our guarantee of you having 2 weeks supply on hand at all time we're shipping you our current mint mouthwash best deal of two bottles in one box" or whatever.

I get a pretty big S+S box every month. I have not automated down to weekly purchases like toilet paper but inevitably it'll happen some day. I wonder if they'll ever have a standard reusable stackable shipping crate like peapod food containers. That must be cheaper than all this cardboard.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#306

Post by mikeash »

scott_s wrote: post #285
mikeash wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 noti…

Imagine if developers only built and tested once or twice a month.

Now I come out with a new product where the entire pitch is, that build-and-compile you do once or twice a month now takes one second instead of ten! Oh, and it only works for one project. If you work on multiple projects, buy multiple products.

Would this be worthwhile? I don't see it.

Developer tasks like compiling and testing benefit from small efficiency gains because we do them constantly. Or the efficiency gains allow us to move from a model where we do them rarely to a model where we do them constantly. Neither one applies here. You won't buy detergent any more frequently with this button, and it's not something you do often.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#307

Post by javadocmd »

scott_s wrote: post #265
mikeash wrote: post #211

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?…

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.

> This button isn't about saving time

... it's about creating a barrier to exit so that your customers won't comparison shop for different brands of detergent.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#309

Post by metamet »

27182818284 wrote: post #108
gokhan wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't remember Google's April 1st announcement of Gmail, then. With gigabytes of storage, it was the perfect joke for the day and naturally carried by news outlets everywhere. And the joke continued on the next day, people realized that it wasn't actually a joke and, naturally, another media frenzy happened. Perfect example of guerrilla marketing IMO.

I completely remember that, which is why companies like Amazon should especially know better.

... wait, what? You specifically remember Gmail's launch (a good thing), and Gmail's launch had multiple phases of publicity (also a good thing).

What should Amazon know better about? Gmail launching on April Fools was a net positive thing.

Re: Amazon Dash Button

#310

Post by gravity13 »

bbx wrote: post #39

It's a intermediate step towards absolute frictionless purchasing. We went from physical in-store cash payments to online 1-click delivery. The purchasing experience has continuously been quickened, to close the gap between the intent and the action. Nowadays, running out of coffee capsules (for example) still requires some interaction, via your phone or your laptop. There's at least a dozen of seconds between the in…

| The ultimate frictionless experience would be for coffee capsules to be delivered before running out of them

But it's not like people can't be this, without much mental overhead. If I know it takes two days to ship something, and I use it daily, and recognize I'll be out in three days - I'm gonna push that button.

It's frictionless because it integrates perfectly with the use of the product.

How long before automatic cat-feeders automatically purchase cat food for you?

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