It was a year ago that Amazon first released its Amazon Dash Buttons — a move that was received by some as an April Fools’ joke.
But sure enough, it wasn’t. And one year later, Amazon has made its case as to why the Dash Buttons might just be here to stay. Or, as Amazon showed yesterday (March 31): 100 reasons.
The eCommerce giant announced that there are now 100 Amazon Dash Buttons available to Prime members, which give its customers access to thousands of products that can be purchased (as its name suggests) in just a dash. New brands include Brawny, Charmin, Clorox, Doritos, Energizer, Gain, Honest Kids, L’Oreal Paris Revitalift, Lysol, Peet’s Coffee, Playtex, Purina, Red Bull, Seventh Generation, Slim Jim, Snuggle, Starbucks, Trojan, Vitamin Water and more.
They are available for office products, pet supplies, feminine care products, batteries and beverages.
“We’re thrilled with the positive response we’ve seen for Dash Buttons, and we heard loud and clear from customers that they wanted more brands, more categories and more products in the program. We’re excited to now offer over 100 Dash Buttons representing top name brands across dozens of retail categories and thousands of product options,” said Daniel Rausch, director of Amazon Dash. “Prime members are using Dash Buttons at an increasing rate; over the last three months, Dash Button orders have grown by more than 75 percent. Customers are using Dash Buttons more than once a minute, helping ensure they never run out of their everyday essentials.”
Dash Buttons are available to Prime members for $4.99, but if a customer actually uses the button, they get a credit for that amount after the first order. The button works by enabling consumers to push the buttons to automatically reorder a specific type of item on demand.
In other Amazon news, Sprint announced this week that it is linking up with Amazon to offer Amazon Prime monthly subscriptions to its customers. So, for those who don’t want to pay $99 a year (one-time payment), they can split that up into $10.99 a month.
Now, if you do the math, that’s $32 more a year for customers who end up keeping it year-round, but for customers who want it just for a particular time of year (holiday shopping), that’s where it could come in handy.
“Our research shows a huge segment of the population are very interested in this,” Sprint Marketing Chief Roger Solé told Re/code.