Amazon owns 1-click shopping on the web. So its not a surprise for
Amazon to make our long-due dream of making our household appliances
smart - with 1-click push of a button. The Amazon Dash Button launched
today!
How we hate to go shopping for Diapers and Garbage Bags
The
product person is me is impressed by the design of the slick button,
the tap of the button synonymous to the 1-click action we associate with
Amazon brand and how it reduces friction in purchasing non-fun
essential items like soap, coffee, garbage bags, printer paper, shaving
cream and diapers. And it seamlessly extends Amazon's commerce business right into our home.
Have you seen Flic the Wireless Smart Button on IndieGoGo?
This is a generic 1 click IOT button a startup is planning to build.
Watch the video, it is hilarious!
Amazon
offers the IOT device, the App, the platform and owns the inventory of
the brand consumables. So they are able to offer a seamless frictionless
experience for the consumer setting it up for success.
My Take on Whats Behind the Dash Button
It
looks like the button is a Bluetooth device that communicates with
Amazon App on your smartphone and uses the Phone's connection to order
online. Amazon is giving a custom button for each brand so it
simplifies it for consumers to order particular consumables. So you get a
button for Tide and stick it to your washing machine and another button
for your coffee maker. Each Bluetooth device has a unique Mac address.
When you set it up first time, it will tie to your Amazon identity and
let you configure (I am guessing here) some sizes/quantity/type of the
item to get to a particular SKU in Amazon's catalog. Subsequently when
you press the button it tells the App to order that item and sends an
alert giving the user the freedom to cancel the order.
Once
you order the item, subsequently the order tracking comes via mobile
alerts using Amazon app. This is comparable to alerts from shopping
sites on Messenger Platform that Facebook launched last week at their
F8 conference.
IOT Design Simplicity extended to Commerce Experience
The
beauty of IOT devices compared to all tech innovations of the past is
how we are seeing simplicity in design and the good ones tie seamlessly
to a mobile App.
Amazon Dash Button is a simple button you can
stick anywhere on any appliance to remind you to order the refills. It
ties to the Amazon App and allows you to cancel your order giving user
the choice to do comparison shopping. This is such a subtle feature that
builds trust with users challenging them that Amazon has the best
price. It builds on Amazon's delivery convenience. It offers features to
track the purchase which all ties back to existing Amazon App.
Why this is win for Amazon and not any Retailer?
Amazon
owns the distribution of Prime customers where they have solved for the
delivery problem. Any other retailer will have the problem of
on-boarding users to adopt a new technology. And this ties seamlessly to
Amazon's inventory (for most cases). So they are deploying it for Prime
Customers only at launch, thereby strengthening the value of Amazon
Prime memberships.
Questions from a skeptical data mind
You know I love new innovations but also become schizophrenic trying to look at other sides
of every product roll-out. That's the best part I love working with
many different teams with multiple, smart viewpoints. The analyst in me wonders what Amazon data says (we'll never find this out) about the buying habit of people who buy consumables online. Do we go to Amazon to buy Diapers and end up purchasing lots of other stuff merchandized to us? Now will there be any cannibalization of such spending from users? It is possible that some product manager inside Amazon looked at this data and said, this is still the right thing for the customer
so lets do it and went ahead. Maybe they estimated the upside from the
scale of new purchases from the Dash button and the increased trust from
Prime customers offsetting this loss (if any).
Innovation Ecosystem - Dash Replenishment Service (DRS) for Device Manufacturers
Amazon offers a Platform API for device manufacturers called "Dash Relinquishment Service" to connect to leverage Amazon's authentication and payment systems, customer service, and fulfillment network.
Whirlpool
plans to offer re-ordering detergent. Brita is planning a connected
water filter that will measure water usage and re-order filters. Quirky
is planning a new connected device series called Poppy that offers a Pet
food dispenser, baby formula maker, pour-over coffee maker that can
measure usage and refills. Brother Printers will re-order ink cartridges
and paper refills. All of them plan to use Amazon's DRS service to
seamlessly order from Amazon.
Amazon has
left control with manufacturers to decide if they want to build in an
Amazon Dash like button in their device or bake the counting of usage
and ordering refill automated inside the device so they can manage their
own design for their brands while using DRS.
Are you as excited as me about this progress in IOT and Commerce? Share your thoughts in comments below.
