NEW YORK — Amazon’s futuristic “Dash” buttons appear here to stay.
The e-commerce powerhouse is expanding the number of available buttons, which reorder products at one touch. It’s also making them virtually free.
Last month, Amazon launched the “Dash” buttons — adhesive buttons designed to stick on any household surface near where you may need to reorder products — for about 18 brands, ranging from Bounty paper towels to Tide detergent.
Now they’re adding 11 branded buttons to the program, including ones for Ice Breakers Mints and Hefty trash bags. And for every $4.99 button customers buy, they’ll get a $4.99 credit back into their account.
The buttons are available to members of Amazon’s $99 annual Prime membership program.
They can be set up via Wi-Fi with a smartphone and an order alert can be sent to your phone in case you want to cancel.
Daniel Rausch, director of product management, said Amazon has been “learning a lot” from the way customers have been using the buttons. Some have been re-ordering items on a weekly basis, more frequently than expected, he said.
A popular feature with customers has been an option that lets the buttons respond only to the first order signal, until that order has been delivered — preventing accidental multiple orders.
Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. has held a long-time strategy of investing the money it earns back into the company, including making inroads into the connected home. Earlier this year it launched the Amazon Echo, a Wi-Fi-enabled speaker that responds to voice commands and can reorder certain items.
