Amazon triples Dash Button brand lineup, orders surge 75% in Q1

Dive Brief:

Amazon has increased the number of items available for order through its Dash Button devices, adding about 80 new brands alongside the household staples like laundry detergent it started with a year ago.
Amazon introduced the Dash platform last March, expanded its reach to 29 brands in a wide number of categories last fall, and now has plans to bring on a total of 106 brands. New additions include Doritos, Red Bull, Brita, Energizer and Trojan.
The Wi-Fi-enabled Dash Buttons, available to Prime members for $4.95 (which comes with a $4.99 Amazon credit that actually nets them a few cents), allows customers to replenish goods with a simple button push.

Dive Insight:

Amazon’s Dash button was truly a surprise when it was launched last spring, confounding many because its concept was so new. A lot of news stories then even took pains to point out that Dash is real—it was introduced very close to April Fool’s Day—and the New Yorker went so far as to call it a “horror.”

Some questioned its potential, though Absolutdata CEO Anil Kaul told Retail Dive at the time that the retailer had created what he calls a “Zero Moment of Purchase.” With the Dash button, Amazon has eliminated a previously accepted gap—the time between needing something and getting it—he said.

“Just as Google summarized Internet-driven decision making as the ‘Zero Moment of Truth,’ Amazon has created the ‘Zero Moment of Purchase,’ putting brands at the exact moment of need,” Kaul said. “In a Zero Moment of Purchase scenario, all other factors—coupons, packaging, advertising—become irrelevant.”

And, it turns out, many consumers, or at least many in Amazon’s Prime program, appreciate that.

Daniel Rausch, Amazon’s Dash chief, told the Seattle Times that in the past three months alone, orders via Dash have increased more than 75%, and that “a Dash Button is now pressed more than once a minute.” He said that equates to 1,440 new orders each day.

Not surprisingly, Dash vendor partners like it, too.

“PepsiCo is always looking for new and innovative ways for shoppers to engage with our brands… The Dash Button was one of those unique opportunities,” David Orr, PepsiCo’s global customer lead, said in a statement, according to the Seattle paper.