CNN reports that Amazon will disable its entire Dash button network on August 31, ending a replenishment technology that it introduced in 2015. Earlier this year it has said it would stop issuing new buttons to consumers.
The buttons carry the brand logos of participating companies, allowing customers to place them in relevant and convenient places (like a Tide button on the washing machine) ands then simply press them when they wanted to reorder that item. The buttons cost $5 apiece, but that was reimbursed to customers by taking that amount off their first orders.
Amazon had said that even though it was ending the Dash button program, believing that it made more sense to push consumers to replenish products via its Alexa voice assistant system, it would continue supporting the Dash buttons as long as people used them.
The buttons carry the brand logos of participating companies, allowing customers to place them in relevant and convenient places (like a Tide button on the washing machine) ands then simply press them when they wanted to reorder that item. The buttons cost $5 apiece, but that was reimbursed to customers by taking that amount off their first orders.
Amazon had said that even though it was ending the Dash button program, believing that it made more sense to push consumers to replenish products via its Alexa voice assistant system, it would continue supporting the Dash buttons as long as people used them.
- KC's View:
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This means one of two things. Either Amazon got impatient about moving people into voice-driven replenishment and decided to act precipitously, or people just weren’t using the buttons and it believes that ending the program wouldn’t raise any hackles.
I suspect it was the latter.
I said it before and I’ll say it again: There’s absolutely nothing wrong with stepping away from a business model that, even though you’ve pretty much created it, has grown to be pretty much obsolete. In fact, that willingness to kill its young is an Amazon hallmark - it doesn’t allow itself to become so emotionally connected to anything that it cannot walk away at the right time.
Which is a pretty good business lesson.
