In a hurry? Amazon wants to help

Amazon Prime members looking to quickly reorder goods have an expanded assortment at their fingertips.



Amazon.com has tripled the number of brands members of its Prime loyalty program can order via Amazon Dash buttons. There are now more than 100 Dash buttons available for thousands of products across brands including 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, and Vitamin Water, The buttons cover dozens of retail categories, including new ones such as chips, vitamins, office products, pet supplies, feminine care, batteries, tea, soda and juice.



When a customer sees supplies from select brands running low, they press a Dash Button to order.



"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,” said Daniel Rausch, director of Amazon Dash. We’re excited to now offer over 100 Dash Buttons representing top-name brands across dozens of retail categories and thousands of product options.”



According to Amazon, in the past three months, Dash button orders have grown by more than 75%, with customers using the buttons more than once a minute. Dash buttons are available to Prime members for $4.99 each, with a $4.99 credit after the first order. Customers receive a notification with every order and can change the product purchased through the button anytime.



Amazon has been busy trying to establish itself as an automatic purchase option in consumers’ homes. The retailer also recently rolled out the first devise available with Amazon Dash Replenishment, which enables connected devices to automatically order physical goods from Amazon when supplies are running low. For example, a Brother printer that will order toner or ink when it’s needed.



In addition, the Amazon Echo artificial intelligence device lets Prime members order goods by voice. Echo uses the customer’s order history and can place orders using default payment and shipping settings. If Echo can't find the requested item in the order history, it may suggest an alternate item using Amazon’s Choice, which picks highly-rated Prime-eligible products.



Amazon has a history of being in front of technology trends, and is obviously ramping up for a future where connected devices are as or more important to e-commerce than web, mobile or social sites. Other retailers may want to start catching up before competitive advantage turns into competitive necessity.