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Life With the Dash Button: Good Design For Amazon, Bad For Everyone Else

Posted by timothy on from the commerce-in-commerce dept.

vivaoporto writes: A scathing review published on Fast Company describes Amazon's Dash Button, the "Buy Now" button brought into the physical world as "the latest symptom of Amazon's slowly spreading disease", "an unabashed attempt to disconnect customers from the amount of money we're spending." The author's criticism centers on Amazon's lack of focus on customer experience, a core UI that doesn't make sense, limited and expensive product selection and a store UX "no longer designed for your convenient shopping", but rather "designed for their profitable selling."

11 of 259 comments (clear)

  1. That's all that consumer-oriented businesses do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Minimum viable product, maximum revenue extraction.

    Or did you think the evolution of subscriptions and microtransactions was to benefit you, the customer?

    1. Re:That's all that consumer-oriented businesses do by NostalgiaForInfinity · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Minimum viable product, maximum revenue extraction.

      If you don't like the product, don't buy it or use it.

      Or did you think the evolution of subscriptions and microtransactions was to benefit you, the customer?

      Oddly enough, yes. Successful businesses are motivated by maximizing their profit. But they succeed at this only if people actually choose to buy their products because they benefit. The fact that the business is primarily motivated by its own profits is not a problem, because in a free market, the only way to increase those profits is when people choose to buy their products and actually hand them their money.

      It's not zero-sum game, it's a positive sum game: both buyers and sellers benefit, each in their own way.

    2. Re:That's all that consumer-oriented businesses do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You say this like you believe it, so I'll ask you this:

      If you "don't buy it or use it" but the practice influences other companies into using the same practices, does your puny market influence even matter?

    3. Re:That's all that consumer-oriented businesses do by ExekielS · · Score: 5, Insightful

      We have studies that show there is no market competition with fewer than 5 choices holding more than 70% of market share. Freedom and choices are a lot more limited than you are imagining, both theoretically and practically. Which is why consumer survey's showed that 85% of consumers preferred low gloss/matte screens but over 95% of screens made were high gloss, a problem that has existed for MUCH too long.

      --
      ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
    4. Re:That's all that consumer-oriented businesses do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Which is why consumer survey's showed that 85% of consumers preferred low gloss/matte screens but over 95% of screens made were high gloss, a problem that has existed for MUCH too long.

      That's one of those problems that is difficult to fix. When you are in the store and compare the gloss screen to the matte screen, the glossy one has much more vibrant colors, so consumers naturally pick that one. It's only when they get to using it in real life that the glare starts to get to them. But at that point it's too late. They've already bought it, thus rewarding the company for producing the glossy screen. They have no way to provide feedback to the company to incentivise them to manufacture matte screens. The best the consumer can do is, IF they happen to figure out that the gloss is the source of their frustration and they would have been better with a matte screen, and IF they can manage to remember that fact several years later when they buy their next TV, then I suppose they can make the point then. But the truth is most people WON'T figure it out, and most of those who actually do WON'T remember it several years later when they next buy a new TV. So they'll walk back into the store, say "wow that one looks a lot better" and walk out with another glossy, and the glossy manufacturer has been rewarded again.

    5. Re:That's all that consumer-oriented businesses do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      There's an example of a post that didn't need to be. This is another example.

    6. Re:That's all that consumer-oriented businesses do by sglewis100 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes. If people reject it, those other companies will also withdraw.

  2. Actually great UX for everyone else by trybywrench · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The UX of the Dash Button is great, shopping for laundry detergent is boring, just one press and it's over. Managing your personal finances has zero to do with the dash button user experience.

    --
    I came to the datacenter drunk with a fake ID, don't you want to be just like me?
    1. Re:Actually great UX for everyone else by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's not clear you understand the use-case for the button. Mind you, I haven't yet bought into the button myself. But it's clear that this isn't to be used for something you actually need *right now*. It's decidedly NOT for one-off purchases either. Your example of needing medicine is (generally) one of *both* immediacy as well as a relatively one-time purchase; definitely not a good use-case for the button.

      The use-case for the button is *more* like the use-case for Costco. Running low on toilet paper? You go to Costco and you buy a big damn bag of it all at once, right? You don't wait until you've used the very last square of TP and you're sitting on the toilet going "uhhh, now what?" -- and then dash off to Costco. No, if that happens you just run down the street to the local grocery store and pick up a small pack to hold you over until you can get across town to Costco. But what you *normally* do is you go to pull out a new roll and you realize your big ass pack is getting near empty; so you make a mental note to go to Costco this weekend and buy another large pack.

      You see what's happening, right? Costco is the button. You make a mental note (ie: the button) and 3 days later you go to Costco to actually get the product (ie: UPS). There's no "instant gratification" for Costco, either; and yet it's wildly successful. You don't *typically* think of Costco for one-off purchases either; generally you think of Costco for your regular-use stuff, even though you might buy several one-off items once you are there.

      What the button brings to the table over Costco is convenience -- I push the button and I no longer have to remember my mental note and I no longer have to take the time to drive to Costco to get the stuff. Push the button, forget about it, and it just happens.

      What's not understand? It's simple.

  3. Forget what? by sjbe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How when my dad buys something shipping is wayyyyyyyy overpriced but go to my account (one where I have cancelled orders because of overpriced shipping) and it's less than half the cost *same town*

    Perhaps because you buy more from Amazon so they are willing to cut you a better deal. Very little on Amazon has wildly overpriced shipping and the minority of stuff that does have overpriced shipping is obvious and invariably from third party vendors. Most of what I buy is through Prime and has "free" shipping. If you see overpriced shipping don't buy it.

    Of course I've made my living doing ecommerce in the past so I can assure you that most people have NO idea what shipping actually costs. We used to charge exactly the rate UPS charged us and people would complain that we were inflating shipping prices even though we were shipping at cheaper rates than they could get themselves.

    or their bait and switch, or their sending an item entirely different from what was pictured.

    Aside from one or two mistakes where the wrong item got picked I've never seen this happen and I've ordered a LOT of stuff from Amazon. The few mistakes they've made they corrected and sent the correct item or refunded me no questions asked. I've never seen Amazon "bait and switch" anything, ever. If it was a third party vendor not sending what was shown I would just immediately send it back and complain to Amazon. They'll pay the return freight and refund your money.

    Yeah I know there are resellers, but Amazon fronts them so they get the blame too.

    If you buy the thing with the overpriced shipping, the only party to blame is yourself. Buy somewhere else if you don't think you are getting a good deal.

  4. The solution to every problem isn't an app by sjbe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why not just have a cell phone app.

    Because the best solution to every problem isn't an app. Believe it or not there sometimes are better and more efficient ways to solve a problem.

    Open the app, see a list of easy to order items, click on the items you want to order and hit send. That's it. Very simple to use, and the user knows that their order went through.

    All of which is harder than just pushing a button. You just described a 4 step process than in reality has even more steps. (turn on phone, log in, find app, open app, scroll through list, select item(s), select send). Compare that with pushing a single button on a wall and it is absurdly complicated.

    Look I don't have any use for these Dash buttons myself but I understand what they are trying to do. The less steps someone has to go through the more likely they are to buy. The founder of Coke basically built his business around making sure his product was "within arm's reach of desire" which is why you can easily find a coke product almost anywhere on the globe even in some of the most remote corners. They made buying their product VERY easy. Amazon is trying to do similar things. Maybe the Dash buttons won't work out but the principle of what they are doing makes sense. Sometimes a more general solution isn't the better one.