Amazon has announced it has stopped selling its Dash buttons due to them being unpopular with shoppers.
First released in 2015, the buttons were designed to make it easy for users to order replacement household products such as toilet roll, toothpaste or washing powder. Homeowners could stick the button next to the place the product is kept, and when it runs out, the user could press the button and it would be reordered on Amazon.
However, Amazon says they are now unnecessary due to product subscriptions and automatic reordering. There was even a legality issue in Germany this January when the button was found to break consumer protection legislation as the Dash buttons do not give enough information about the product ordered or its price.
Amazon was using the buttons to make the shopping experience “convenient and easy, and in some cases, even disappear”. But the digital Dash buttons in the shopping app and shopping via voice-controlled devices has outdated the physical buttons and removed the need for them around the home.