What’s Up, Joey? Amazon’s new Dash button

Let’s face it. Online Shopping is giving traditional shopping a run for its money.

Last year, it was reported that 78% of the US population over the age of 15 made online purchases.

Most of us, if we’re not avid online shoppers ourselves, we know someone who buys most of their purchases online.

“Amazon has taken over our lives,” says Lissette Callejas, an avid online shopper from Sarasota. “There doesn’t come a day that I don’t get a package at my doorstep.”

Downtown Sarasota resident Assunta Swier confesses to buying most of her groceries online.

“Everything from my toiler paper to my shampoo and conditioners,” says Swier.

“The first place I go to if I need something is Amazon and order it,” says Ryan McDonald of Sarasota. “I know it’s just going to show up to my door in two days.”

Amazon.com (arguably one of the biggest e-commerce sites) has even installed one-click ordering, where a refill of some of your favorite regular purchases is just a mouseclick away.

Well, in an effort to make that shopping even easier, Amazon has announced the new Dash button.

The dash button is a real button that users can stick basically anywhere they’d like that corresponds to a household product. When the person runs low, they press the button, which syncs with the amazon mobile app and their product is on its way.

It sounds a little too good to be true, and because of the timing of the announcement, so close to April Fools’ Day, many people thought it was a prank.

But the product is real.

There are currently over 200 products available for their own Dash buttons, and its expected that many more will follow suit.

“It sounds brilliant enough to make me think that a household mother came up with it,” says Swier, a mother of two. “Someone who is so busy that they completely appreciate getting back every minute of their day that they possibly can.”

Many critics are asking how hard it is presently to just pull out your phone and reorder an item. The lure of the button is that it can be placed at the location you discover you need the new item, eliminating any obstacle to your purchase.

“There are so many times that I get down to the last bit of laundry detergent,” says McDonald. “If I just had the Dash button right there, I’d press it and know it’d be at my house in two days.”

Callejas and her husband plan to use the service as soon as it becomes available.

“I envision that we’re going to open a cabinet door and every single product that’s in our house is going to be there,” says Callejas. “I don’t know where we’re going to fit all these Dash buttons. It’s going to be ridiculous.”

The buttons are only being offered to Amazon Prime members right now, and there is a little to three buttons per household, but it’s expected to grow as more people adopt the service.