Amazon UK have just launched their first ever screenless device for placing online orders. The artificial intelligence ‘Amazon Dash’ device will enable customers ordering from Amazon Fresh to add items to their next order by voice command or by barcode scanning.
When Dash launched in the US, it was in the form of a button for one click ordering of a single product. Dash buttons can also be built into devices for one click ordering, for instance a button on you washing machine to reorder detergent might be handy.
Dash buttons are limiting however, which is why in the UK Amazon Dash is a 6 inch device that looks like a stylish dictaphone but with a bar code scanner built into the end.
Amazon Dash allows you to build your shopping list without having to browse Amazon on a smartphone, tablet or computer. The device learns as it is used, recognising millions of products including groceries, household, health and beauty products, enabling you to keep track of their weekly grocery order.
The beauty of Dash is that you can add products when they come to mind and scan to reorder groceries and household essentials as soon as they run out. These items are then ready for purchase the next time the you visit the Amazon website or mobile app. Dash is designed for use in a kitchen, so don’t worry if you’re hands are covered with flour or wet from the washing up – Grab it, use it, wipe it clean and it’s good to go.
We know that when Amazon introduced Echo in the US it only had the ability to add products to a shopping list and manual intervention was required to place an order. Echo has now been updated to enable one-click ordering and it would be no surprise to see the new Amazon Dash devices upgraded to accept a “Deliver my Amazon Fresh order” and for everything you’d previously added to your shopping list to arrive on your door step. Give Amazon and their customers a couple of months to get used to adding items to their shopping list and automatic ordering is sure to follow.
Whilst most online retailers won’t be supplying products that can be ordered through Amazon Fresh, Amazon Dash does once again demonstrate the importance of structured data. With new artificial intelligence devices launching almost daily, sooner or later your products will be discounted if the next screenless device can’t identify them using the GTIN and other product identifiers.
As well as identifying the product, structured data becomes ever more important for when the consumer orders in a conversational tone rather than ordering by picking products from a screen.
Devices of the future will have to interpret requests such as “I want to reorder Persil, but last time you delivered the 1kg box, can I have the big box this time please?” and figure out that there’s a data field for size, that the 2.6k box is bigger than the 1kg box and that’s the one you want delivered. If you as the retailer don’t complete the structured data then artificial intelligence won’t want to take a gamble that your product is the one their customer is looking for.
Amazon Dash currently doesn’t have a price tag. If you’re in an Amazon Fresh delivery area then you’ll automatically receive it free of charge with your second Amazon Fresh order. If you’ve already placed two or more Amazon Fresh orders your own Amazon Dash will arrive with your next Amazon Fresh order.
3 Responses
Leaving the supermarkets behind in the tech stakes
Always innovating and driving change
Meanwhile eBay are thinking 20 years later that they should probably have customer reviews and catalogue their products.. LMAO
When shopping I tend to look at what is on offer before buying- automatic reording would cost me more.