Amazon wants to keep you spending money, and as a commerce company, it has the benefit of having no reason to hide this fact. Its recently announced FireTV set-top box marks a play for the television, but that's potentially small change compared to the money to be gained from locking in most of a person's grocery shopping.
The AmazonFresh grocery service is still only offered in parts of California and Seattle, but yesterday the company added support into the Amazon Android tablet app, and now it's rolling out a new product that goes even further to reduce the amount of time it takes to get an item into your virtual cart. Meet Amazon Dash.
Amazon Dash requires an invitation to buy, and it only works for AmazonFresh customers is currently available on a trial basis with select AmazonFresh customers at no additional cost. The flashlight-sized product works by scanning household products or searching for items that users speak into it. The items then appear in an Amazon shopping list, where people are free to view the total list and schedule delivery.
The Dash is designed to be so simple to use that young children can add items on their own, such as their favorite cereal or other supplies they recently used up (though they're sure to try to sneak in a toy or two).
The AmazonFresh app received an update today that can guide users through the process of setting up a Dash and keeping up with their shopping list. For the time being, though, the service remains exclusively available to pockets of the West Coast. Most of us won't get to check this out anytime soon.
What's new:
- Bug fixes.
- Improved home screen design.
- For customers with an Amazon Dash, this update allows you to set up your Dash (via Wi-Fi) and shop your Dash list.