Amazon has announced that the first Dash Replenishment Devices are now available, with printers, kitchen appliances and healthcare products all ready to use the service.
The Dash Replenishment programme uses Internet of Things devices to notify suppliers when to send shipments, meaning that businesses and individuals won’t have to worry about running out of essential items.
Daniel Rausch, director of Amazon Devices said that the service will use IoT technology to bring greater convenience to its customers.
“With Amazon Dash Replenishment, we want to make customers’ lives even easier so they won’t run out of items like laundry detergent, pet food or printer ink again—customers simply activate Dash Replenishment when they are setting up their connected device and then rely on Amazon to automatically deliver those everyday essentials,” he added.
“Customers can start taking advantage of the service today and we will continue to launch and add new devices to the program this year.”
Some early use cases include Brother connected printers that automatically order ink or toner, GE’s Smart Dispense washer, which dispenses the correct amount of detergent for each load, and Gmate’s SMART Blood Glucose Meter, which requests delivery of testing strips and lancets when needed.
Amazon has also confirmed that Dash compatible products are being developed by the likes of Samsung, Brita, Whirlpool, Sealed Air and many others.
If successful, the Dash Replenishment service could allow Amazon to make significant in-roads into the Internet of Things (IoT) market, which it is also going after through AWS IoT and its Echo smart home product. As well as securing partnerships with major businesses, the online retailer has made its Dash Replenishment Service APIs publicly available, broadening the IoT market to include start-ups and independent developers.
Amazon is likely to face competition in the IoT space, however – and especially in retail.
SATO Global Solutions has just announced its own IoT platform in collaboration with Intel that uses big data analytics to improve the retail experience.
In total, revenue from the Internet of Things is expected to reach $453 billion (£319.4 billion) by 2020 so it is likely that Amazon and SATO will joined by many other businesses, all vying for a slice of this potentially lucrative market.