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Amazon Dash buttons make their way online

The e-retailer's small, clickable physical buy buttons are now populating Amazon's website and app, virtually of course.

Ben Fox Rubin Former senior reporter
Ben Fox Rubin was a senior reporter for CNET News in Manhattan, reporting on Amazon, e-commerce and mobile payments. He previously worked as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and got his start at newspapers in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Ben Fox Rubin
2 min read
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Get your poop bags with just one click.

Amazon

Just when you thought Amazon couldn't possibly add more buy buttons to its website...

The online retailer on Thursday unveiled on its website and app new "virtual Dash buttons," essentially one-click buy buttons that it's placed on its home page and in a new "Your Dash Buttons" section on its site. The feature is only available for Amazon Prime members.

The name for this feature comes from Amazon's physical Dash buttons, which customers can place around their homes to quickly reorder paper towels or Slim Jims.

The new feature is another way of making purchasing as seamless as possible through Amazon. Maybe too seamless, since you might not even notice that your one errant click resulted in the purchase of more electric toothbrush heads.

Amazon created the sets of Dash buttons based on the items a customer orders the most, but you can add or delete Dash buttons to create your own set of easily clickable items. Competitor Jet.com, which is owned by Walmart, offers its own version of this feature with its "easy reorder" section, but you may have to click three or even four times before completing an order.

Amazon said Thursday it's continued to see growth in its Dash program, though it's avoided providing specific numbers on the program, which started in early 2015.

Next week, Amazon said, it plans to add more than 50 new Dash button devices to its current line of over 200.

Dash buttons are available to Amazon Prime members essentially for free. Customers must pay $4.99 (or £4.99 or 4.99 euros) upfront for each one, but that payment is then reimbursed after the first purchase using the button.

The virtual Dash buttons, as you may have guessed, are free.

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