Amazon Dash: Instant home shopping launches in UK

Amazon's UK Prime customers will soon be buying household essentials quite literally at the touch of a button.

The online retailer has released a new product called Dash that all but removes any interface between shoppers and goods.

Put simply, it's a range of small buttons linked by wi-fi and pressing one triggers a next-day delivery for whatever you're running low on.

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The buttons are marked with the logos of household brands, such as cleaning products, pet foods and toiletries, among others.

The idea is to transform your home into a giant vending machine by dotting the buttons around your house - attaching the one for your favourite washing capsules on your washing machine, for example, or placing the shampoo button inside your bathroom cabinet.

Every button costs £4.99, which is then refunded when you press and make your first order, which is billed directly to your Amazon account.

Amazon has even thought of ways to stop naughty members of your household from placing bulk toilet roll orders on your behalf. You can have the button send a notification to your smartphone when it is pressed and you can't place more than one order of a certain product within a 24-hour time limit.

The buttons were introduced in the US last year, although, the Daily Telegraph reports, many at first thought the venture was an elaborate April Fools' joke.

Since then, the US service has expanded to cover more than 150 household items. The UK version will offer 48 at its launch, including Play-Doh.

According to the BBC, Amazon is pitching this as a device to do away with the most tedious shopping experiences and Dash is the first real showcase of how the "internet of things" – items joined in a single network, communicating their needs to each other – could eventually transform our home lives.

There are some potential negatives, however. Does Dash point to an increasingly lazy society? And are people happy sharing their shopping habits with Amazon?

"Like it or not, shopping is becoming an on-demand, push-button, instant gratification experience. And, as in so many other areas of our lives, it seems likely that it will be shaped by a US technology company", says the broadcaster.