With HP and Epson now also signing up to Amazon’s replenishment program, is the online retail giant posing a growing threat to the remanufacturing industry?
As T3N reports, HP and Epson are the latest OEMs to join Amazon’s Dash replenishment program, following in the footsteps of Brother and Samsung, both of which signed up in 2016.
The Dash program is available for Amazon Prime customers, allowing them “to order different consumer goods at the push of a button”. This replenishment function has already been rolled out for items such as capsule coffee machines, but in 2016 it was extended to printers, with Brother being the first OEM to become a partner. As a result, 45 of Brother’s printers became able to automatically order new OEM cartridges when their ink and toner levels were depleted.
Now, in a new development, HP and Epson “are now also working on printers who order new ink cartridges from the retail giant upon request.”
Further progress is also in store, as in future Amazon’s reordering service will be “integrated directly into devices in the future” and the online retailer has “introduced a software development kit (SDK) for virtual dash buttons.” This means that third-party vendors can incorporate the replenishment function into “all products that have a display.”
While Dash is of undeniable benefit to both the retailer and the OEMs, as well as providing a convenient service for customers, customer advocates “are less pleased with the concept” questioning, in particular, the “lack of transparency” regarding both pricing and delivery times. They are also concerned that “the small buttons do not have a label that clearly indicates that the print will make a purchase.”
Amazon’s Dash program is also likely to have a negative impact on the remanufacturing industry by further reducing the demand for remanufactured printer cartridges.
