3D Shopping Online

Gemsta.com is a new website that launches today and combines a 3D environment incorporating online shopping and search functions. Creating a new experience of surfing in a family friendly environment with sunny shopping streets, malls and plazas, gemsta.com provides users with access to 500 familiar and unusual brands. There is also the option to compare the prices and offers of over five million of the latest consumer items through the GEMSTA Compare search tool.

The website captures the shopper’s imagination using the latest Flash animation technology that allows them to travel through different shopping areas that are home to 30 different categories of products and stores. All brands are categorised and grouped according to products. Chief Executive of gemsta.com, Richard Laing, comments: “In the era of iPlayer, Xbox and Playstation, why not have a 3D multimedia homepage that is capable of delivering great content in a way that is intuitive for users and creates a real experience.

“We believe that the internet should be a safe, fast, exciting and visually pleasing experience. We want to keep it real, accessible, useful and credible, but above all it needs to be fun for users of all ages.”

Richard continues, “Using a variety of software, our team of architects, landscapers, interior designers and programmers, has taken the geography of real islands and added swathes of creativity and huge amounts of detail to take gemsta.com from a wired framework to a photo-real world – possibly the largest ever computer generated model made available online. [Ed: What about Second Life?]

“Gemsta.com is based on a world that has a sense of freedom – a place with no crime, no cars and no pressures, in essence, a place where users can enjoy visiting again and again.”

Most importantly, does the concept work? Unfortunately not. The website is easy to use but annoying. When a user clicks on a shop, you are simply directed to the normal website of that shop, which begs the question, why didn’t I just go to that website in the first place, using Google? In short, it’s a dressed-up middleman that ultimately slows down the shopping experience. Sorry Richard, but we don’t get it.

To view gemsta for yourself, go to www.gemsta.com.