Paramount Takes Online Shopping Where No Man Has Gone Before

Tis the season to think about shopping for the holidays and the majority of us will be browsing online to find that perfect gift. For the most part, we select items after scrolling through a few images and reading customer reviews, but we don’t get to actually interact with them unless we’re shopping in the actual store. Today, Paramount’s Consumer Products division and droppLabs are showing us a new way to preview products before we buy them, as they just announced an industry-first, interactive experience for The Noble Collection’s original series Star Trek Tridimensional Chess Set. Simply put, if you want to preview what this iconic piece of Star Trek history will look like in your home, dropp’s combination of XR and e-commerce technology will enable you to do just that.

Gurps Rai, CEO & Co-founder of droppLabs, elaborated on why this was important for dropp to merge these two worlds together. “Providing fans a compelling, interactive digital experience in advance of purchasing and receiving a physical product is the essence of shopatainment and the future of E-commerce,” he said. The concept of shopatainment was coined by Connie Chan back in 2020, referring to the leveraging of video content to sell products. Dropp was at the forefront of merging video-based entertainment with e-commerce offerings when they introduced droppTV to the world, a video e-commerce marketplace that leverages AI and computer vision to recognize products in video content and tag them in real-time—— allowing fans to purchase the products they see on screen which just a few clicks. Now, dropp is taking it a step further by implementing XR capabilities into e-commerce.

Lining up with the futuristic themes of the Star Trek franchise, Paramount is increasingly focused on delivering interactive experiences for fans that bridge the digital world and physical products. With this being the first integration of droppLab’s technology within Paramount’s vast e-commerce offerings, Paramount is tapping into the new frontier of the e-commerce industry. “We’re completely aligned with Paramount’s and the Star Trek franchise’s vision to boldly go where no one has gone before,” Gurps continued. “Our partnership represents a meaningful first step for the entertainment industry’s web3 adoption journey.”

That web3 integration into entertainment has continued to be a main focal point for dropp. They recently partnered with rapper/actor Dave East to power his flagship program “Dave East Total Access”— implementing a web3 experience for fans and aspiring producers to become accredited executive producers on his next project. Dropp’s partnership with paramount continues the company’s foray into entertainment to showcase their patented products and further propel web3 activations.

Fans can experience and interact with the 3D chess set at https://shop.startrek.com by scanning the QR code that allows them to virtually place the item anywhere in their home to preview how it’d look. The authentic prop replica of the iconic Tridimensional Chess Set, which was first seen in Star Trek: The Original Series, includes 32 die-cast pieces that measure approximately 1.5 inches tall. With Paramount having nearly exclusive rights to the entire Star Trek canon, this release is a perfect way to get fans excited for upcoming releases for all the new and returning Star Trek shows and series coming in 2023.

Jose Castro, Executive Vice President, Global Collaborations, EMEA Licensing, and US Softlines, Consumer Products & Experiences, is hopeful that this interactive experience will be well-received by fans. “Through droppLabs, Paramount is able to provide our fans with an immersive experience during their shopping journey,” he said. “Paramount is excited to offer Star Trek fans the ability to interact with the 3D chess set through dropp’s AR technology before purchase to create an out -of-this-world shopping experience.”

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About the Author

Dr. Jerry Doby Editor-in-Chief of The Hype Magazine, Media and SEO Consultant, Journalist, Ph.D. and retired combat vet. 2023 recipient of The President's Lifetime Achievement Award. Partner at THM Media Group. Member of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, the United States Press Agency and ForbesBLK.