ONLINE shopping just got re-invented by some Swedes selling mobile phones.

The Swedish arm of mobile company 3 noticed that too many people were visiting its website and not buying a phone. Management wondered how to get these people buying and decided that online salespeople was the answer.

So they built 3 Live Shop. It’s a website, but it connects you via videochat to a real human sales assistant.

Video chat is nothing new, so what makes 3 Live Shop so special? It’s the science fiction-style screens that the sales assistants are using to interact with your computer screen. As they talk to you, they drag phone handsets and other details into view, right in front of your eyes.

You can see a behind-the-scenes video of the whole thing at vimeo.com/21968394. Bespoke software was written and the sales stations were designed from scratch. It all looks like something out of a movie, but it’s very real.

If you want to try it out, go to www.tre.se and click on the huge "3 Live Shop" banner.

All the instructions are in Swedish so you might have to fumble around a bit to make the connection. You’re asked to confirm that you’re over 18 to allow the software access to your webcam and what sort of deal you’re looking for. Then there’s a queuing system in place because for now there are only three of the specially designed operator stations built.

Given how slick the whole experience is it won’t be long before there are more and they’re appearing in online shops here in the UK too.