• offer – what the funeral home's capabilities are
and what the costs of the various services will
be for the ceremony;
• guide – how to deal with the situation of loss
(formalities, organizational steps, coping with
grief);
• opinions of other customers;
• memorials – obituaries (information on when
farewells to loved ones are held) and ways
to commemorate them (i.e. virtual books of
condolence).
As funeral home clients are already buying
everyday products and looking for information
on the Internet, it is worth taking advantage of
this fact, such as launching a small online store
on the funeral home's website. Allowing for the
possibility to sell an urn or a casket, funeral
services live streaming, flowers or some gifts to
comfort grieving families. It makes it easy for out-
of-town families to send their condolences and
gifts showing support i.e. food products (sweets,
fruits, aromatic and relaxing teas), cosmetics,
oils that calm the senses, books.
However,
many
experts
indicate
that
e-Commerce in funeral homes means something
E-commerce in Poland still has great potential
for growth, but economic factors were not the
only reason why we created the electronic funeral
notification eKlepsydra (under this name it is
known in Poland, but in foreign markets – in Spain
and Germany – it is known as Funeral Card and
in Hungary under the name e-Gyászjelentés).
First and foremost, we wanted to enable families
to efficiently notify their loved ones of death
and funeral ceremonies. It was obvious for us to
extend this basic function with further features
such as navigation to the ceremony location,
offering condolences and sharing memories as
well as launching an online store for ordering
flowers with delivery to the ceremony. Of course,
the store can include any products, it all depends
on the approach of the cooperating funeral
company. Since the beginning of the notification’s
operation, which is 4 years now, flowers ordered
in the eKlepsydra notification have been delivered
to more than 2,000 ceremonies in Poland. This
feature has worked perfectly many times for those
families who could not make their way to the
ceremony due to long distances. This was especially
evident during the pandemic. During the year, the
notification itself is used by an average of 10,000
people a year in Poland, more than 2,000 in Spain
and 1,500 in Hungary.
Paweł Pakuła
CEO, eKlepsydra (Funeral Card), eklepsydra.pl ,
Poland
In my opinion, e-Commerce has many advantages,
some of which are: convenience, unlimited time and
easy access to products. From anywhere, as soon as
one has access to the Internet, funeral directors can
quickly buy the missing funeral items. Shipments
are made overnight. Which is very convenient.
Our online shop is used by both small and large
funeral directors, from Poland and abroad.
We are constantly updating the product range in
our shop, introducing new products, and soon...
we will be launching a new version of our website:
www.carmen.lublin.pl, along with a new online
shop. We know how much customers like this form
of shopping, so we are investing in its development.
Izabela Zarzyka
CARMEN Sales and Customer Service Manager,
www.carmen.lublin.pl , Poland
THANOS MAGAZINE | No. 102 – SUMMER 2023
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