Offering online assistance to the families who
visit funeral home websites is an opportunity to
build loyalty and referrals. An online sympathy
store provides grievers the chance to shop
at their own convenience, saving them time
and potentially easing their stress. Selling
sympathy gifts direct from your website is
also a helpful service for out-of-town friends
and family members. Those who are unable
to attend a funeral are likely to visit a website
to read about the services of a loved one.
Providing them the opportunity to express their
condolences with sympathy gifts is another
way to extend the funeral firm’s reach to
the families. An interesting example of such
an offer is legacy.com . There are three basic
functions on this platform – generation of
What technical aspects to pay attention to when setting up an online store?
• choose an easy domain name and fast hosting
(server); Don’t be fooled into partnering with
an e-Commerce provider that will steal your
valuable website traffic. If your website visitors
are taken to a third-party site, you’re not only
losing web traffic, but you’re also disrupting
your visitor’s online experience;
• use the services of a proven IT company, which,
in addition to building the store, provides free
technical assistance during its operation;
• make sure you have a user-friendly admin
panel to manage your online store by yourself
– after all, it’s not just the ordering process that
should be a pleasant experience, but also your
work on the store’s background;
• take care of a user-friendly experience when
navigating the store and searching for products;
• you shouldn’t present too many products as
the client loses the possibility to choose from
too many options / it becomes too complicated
and non-effective in making decisions to
move forward. You should present about 9-20
products (top sellers of different kinds);
• be sure to offer detailed descriptions and
provide high-quality images;
• when shopping online, your website visitors
expect to be able to contact a customer service
representative by phone, chat, or email any time
they have a question or concern —24/7/365.
Make sure your customer service is responsive,
patient and polite when dealing with issues.
They should also be knowledgeable on the
products you offer on your online store;
• decide what forms of payment will be available
in your store (payment by credit cards, bank
transfer, through services such as PayPal,
others);
• choose whether would you like customer
registration to be combined with the creation
of a store user profile, where order history will
be stored;
• collect and publish customer reviews and
testimonials with good experiences with your
products or services, as they provide social
proof for new customers. Negative feedback
is also important because it will help you to
improve the store;
• collect and analyze online statistics about the
store – thanks to this data you can, for example,
plan supplies, as well as monitor customer
behavior;
• ensure responsiveness (mobile friendly) – the
appearance and layout of the store should
automatically adapt to the device on which it is
displayed, such as browsers, smartphones and
tablets;
• take care of your online store’s SEO – both
organic and paid;
• take care about speed, cost and various forms
of delivery;
• specify the return policy;
• your customers want to know your store is safe
and secure, so display trust certificates, security
badges and safety seals on the checkout pages;
• decide whether you will introduce loyalty
programs, discount coupons;
• consider communicating through newsletters
to maintain customer relationships.
e-Commerce, for the moment,
will not replace in-person
contact with funeral directors.
It is just another option to
contact, guide and educate
family members and offer
them a service. The main goal
is to simplify the whole process
of funeral arrangement.
THANOS MAGAZINE | No. 102 – SUMMER 2023
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