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The practices of funeral homes were first revealed in Jessica Mitford's 1963 book, The American Way of Death, an expose that resulted in widespread outrage. "The funeral buyer is generally not in the mood to compare prices here, examine and appraise quality there," Mitford wrote. "He is anxious to get the whole thing over with – not only is he anxious for this, but the exigencies of the situation demand it." Funeral services tend to be bought in haste, with the funeral director setting the parameters of cost and required purchases.
Mitford's The American Way of Death Revisited – published posthumously in 1998 – finds practices pretty much the same today, with prices even higher: The total average cost for an adult's funeral in the United States is $7,800. Pushing up costs are two developments: the proliferation of large corporations gobbling up "mom-and-pop" funeral homes, and the Federal Trade Commission's decision to allow funeral sellers to add their overhead to a nondeclinable fee – which Mitford called "unrestricted allowance for profit" that "enables the funeral seller to further confuse his already befuddled customer."
The nuts-and-bolts practices of the business change very, very slowly. One of the most recent innovations – "pre-need" selling of items like funeral services, caskets and burial plots – is several decades old. And while the Internet is revolutionizing American business, some say funeral services could be the sector least likely to be affected. "It's not necessarily a wonderful fit because it's not a big repeat purchase," says Hambrecht & Quist analyst Shawn Milne. "Hopefully you only go through it a couple times. Some of the better models are driven by high repeat business, so that could be a factor. Plus it's such a personal issue; people get solace from having a face to deal with."
Yet even into this hushed, languid industry has crept the Internet. Inroads are still preliminary; online offerings are still meager. The National Funeral Directors Association has a site that has links of interest to consumers, along with some excerpts from its trade publications and press releases. Several dozen funeral homes have a presence on the Web, and there is a growing area devoted to online obituaries and memorials for those who want their own dearly departed to live on via the information superhighway. DeathNet, an archive of information garnered by volunteers, promises to "advance the art and science of dying well." The trade organization for independent funeral directors, the International Order of the Golden Rule, has a Web site that's mostly aimed at its members. But thus far only a few sites – among them, Plan4ever.com and HeavenlyDoor.com – allow consumers to shop for death services online.
Selling to the bereaved is a big business – although how big is not clear. The National Funeral Directors Association hedged its bets in a 1997 report, estimating the amount spent on funeral services and their related expenses at $16 billion to $24 billion annually. Research conducted by the Internet site Plan4ever.com came up with $21.6 billion, garnering information on funeral-related expenses from industry reports provided by greeting card companies, floral distributors and travel companies, and adding in dollar amounts spent on cremation, burial, caskets and related services. With just over 2.3 million deaths reported in the United States in 1997, the most recent year for which statistics are available, that breaks down to nearly $10,000 for each and every person passing to the great beyond.
There are basically three big players in the funeral industry: Service Corp. International, or SCI, the Loewen Group (LWN) (currently in bankruptcy) and Stewart Enterprises (STEI) , which are said to own 15 percent of the country's 23,000 funeral homes, handling a fifth of all funerals. None of these has started moving its services online. It's a niche that others are moving in to fill.
Florida-based HeavenlyDoor has plans for an elaborate site that will focus on the lucrative "pre-selling" market. "Thirty percent of AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) members are already online," says company founder Howard Weiser.
Weiser wants to "take the fright out of buying your final resting place." His company plans to develop a full-service online presence. In addition to an anticipated merger with a biotechnology firm called Procept (PRCT) , Weiser – who has spent time at the Zale Corporation (ZLC) and Chock Full O' Nuts – promises a "well-known celebrity" to sign on as spokesman in the next few months.
"The funeral industry is the last to use the Internet and computers," says Weiser. "They're starting to realize that they have to get up to speed if they want to increase profit and get more exposure. The beauty of this is that if someone gets that distressing phone call, we've given them the opportunity to find out where to go in their area."
So far, the site's offerings include online obituaries, a shopper's guide and a mortuary finder. Weiser foresees a discussion room moderated by a grief counselor and a host of other features. "We want to take the stress and price-gouging out of the process of making funeral arrangements," he says. "There is a broad market in pre-need planning, with more than $50 billion currently collected and held in escrow for people who expect to live many more years." In other words, there are big bucks in the float.
At HeavenlyDoor, online obituaries cost $249 for the "everlasting package." An "online visit," which allows family and friends to make a "virtual visit" to a loved one's grave site, clocks in at the same price. Companies that wish to establish a "Web presence" on the site pay $1,295, plus a $200 monthly fee. But those companies are promised a 10 percent commission on every online obituary sold. Commission revenues to be paid to funeral homes are projected to grow from $361,350 in the first year (based on 1.5 percent of the market share) to $2,540,742 in the fifth (based on 9 percent market share).
HeavenlyDoor President Sonny Metichecchia, a third-generation funeral director, is enthusiastic when asked about the range of services envisioned by the company's executives: "We plan to have a service where people can visit grave sites online. On holidays, they can check in to see that flowers were placed correctly, to be certain that the headstone is cleaned in the winter." A message-board area is planned where mourners can post missives: "It's the private moment you wish you had back," Metichecchia explains.
An information packet put out primarily for the trade includes a letter from Metichecchia that spells out his strategy for growth: "While providing additional revenue centers and benefits to its subscribers, the HeavenlyDoor.com program will help drive industry revenues and profit margins into the 21st century at an escalated growth rate. ... It is my opinion that this innovative advertising and marketing concept is the most exciting revenue-producing opportunity for the death-care industry to come along in many years."
"We see this as an advertising vehicle for the industry," Metichecchia elaborates. "Our plan is to make it simple and inexpensive for [companies] to subscribe. Then the public can come in, click through and find package options, along with comparisons of prices and quality." Should the site actually do this in a comprehensive manner, it would be revolutionary in the industry, which is notorious for keeping pricing issues tucked far away.
Traditionally, people tend to call the local mortuary when the need arises and leave the arrangements largely in the hands of professionals in the community. There is still no established national brand; like florists and dry cleaners, funeral homes are usually local, independent businesses. When local funeral homes are bought out by one of the "big three," they typically keep longtime staff and the well-established name of the mortuary for this very reason.
"This is an industry that's done business pretty much the same way for the past 100 years," says Stuart Miller, president and founder of Plan4ever, an online funeral-services company based in Los Angeles. "Most of the funeral homes are still family-owned, so they rely on word-of-mouth or local advertising to reach their consumers. What we realize is that as geographic trends have changed for families and they no longer live in the same hometown, how would they know where to go if a loved one died?"
Launched with $550,000 in seed money, Plan4ever is now looking for more funding. With that initial investment, Plan4ever has put together a comprehensive Web site featuring what it calls Virtual Gardens, a searchable database of mortuaries and all sorts of other services. The company has purchased search keywords from portals such as Yahoo (YHOO) and AOL (AOL) ; searching for "funeral" or "obituary" produces a Plan4ever banner ad. The company places ads in funeral-industry magazines and uses direct mail and telemarketing to inform funeral directors of its service. Currently, its mortuary finder has 15,000 listings.
"When people think of death and dying issues, we want them to think of us," says Miller. "We're projecting a solid, profitable business by our third year." He presumes funding will come from several areas: the sale of wholly owned products like cards, placement in the "virtual garden," deals with affiliates like urn and casket manufacturers, and advertisements placed in the "buyer's guide" section of the site.
Beyond pointing the bereaved to affiliated funeral homes, the company is also testing the placement of a public computer terminal in a midsize Los Angeles mortuary. "This particular funeral home is very excited about it," enthuses Miller, whose background is in marketing and public relations. In the course of composing an obituary, the family can place an online memorial with Plan4ever on the spot.
A visit to Plan4ever's Virtual Gardens is more moving than one might expect; some people sign in frequently to send messages into the void. The late Jimbo, for example, is sorely missed by his friend Marc, who clearly finds comfort in making entries in the guest book. He writes: "My Dearest Jimbo, One year ago today you went into the hospital for the last time. So many memories of that day flood my mind but one thing remains constant. ... I love you still as much today as yesterday!" A few days later Marc checks in again: "I completed your Web page, Jimbo ... I hope you like it. I worked on it really hard and hope you don't mind. I even got in the story your Mom told me about how you learned to roller-skate! I miss you babe ... Love, Marc."
Elsewhere in the Virtual Gardens is an area devoted to celebrities, a feature that drives traffic to the site when someone prominent, such as John F. Kennedy Jr., dies. "We were able – much like a newspaper would – to respond immediately. We were one of the featured memorials on Yahoo," Miller recalls.
"Thousands and thousands of people came to view the JFK memorial, the Carolyn Bessette memorial, the Lauren memorial," Miller says. "We were in touch with the family members to find out what they wanted. Did they want gifts sent, did they want flowers, did they want cards? With one click, a visitor to our site could send a sympathy card that would be personalized." Cards cost $4.95, and placing an online memorial costs $9.95 for a year or $59.95 "forever."
"We have our own wholly owned products, like the card section and the Virtual Garden; then we have another level that we call our affiliates," says Miller. Affiliates are companies such as Discount Urns, Email4Flowers and Dennison Monuments that Plan4ever recommends to customers; presumably each affiliate arranges to be the exclusive provider of flowers, urns or headstones in prominently featured sections of the site. The buyer's guide is an area where advertisers are lumped together in one listing; here one finds links to companies like TreeGivers ("Plant a tree for your special person today") and Celestics ("Launch one's cremated remains into space"). "We want to do it in a very tasteful, consumer-friendly way," says Miller. "I don't think anybody wants to see banner ads with a casket popping open."
Beyond services like Plan4ever and HeavenlyDoor, which basically take the trappings of modern-day American funerals and transport them to the Web, some companies are taking a more creative approach to marketing death services online.
Those looking to keep things simple and inexpensive can find bargains, ideas and even casket blueprints easily enough by surfing the Web. Budget Casket Superstores of Texas promises "an alternative to high markups at funeral homes," but requires those interested to contact a salesperson to get a price list for coffins and urns. An extensive online catalog of products – complete with photos – can be found at Affordable Caskets' online home, but again, the prices aren't listed. This trend against spelling out the bottom line makes comparison shopping difficult, unlike an excursion to find the best online price for, say, a book or gift item. More forthcoming is Richard Johnstone, who offers visitors plans to build their own casket for $19.50 at his Web site, which has the straightforward name Homemade Casket Plans. He points out that the casket can "double as fine furniture until needed."
Others interested in something more flamboyant can have their final resting place custom-made. Dallas-based WhiteLight offers a bevy of options for its "Art Caskets," ranging from the "Return to Sender" model – which looks like a trampled UPS package – to ones with airbrushed images like the crosses on Calgary and a giant AIDS ribbon. Tasmania's Final Indulgence will construct a sarcophagus to order. The ecologically minded may opt for "green burial," offered through a British company, which sells what's basically a coffin-size cardboard box that can be assembled in less than 10 minutes and is shipped in flat-pack form for easy storage.
New Zealand's Lives Less Ordinary, founded a year ago by journalist Barb Sumner, has helped a few hundred clients plan funerals with a personal touch. The online business promises planning and consultancy for unique final arrangements. Its domain name alone provides a clue that this is indeed something different – www.funeralstodiefor.com.
"I find people are as individual in life as they are in death," Sumner explains. "They want such things as 'fairy funerals,' with their best wine handed out at the door or the opportunity for everyone to sign the coffin." She doesn't expect her service to supplant the need for funeral directors. "People need people, and they need them especially in times of trauma – so my service will always be just an additional product to assist those planning funerals for their loved ones."