When it comes right down to it, the role of a funeral professional is to help support families during their time of loss. We do this personally, by helping to plan a beautiful service that is reflective of the life that they are celebrating. And we do it second-hand, by helping connect friends and families with tools and resources that will help them better support those who are facing a time of loss.

One valuable way that funeral professionals can help friends and family show their support is by offering them a way to send sympathy flowers and gifts, without making them jump through hoops, like looking up local florists in the area, or trying to figure out where they should send an arrangement. An e-commerce store that lives on your funeral home website is a great resource that not only benefits the families you serve, but also makes life easier for your funeral home, as well.

If you’re still on the fence about setting up your own e-commerce store, or you’re looking for help narrowing down what separates a valuable e-commerce store from the average, the following six benefits should serve as your guiding light:

1. Seamlessly Connect Families and Friends to Local Florists

Setting up an e-commerce store associated with your funeral home can connect even the most distant and out-of-town family member or friend to their loved ones in need of support.

The best e-commerce stores should allow you to order hand-delivered arrangements from local florists in your area, and showcase their delicately arranged flowers and bouquets via high quality photos and detailed product descriptions. With special delivery requests and additional ribbon add-ons prior to check out, an e-commerce sympathy store should make it easier than ever before for your friends and family to comfort their loved ones in an appropriate and timely way.

2. Give Family and Friends the Convenience of Shopping from Home

This is one of the more obvious benefits of opening an e-commerce store on behalf of your funeral home: bestowing your community of family and friends with the immediate convenience of shopping from home.         

According to a Pew Research Survey of U.S adults, “eight-in-ten Americans are now online shoppers: 79% have made an online purchase of any type, while 51% have bought something using a cellphone and 15% have made purchases by following a link from social media sites.”

The numbers don’t lie. The future of shopping is e-commerce and the majority of your families and friends already want to shop online. The aforementioned survey even stresses the extent to which online shoppers check for online reviews before making purchasing decisions as “roughly eight-in-ten Americans (82%) say they consult online ratings and reviews when buying something for the first time.”

3. Offer Gifts that Convey Sympathy and Support

In the words of John Lennon, “love is the flower you’ve got to let grow.” And as it turns out, his poetic words couldn’t be truer. That’s because flowers and gifts have been scientifically proven to immediately impact a person’s mood in a positive way, so to help them along their healing process long after the flowers have been delivered.

According to a research article published in the Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, the act of giving flowers can be seen as a successful environmental approach to eliciting positive emotion. For example, one study tested whether or not participants scored higher on their memory assessments and mood evaluations after being given flowers or booklets as gifts. “As expected, the participants who had received flowers had significantly more positive moods … than participants who had not yet received flowers.”

Countless other researchers have determined the powerful emotional healing effect of giving flowers. And contrary to cultural expectation, both men and women are more likely to smile, stand at a more intimate social distance and initiate conversation after being presented with flowers.  According to a series of social behavior studies, both men and women were more likely to respond with more intimate and social behaviors when receiving flowers versus receiving other gifted items like inscribed pens.

4. Make Sending Gifts Simple and Appropriate

Let’s face it: the easier it is to purchase flowers and gifts from an e-commerce shop, the more sales you will receive. We already know the value of offering a selection of flower bouquets to your families and friends, but if you can also make your online process seamless, then you can further reduce their stress and maximize their potential for positive psychological states during stressful times. When it comes to your funeral e-commerce store, the more efficient it runs, the easier it is for your friends and family to purchase appropriate gifts and elegant bouquets of flowers.

A well-developed sympathy store with easy to read “buy now” buttons will stand out to your visitors while making it effortless to purchase gifts without having to sign up for an account or take various steps to purchase an item. A great e-commerce store should also post a calendar of events, funeral times and other information associated with a loved one’s service.

5. Include Reviews and Social Sharing to Establish Trust

One of the most surprising benefits that funeral professionals often overlook when it comes to determining whether or not they want to integrate an e-commerce sympathy store on their funeral home website is the additional revenue that a positive user experience can generate – especially since you’re simply doing the same thing you have always been doing. (Connecting families with great local florists in your community.) Now you’re just making it even easier for them.

Positive reviews can yield 2-3x as many online orders for your firm. The idea is that easy to read signs, simple to use social sharing buttons, glowing family and friend reviews and an incredibly user friendly e-commerce shop is more likely to evoke trustworthiness in your visitors. Similar to traditional brick and mortar shops that staff their stores with loyal salespeople to answer their guest’s questions while decorating their space with informational signs, these online features communicate professionalism and reliability to every one of your visitors.

6. Bring Additional Revenue Into Your Funeral Home, Big or Small

Let it be known: funeral e-commerce is not just effective for large funeral homes and florists. Family-owned funeral homes can also benefit from establishing their own e-commerce presence.

By using effective sharing tactics like social media buttons that families can use to show their support, as well as including mobile and social memorial websites to attract visitors to your store, as with The Sympathy Store, you can be sure your e-commerce store will be a raving success.

Give Your Families The Gift of Support

Now that you know just how powerful of a tool the right e-commerce store can be for your families and your community (not to mention the advantages it can bring to your funeral home), isn’t it time you got in on all the benefits?

Click here to talk to one our funeral success specialists to learn more about how our Sympathy Store plugin can work for your funeral home and give the gift of support to your families.

Rochelle Rietow

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