In the Qingming Festival, the wind is clear and the scenery is bright, and all things grow. It is also a day for people to cherish the memory of their ancestors.
When the epidemic situation locked the feet of travel, network sweeping, Valet sweeping and other services became the “just need” of Qingming sweeping services. Therefore, all cemeteries launched various cloud sweeping, Valet sweeping and other services, which also prompted the funeral industry to accelerate the digital development of the Internet.
At the same time, with the increase of market demand, some second-hand websites also have paid services for private sweep. In addition to providing regular tomb sweeping and saluting, such businesses also said that they provided flavored services such as “code name crying” and “generation chat”, which were not only asking for prices casually, but also difficult to guarantee the actual implementation.
great increase in orders for sacrifice and sweeping
“Since the outbreak of this round of epidemic, due to the shortage of personnel, there have been a large number of orders for sacrificial sweeping. In addition to the customer service staff without isolation, other employees of the cemetery and even the management have joined. Because the sacrificial sweeping family takes about 10-15 minutes, at the busiest time, there are 33 groups, a total of more than 60 employees, who deal with the sacrificial sweeping business at the same time.” Sun Yi, assistant general manager of Shanghai Fushouyuan, told the first financial reporter.
According to Sun Yi, Shanghai Fushou Garden opened the business of memorial sweeping around 2007. At that time, it was mainly for the convenience of long-term overseas guests and the elderly with mobility difficulties to help them sweep on their behalf. Usually, the customer service personnel are responsible for the business of sacrificial sweeping on behalf of the company, but in the event of a sharp increase in the number of orders due to the epidemic, the company’s employees and management have also joined the business of sacrificial sweeping on behalf of the company after training. During the Qingming Festival in 2020 (from mid March to early April), the number of orders for sacrifice and sweeping in Shanghai Qingpu Fushou garden reached 2800, while it fell back to more than 300 in 2021.
“Since the middle of March this year, Shanghai Qingpu Fushou garden has received more than 2000 single generation visits. As of April 3, more than 1200 orders have been completed. The remaining 700 orders will be completed after the cemetery is opened. At present, the number of orders is still growing.” Sun Yi said.
First financial reporter understands that, besides Shanghai Fu Shou garden, the cemetery in various areas of Suzhou, Chongqing, Shaanxi Xi’an, Guizhou Zunyi, Guangdong Shunde and other countries in Jiangsu, Suzhou has launched the appointment reservation business on the platform of the official account of the public. Suzhou Xukou Xiangshan mausoleum culture Valet sweep page shows that the current total number of bookings reached 1165 people. In terms of price, the cemetery opened four packages, ranging from 88 yuan to more than 300 yuan.
The package of each cemetery’s valet sacrifice and sweeping is roughly divided into three links: Net sweeping, offering and sacrifice. The corresponding price is set according to the complexity of each link. For example, the 35 yuan package of Qingpu Fushou garden includes 5 chrysanthemums, three bows by a etiquette staff, and one photo. The 188 yuan package adds wiping tombstones, middle bouquets of flowers, lighting incense candles, shooting the whole monument, etc. 288 yuan is a big bunch of flowers. The 680 yuan package for a cemetery in Suzhou also includes playing blessing music, decorating silk flowers, placing multiple fruit cakes, reciting sacrifices and so on.
Internet digitization is the trend
It is also due to the impact of the epidemic that the funeral industry has accelerated the development of the Internet.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs recently said that the opening of funeral service institutions to sweep services in medium and high-risk areas should be suspended, but efforts should be made to open up online sweep, guest sweep and other channels to meet the needs of the masses; For low-risk areas or areas where there is no epidemic situation, the combination of appointment diversion, time-division sweeping and Wuxi Online Offline Communication Information Technology Co.Ltd(300959) shall be adopted to meet the normal sweeping needs of the masses.
First financial reporter learned that some cemetery launched online commemoration, remote farewell, Valet implementation and other innovative measures to solve the space obstacles caused by epidemic isolation. For example, recently, Shanghai fushouyun Life Information Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Fushouyuan International Group, officially launched the “digital intelligence cemetery · Huixin Valley” project. This is another digital integrated service facility following the polishing of the platform foundation of “cloud sacrifice and sweeping”, “cloud blessing” and “cloud Memorial”. Huixin Valley project is located in Shanghai Fushouyuan cultural Memorial Park, which is innovatively designed by Tianquan Jiajing design agency of Fushouyuan international group. Reduce the amount of “buried” with the concept of intensification and ecology. The first batch of products of the project include “digital cemetery 1.0”, digital ritual burial, digital ritual sacrifice and “cloud Memorial 3.2”.
The industry believes that in addition to digital cloud services, some cemeteries have also launched digital souvenirs. On the one hand, these measures of Internet digitization reduce people’s offline contact, which is conducive to epidemic prevention and control; On the other hand, it can promote the funeral industry to be more environmentally friendly. Previously, many cemeteries have launched flower burial, water burial and other land-saving burial. Now, with the launch of digital cemetery, it can better promote the development of environmental protection and land-saving. “Internet plus entity” has become a deepening integration mode to help transform traditional funeral industry.
don’t let the memorial taste bad
Although it has become a trend to sacrifice and sweep on behalf of others and cloud sacrifice and sweep, there are also some businesses with changed taste.
According to the reporter, many private tomb sweeping commodity pages are displayed on a second-hand website. In addition to cleaning tombstones, offering flowers and fruits, most of these businesses also provide customized projects such as crying, singing, kowtowing, and even burning paper. These so-called customized projects increase the price by hundreds of yuan or thousands of yuan.
A merchant located in Shanxi said: “the agency service is privately customized for 1000 yuan, which can pour wine, chat and cry on behalf of others”.
The first financial reporter consulted a businessman in Nantong, Jiangsu Province on the website. He said that the regular charge for sacrificial sweeping is 800 yuan, and the charge for crying is 400 yuan. In the reporter’s further inquiry, the other party said that they could pay a part of the deposit in advance, the on-site video during tomb sweeping, and then pay the balance after the end.
In addition to random price increases, it is difficult to ensure the implementation of private memorial sweeping. Sichuan Provincial Consumer Council recently suggested that in recent years, there have been tomb sweeping services such as tomb sweeping, burning paper money and even crying on behalf of customers. However, there are cases where “Tomb Sweeping” people make random quotations and charge a lot of fees, but they don’t go to the tomb sweeping. They just cheat consumers by switching to other scenes through wechat live broadcast.
Lawyer LAN Tianbin, partner of Jiangsu fade Dongheng law firm, said that the act of private tomb sweeping belongs to a paid entrustment contract in civil law. Both parties should clearly agree on the service content and liability for breach of contract in the contract, so as to reduce disputes.
\u3000\u3000 “If there are fake on-site photos, fake videos and a series of non performance, consumers can complain and report to the consumer association or the market supervision and administration department, or sue the court for an apology, refund of repayment, etc. if the merchant does not sweep the tomb on behalf of the tomb, but forges the on-site video photos of the tomb sweeping on a large scale, fabricates the facts and conceals the truth, so as to defraud consumers of their property, involving a large amount of money, Then it may also be suspected of fraud. Consumers can call the police and request the public security organ to file a criminal case and investigate criminal responsibility. ” LAN Tianbin said.
