• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, October 30, 2024

Here’s a spooky thought: 47% of consumers surveyed globally are interested in the ability to shop beyond the grave, with some markets, like India and UAE, closer to 70%.

In a new shopper report, WPP’s agency VML calls the trend “post-death consumerism,” which would be achieved by training some form of artificial intelligence to learn a “person’s financial and shopping habits while they are alive,” so that it could “carry on controlling a digital estate and making purchase decisions once that person has passed on.”

You could imagine, for example, continuing to pay for the grandkids’ education or sending a birthday gift, even after death. Happy Birthday, from your dead grandfather. Yeah, kind of spooky. Of course you could also do that by way of provisions in your will. But what fun is that, when AI could, um, simplify things. That’s what AI is about, right?

“Each year we are surprised by the percentage of global consumers who are interested in shopping from beyond the grave,” the VML shopper report states. “Whilst the notion has been typically framed around the idea of being able to support and purchase for loved ones after one’s passing, it’s interesting to note that the older the consumer, the less interested they appear to be.”

The top-five countries expressing the most interest in this trend: Thailand, India, UAE, Saudi Arabia and China. The U.S. was 14^th with 36% expressing interest, down from 50% two years ago. Globally, interest is up two percentage points versus a year ago.

The full report can be accessed here.