Will Post-Death Consumerism Eventually Become a Retail Opportunity? [Video]

With artificial intelligence offering the potential, 47% of global consumers are interested in the ability to shop after they’ve passed away, according to VML’s “Future Shopper Report 2024” study.

The study introduces “post-death consumerism,” which the creative agency VML describes as the concept of training an AI to “learn” a person’s financial and shopping habits while they are alive so that it can control a digital estate and make purchase decisions once that person has passed on. VML wrote in its study, “You could imagine, for example, continuing to pay for the grandkids’ education or sending a birthday gift, even after death.”

The study, based on a survey of 31,500 consumers across 20 countries, found that in some markets such as India and UAE, close to 70% of respondents were interested in the ability to “purchase from beyond the grave.” In the U.S., 36% of respondents were interested.

One interesting finding was that the older …