Germany's undertakers plan to liven up their business by launching an e-commerce website to cut the costs of death.

A new venture by the Duesseldorf-based Federation of German Undertakers aims to bring online suppliers of everything from formaldehyde to flowers to curb prices of embalming, coffins and funerals.

It could eventually spawn an online burial booking service as pioneered by US site www.MyFuneralPlan.com, which for $20 (€20.5) offers to help guide the bereaved through a perplexing range of choices before consigning loved ones to the afterlife.