Wal-Mart offers discounted caskets on website

The move by the retail giant may stand to benefit those who have to worry about high funeral costs for a loved one while also dealing with debt counseling.

Following the announcement, the website for the retail store posted 14 different caskets ranging from the $895 White Haven Steel Casket to the $2,899 Sienna Bronze model. Additionally, a number of urns were also posted for sale on the site, with the most expensive one topping out at $242.50.

"Several online retailers offer this category on their sites," said WalMart.com spokesman Ravi Jariwala of the casket and urn sales, according to the Associated Press. "We are simply conducting a limited beta test to understand customer response."

While the prices for caskets sold at a funeral home can be much more expensive, sometimes costing in excess of $5,000, National Funeral Home Directors Association president Pat Lynch felt that consumers would not be deterred by high costs in order to get the "human contact" of a funeral home, the AP reported.

The funeral service industry currently brings in about $11 billion in revenue every year with the current U.S. death rate at 8.0 per thousand, according to Reuters. However, the industry may see an increase as the death rate is expected to rise to 9.3 per thousand by 2020.