Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems and methods for electronic gifting. In an exemplary gift purchasing method, a control system receives from a purchasing system a gift purchase request that includes a mobile telephone number (or other unique telephonic identifier) associated with a wireless gift recipient system, sends to a payment authorization system a payment authorization request, receives a payment authorization, and notifies the wireless gift recipient system of an electronic gift certificate. In an exemplary gift redemption method, the control system receives a gift redemption request for goods/services from a point-of-sale (POS) system, sends an authentication request addressed to the wireless gift recipient system by way of text message or other format, receives an authentication confirmation originating from the wireless gift recipient, and sends a redemption authorization to the vendor POS system.