Abstract: An electronic pre-shopping system and method, that provides the consumer the option of pre-shopping for a gift item from any on-line retail outlet. The system and method provides consumer capability of accessing a retail outlet website, selecting a gift item, selectively extracting the gift item product information, associating the gift item with a future special occasion of a recipient of the gift item, storing the product information along with the recipient special occasion information into a database, securing payment for the item, and delivering the gift item to the recipient within the proscribed time period required for the special occasion. The system further provides the consumer with the option of paying for the gift item immediately or at a predetermined date in the future. The user interface further provides the capability of pre-shopping for an item from any online retail store through a software proxy process.

Abstract: An electronic pre-shopping system and method, for an on-line retail outlet and/or an electronic portal to various online retail outlets is provided. The system and method provides the consumer the option of pre-shopping for a gift item from an on-line retail outlet. The system and method provides the consumer the capability of accessing the retail outlet website, selecting a gift item from the website, selectively extracting from a website page the gift item product retail information, associating the gift item with future special occasion of a recipient of the gift item, storing the gift item product information along with the recipient special occasion information into a database, securing payment for the gift item, and delivering the gift item to the recipient within the time period required for the special occasion. The system further provides the consumer the with a user interface that provides the consumer the option of paying for the gift item immediately or at a predetermine date in the future.