E-mail based gift delivery

A method enabling a first party to purchase a gift and to deliver the gift to a second party, the method comprising:

• providing a retailer website supported by a retailer computer, which is part of a retailer system, that enables the first party, using a computer and a browser, to peruse and select a gift from an on-line catalog, the retailer website being accessible via a communications network, and the retailer computer including a delivery module;
• the delivery module receiving an e-mail address of the second party or a pseudonym of the second party at the retailer computer, wherein the e-mail address of the second party or the pseudonym of the second party is provided by the first party accessing the retailer website via the communications network and the computer associated with the first party, wherein the first party does not have information of a street level portion of one or more shipping addresses of the second party;
• using the delivery module of the retailer computer to procure a shipping address associated with the e-mail address or the pseudonym including searching one or more databases based on the e-mail address or the pseudonym and procuring a shipping address and maintaining anonymity of a street level portion of the procured shipping address to the first party;
• the delivery module querying the first party regarding whether the first party knows an identification of at least one of a city and a state of the second party;
• the delivery module receiving the identification of the at least one of the city and the state of the second party from the first party, wherein receiving the identification occurs in response to the querying;
• and
• the delivery module comparing the identification of the at least one of the city and the state to the procured shipping address;
• the delivery module notifying the first party regarding whether the procured shipping address matches the identification of the at least one of the city and the state provided by the first party;
• shipping the gift to the procured shipping address, wherein the retailer system performs the step of shipping the gift;
• wherein all of receiving identification, comparing the identification, notifying the first party, and shipping the gift are all performed while maintaining anonymity of the street level portion of the procured shipping address.