Method and system to facilitate pre-ordering via an electronic commerce facility, and to automatically facilitate satisfying of a pre-order upon listing of an appropriate offer via the electronic commerce facility

Abstract

A method to facilitate pre-ordering of an offering via a network-based transaction facility includes, responsive to user identification of an offering, communicating offering information to the user regarding the offering. In conjunction with the offering information, a selectable option is communicated to the user to pre-order the offering by specifying pre-order attribute information. Following selection the pre-order option by a user and provision of the pre-order attribute information, a pre-order relating to an item is recorded at the transaction facility. The pre-order specifies a plurality of pre-order attributes. An offer to sell the item is received at the transaction facility, the offer specifying a plurality of offer attributes. A matching operation is automatically performed to detect a correspondence between the pre-order and the offer. The matching operation utilizes at least one pre-order attribute of the pre-order attributes and at least one offer attribute of the offer attributes to detect the correspondence. Responsive to a detection of the correspondence by the matching operation, a transaction facilitating operation is automatically performed to facilitate establishment of a transaction whereby the pre-order is satisfied by the offer to sell the item.