US retail giant, Amazon will allow its users to return Amazon-derived gifts before the order has been shipped. The company has received a patent for an automated system that will allow gift exchange.

The site will soon feature an automated program that allows recipients to return items bought from the site even prior to being shipped. The system has been named as a “gift conversion” system in the patent application and let users set rules for gifts.

The application says that a user can set a rule that automatically converts "all gifts from Aunt Mildred" into gift certificates as "the user believes that this potential sender has different tastes than the user."

The system will send a thank-you card for the original gifts even if the receiver has converted them into gift certificates. The system is simple for users but observers point out that it could millions of dollar of shipping costs for online retailers like Amazon.

The company had filed an application for the patent with the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2006 and received approval in November 2010.