Pretail (also referred to as pre-tail, pre-retail, pre-launch, or pre-commerce) is a sub-category of e-commerce and online retail for introducing new products, services, and brands to market by pre-launching online, from creating an interest waitlist of signups before launch to collecting reservations or pre-orders in limited quantity before release, realization, or commercial availability. Pretail allows new product ideas/prototypes to be mass produced only when they have reached an initial threshold of buy-in from investors/consumers.  Pretail includes pre-sale commerce, pre-order retailers, pre-launch marketing services, incubation marketplaces, crowdfunding communities, and demand chain management systems.

Pretail results in marketing efficiency, margin efficiency (cutting down on the middlemen like physical retailers or distributors), and product efficiency (getting direct feedback from potential customers fosters innovation and eliminates guesswork).

Retailers today are increasingly pretailing to test, promote, and monetize consumer demand in the initial phase of the new commerce pipeline as first introduced in a 2012 Forbes article. Some examples are: Tesla’s model 3 pre-order or VR gaming headset Oculus Rift funded through Kickstarter. Consumers engaging in pretail are known as an early adopter, fan, backer, supporter, or presumer (pre-launch consumer).

Pretail demand is growing in consumer retail: electronics, movies, music, video games, books, fashion, software apps, connected devices, cars, toys, cosmetics, art, events, etc. This trend is being driven by companies to enhance new product development, better organize product releases, lower market risk, and increase early fan adoption. Large companies such as Amazon and Apple are pre-tailing new products to measure demand, manage supply chain market dynamics, and monetize fandom anticipation.

Entrepreneurs and small companies are embracing crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo before product realization to fund manufacturing, test product-market fit, test market demand, pricing and take pre-orders to build a demand and fandom community. Consumer involvement with products and services pre-launch is becoming mainstream according to industry experts on consumer behavior trends.

Pretail is related to a wide variety of business areas: from product innovation (concept & ideation) and supply chain management to marketing and sales. The aim of pretail is to build customer awareness and get sufficient financing to start product development. Pretail is future-oriented and is usually implemented using crowdfunding platforms, controlled media channels, mass media, and social networks.

The tendency of consumers to increasingly value the experience associated with a process of purchasing gives rise to experiential buying - creating a memorable buying experience. Pretail provides a sense of belongingness that customers perceive as important. Crowdfunding platforms make consumers feel that they are part of a community that consists of people who are interested in the particular product or service. Consumers thus consider the product as "the first", "the newest", "the one that I helped launch". Pretail is gaining popularity as it satisfies the demand for novel products which are of high consumers` interest nowadays.

Pretail allows innovators to test their product-market fit with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) equivalent. Thanks to pretailing risks associated with launching a product - financing and manufacturing are thus reduced. In addition to this, more people can invest in the project or participate to the project as salesmen. By testing the demand for the project entrepreneurs can lower perceived and actual risks associated with launching a product and starting a company. By using pretail model companies can match supply and demand trends before they actually start producing a product. It is the framework that serves for connecting increasingly demanding consumers and entrepreneurs. However, using pretail model for launching does not guarantee success of the product or enterprise, not all pretailers become e-tailers. Some services and products never take off, while others receive strong indications of market demand, receive large volumes of pre-orders, and raise the capital needed for starting manufacturing. Those kinds of services or products are the ones that succeed to become e-tailers.