1. In an on-line retail environment for management of sale and delivery of items to consumers, a method to facilitate real-time, on-line access to contracts between consumers and retailers for deliverable items at the time of delivery to the consumers comprising: generating, by an electronic contract service system, an electronic contract expressing terms for a transaction between a consumer and a retailer for purchase of a deliverable item, the generating including assigning a contract identifier to the electronic contract and preparing the electronic contract for electronic signatures via electronic signing functionality of the electronic contract service system; obtaining by the electronic contract service system an item identifier that is uniquely associated with the deliverable item; linking by the electronic contract service system the electronic contract to the item identifier for the deliverable item by creating and storing a data record that forms an association between the item identifier and the contract identifier; responsive to receiving a request from a client device: communicating data by the electronic contract service system to cause display of a user interface at the client device, the user interface operable to look-up electronic contracts available from the electronic contract service system using item identifiers as references; receiving the item identifier input via the user interface to initiate a look-up of the electronic contract; accessing the data record responsive to receiving the item identifier to retrieve the associated electronic contract; and communicating the electronic contract as a response to the request for display by the client device via the user interface to enable viewing of the terms of the electronic contract and electronic signing.