NEW YORK (AP) -- The king of online sales of books, DVDs and many other items now wants to be the place to shop for new jeans and sweaters.

Amazon.com is expected to launch an apparel store as early as this week, in partnership with more than a dozen companies, including Eddie Bauer, Nordstrom, Gap and Old Navy, according to a source familiar with the venture.

The move comes at a time of increasingly strong growth for online apparel, one of the biggest categories in e-commerce. And it's occurring as two behemoth retailers _ Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Kmart Corp. _ are looking to bring back apparel on their Web sites.

Kmart.com in recent months has begun selling some exclusive clothing brands such as Sesame Street, Walt Disney and Joe Boxer. Wal-Mart said it will be bundling apparel with other items to sell online, but declined to give a date for the relaunch.

Amazon.com's $3.1 billion in sales last year easily topped all other Web sites, but the concept of buying a shirt or a skirt from them may require some selling itself to consumers.

"I don't think I would go to the site just to buy clothing," said Kristen Collins of Newton, Mass., who regularly shops at Jcrew.com and bananarepublic.com.

But Amazon.com might entice her to buy clothing _ if it offered a bargain, she said.

Amazon spokesman Bill Curry declined to comment on the new venture, but according to sources, it would be similar to the other retail partnerships the online merchant has already formed with stores such as Circuit City Stores Inc., Target Corp. and Office Depot Inc.

In those arrangements, Amazon.com serves as a sales channel, with its partners owning the inventory and responsible for packing and shipping.

What kind of commission Amazon would receive in the new partnerships remains a secret. The sources said only that the company was seeking a three-year deal with each partner.

Clothing was once considered among the weaker categories of online merchandise, but has been gaining more appeal with consumers like Johanna Schlossberg of New York.

Two years ago, Schlossberg was nervous about buying clothing on the Web. "I had all these concerns. Will the clothes fit? Is it going to look like the picture on the screen?" she said.

Now, the 28-year-old media planner estimates she makes about half of her clothing purchases online. "The sites are getting better," she said.

A slew of merchants, particularly catalog retailers, have been improving their sites to make them more shopper-friendly. They're also aiming to help consumers find the best fit.

Last year, J.Crew Inc. and Spiegel Inc. tested zoom technology on their Web sites, allowing potential customers to magnify the image of clothing and see details of tailoring and fabric. Now they've expanded the service to include many of their items for holiday.

Limited Inc., Lane Bryant Inc. and Lands' End Inc., among others, have added "virtual models" to their sites, enabling customers to create a three-dimensional figure of themselves online. Shoppers can then virtually try the clothes on.

Lands' End, the largest online apparel seller and one of the first to sell clothing on the Web back in 1995, has made a big splash with its latest technology _ online customization. Lands' End started with chinos a year ago and then added jeans. Within the next few days, it will be offering customers the ability to customize men's shirts and tailored pants, according to Bill Bass, senior vice president of e-commerce.

Sales of online clothing, including footwear and accessories, is expected to climb from $4.2 billion in 2001 to $5.2 billion this year, according to Forrester Research of Cambridge, Mass. By 2007, they should reach $22.5 billion.

Despite such healthy growth, Amazon.com's venture is not seen as a sure thing.

"A lot will depend on execution," said Kate Delhagen, an analyst at Forrester. "It will depend on having great brands, offering discount incentives and product pages" that offer good graphics.

Not every company is rushing to partner with Amazon. An executive at one company, who asked not to be identified by name or firm, said it had decided not to sign an agreement yet.

The company was worried that Amazon's reputation for selling CD's and other such commodities would keep clothing buyers away. It also was worried about Amazon.com's practice of encouraging customers to rate items they purchase. He said his company liked to control information about products. B4