Under the agreement, Hilo Hattie will have a virtual storefront on Amazon.com starting June 15. In return, Amazon will receive an undisclosed percentage of sales from the site. Amazon will operate the site, and Hilo Hattie will ship direct to purchasers.

Launched in late October with national retailers offering 400 brands, Amazon's apparel/accessories "store" has expanded to more than 800 brands. It is the fastest-growing business segment for the Seattle-based virtual merchant, with $3.9 billion in revenue last year.

In the first few days of operation, the "store" sold 140 swimsuits, 485 skirts, 1,870 pairs of socks and 2,805 accessories such as watches, handbags and scarves. In the first 60 days, Amazon reported selling 153,000 shirts, 106,000 pairs of pants and 31,000 pairs of underwear.

"Hilo Hattie would just like to have a piece of that," said Brent Potter, director of new business for Hilo Hattie, which doesn't sell underwear but will concentrate on retailing aloha attire and jewelry through Amazon.com.

"We think the Amazon campaign is really going to help us reach new markets in terms of customers who may not know of Hilo Hattie but know Amazon.com," Potter said. "There is no investment that we made other than time and energy. If it works, it's fantastic. If it doesn't, nothing ventured nothing gained. But we are confident it is going to do well."

The Amazon alliance is part of a broader Hilo Hattie campaign to boost exposure that includes promotional plugs by nationally syndicated conservative talk-radio host Mike Gallagher as well as ongoing efforts to increase the number of hilohattie.com links now on 11,000 other Web sites.

Hilo Hattie, which operates 13 brick-and-mortar stores, including five on the Mainland, launched hilohattie.com in 1996 and has grown annual online sales from $35,000 to more than $1 million.

The number of online sales transactions totaled 23,000 last year and is projected to reach 37,000 transactions this year.

Potter said he isn't sure how many more online sales Hilo Hattie expects to gain from the Amazon relationship, but the company projects a 60 percent increase this year after a 30 percent rise last year.

Amazon officials did not respond to calls for comment yesterday, but company founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos said in a statement announcing the "store" last year that the goal was to provide a complete apparel selection "the Amazon way."

"This is now the easiest way for Amazon.com's tens of millions of visitors a month to find and buy apparel and accessories," he said.

Paul deVille, president and chief executive officer of Hilo Hattie, said the Amazon deal is a "fantastic" opportunity to showcase Hawaiian fashions and products to the world.

Other retailers on the Amazon .com apparel and accessories "store" include Eddie Bauer, Spiegel, Old Navy, IZOD, WNBA Store, Urban Outfitters, Babies "R" Us and Lands' End.