Yesterday, Mr. Josefowicz described electronic retailing as "another channel opportunity for retailers."

No one expects that kind of electronic retailing to last long.

But what is trickiest about electronic retailing is learning how consumers shop on line - almost the polar opposite of how they shop in a store.

Both companies said yesterday that the alliance was not an exclusive partnership and that Microsoft would not have a financial interest in Wal-Mart's electronic retailing.

"I think electronic retailing is heating up right now," she said.

"However, electronic retailing, H.S.N.'s core business, remains profitable on a fundamental basis."

The mission of the program is to enhance consumer confidence in electronic retailing, by providing a forum to self-regulate direct response advertising.

Or maybe Congress will figure out how to impose sales taxes on Internet purchases, slowing the growth of electronic retailing.

An Expensive Experiment But Catalog 1 and several other shopping channels being introduced this year must also prove that high-end electronic retailing is cost effective.

But demographic and technological trends seem likely to make electronic retailing - e-tailing - a truly mass market.