affiliate marketing

In electronic commerce, means of achieving greater market penetration through websites who target specific groups of internet users. For example, Amazon.com (which sells books, electronics, pharmaceuticals, toys, and many other items) has thousands of affiliated interest specific websites from where the visitors can reach products offered by Amazon. The entire sales transaction takes place at Amazon's website which is equipped to handle the complete online payment acceptance process. Amazon passes on a percentage of the sold item's price as commission to the affiliate website from where the sale originated. See also affiliate model.