STAMFORD, Conn., March 7, 2001  -- Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) has launched a new e-business initiative designed to direct more Web-cruising customers to www.xerox.com and increase Xerox's online sales. The initiative, called the Xerox eBusiness Partner Affiliate Program, compensates the owners of business Web sites that provide direct buttons or links to www.xerox.com. Each affiliated partner site that participates will receive a 1 percent to 4 percent cash commission if a customer who visits their site clicks on the xerox.com link and subsequently purchases a selected Xerox product. "The program makes it easier for untold numbers of potential new customers to get right to the Xerox products they want from thousands of different online locations. It's part of Xerox's strategy to expand its online reach," said Andrei Hall, director, Xerox e-Marketing. "In addition, because partner sites are paid only when Xerox receives a sale, this program is an extremely cost-efficient sales and marketing tool." Pioneered by Amazon.com in 1996, "affiliate" or "performance" marketing channels represent an online advertising trend toward more cooperative, performance-based relationships. Such programs are projected to drive 21 percent of all online revenues in the United States by 2003, according to Forrester Research Inc. Xerox's eBusiness Partner Affiliate Program provides Web partners with exclusive creative icons and graphics, marketing tools and sales information aimed at improving loyalty to their Web sites while also driving sales on xerox.com. Registering for the program is free, easy and fast. Currently, partners can earn commissions for sales of selected Xerox office products, such as copiers and workgroup fax machines (1 percent) and selected Xerox supplies, such as paper and compatible toner cartridges (4 percent). Other products will be added to the partner portfolio over the coming months.