inner circle terms

Effective Date: August 31, 2026  ·  Last Updated: August 31, 2026

These Inner Circle Terms describe how the Inner Circle works: what it costs, when it renews, how to cancel, and what happens if a payment fails. Please read them before joining. They are incorporated into our Terms and Conditions by reference, and the Refund Policy applies to purchases made at a member price.

In these Terms, “the Inner Circle” means the paid, automatically renewing membership described below, and “member” means an account holder whose Inner Circle is active.

1. What the Inner Circle Is

The Inner Circle is a paid membership that changes what you pay. It does not change what we sell, how a lot is tested, or what is published for it.

An active Inner Circle gives you:

• 20% off catalog prices, applied automatically once you are signed in. There is no code to enter.
• Standard shipping included from a lower order threshold than the public one.
• Rewards points at 5 points per $1 of product spend, rather than the public 1 point (section 3.2).
• A member reference that stays yours.
• Early notice when a lot is returning, before it is listed publicly.

Member pricing follows your account, not a code. If a public price is ever lower than your member price, you pay the lower of the two, compared line by line.

2. What You Are Charged, and When

The Inner Circle is offered on a monthly or an annual term. The price of each is shown wherever it is offered, and the price shown to you at the moment you join is the price you agree to pay. It does not change unless we give you notice under section 8.

This is an automatically renewing subscription. Your card is charged once at the start of each period and again at the start of every period after it, until you cancel.

The Inner Circle fee is charged separately from any order. It appears as its own transaction with its own receipt. It is never added to the total of a product order, and a product order is never held up by it.

2.1 Your renewal date

Your renewal date is set when you join and is shown in your account. It is the same day each period.

Where the day you joined does not exist in every month , the 29th, 30th or 31st , your renewal date is set to the 28th and stays there. This is so a monthly term has one fixed date rather than a date that moves with the length of the month, and so an annual term started on February 29 renews on February 28 in every year, leap or not.

2.2 Taxes

Any tax applicable to the Inner Circle fee is calculated at the time of the charge and shown on the receipt for it.

3. How Your Member Price Is Calculated

Your member price is the catalog price of an item reduced by the member discount percentage, currently 20% for a paid membership, calculated per line and rounded to the cent.

Some accounts carry a different rate that was set individually. Where that is the case your account shows your own rate, and that is the rate you are charged.

How the two benefits combine. A paid membership takes 20% off what you pay today and earns 5% of that spend back in points (section 3.2), so a member’s total benefit on an order is 25% of product spend. The two are not the same kind of value: the 20% is money you do not spend now, and the 5% is points you can spend on a later order, in the fixed amounts listed in section 3.2, within a year of earning them.

You always pay the lower of the two prices. If a public price is below your member price for an item , during a sale, for example , you are charged the public price for that item. The comparison is made line by line, so a basket of several items takes the better price on each independently.

The member discount applies to catalog products only. It does not apply to shipping, to tax, or to the Inner Circle fee itself.

3.1 Shipping

Members qualify for included standard shipping from a lower order value than the public threshold. Both thresholds are shown at checkout and in your account.

The threshold is measured against what you actually pay for the goods , your member price , not the public price of the same basket.

3.2 Rewards points

Rewards points are separate from your member discount, and the two can be used together on the same order. The Inner Circle earns points at a higher rate.

• Members earn 5 points for every $1 of product spend. Everyone else earns 1 point for every $1.
• Points are calculated on the order subtotal after any discount and excluding shipping and tax, then rounded down to a whole point.
• 100 points is worth $1 at the entry rate, so a member gets 5% of product spend back in points and a non-member 1%. Redeeming higher up the scale is worth more than that.
• Points are redeemed in fixed amounts, and the rate improves as you save: 1,000 points for $10, 1,425 for $15, 2,700 for $30, or 4,000 for $50. The same points are worth more at each step up.
• You receive 999 points when you create an account. That is one point short of the smallest reward, so your first order is what brings it within reach.
• Points are pending when an order is placed and become spendable when it completes.
• Points expire one year after they are earned.
• If an order is refunded, the points earned on it are removed.
• The Inner Circle fee earns no points, and neither does shipping or tax.

Which rate applies to an order. The rate is fixed at the moment you place the order, from whether your Inner Circle is active at that moment. It does not change afterwards. If you join after placing an order, that order keeps the rate it was placed at; if your Inner Circle lapses, the points you already earned are unaffected.

Worked example. On a $200 order of products, after any discount and before shipping and tax: a member earns 1,000 points, worth $10. A non-member earns 200 points, worth $2.

If we change these rates. We may change the earning or redemption rate for future orders. A change is never applied backwards , points you have already earned keep the value they were earned at, and orders already placed are unaffected. We keep a dated internal record of every rate change.

All members earn at the same rate as each other. There is no higher earning rate for longer-standing members, and we do not advertise one.

4. Your Payment Method

Your card is stored by our payment processor, not by us. We hold only a reference to it, and we use that reference to charge your Inner Circle on your renewal date. We do not store your card number.

You can replace the card on file at any time from your account. Replacing it does not charge you and does not change your renewal date.

5. Canceling

You can cancel at any time from your account, in one step, without giving a reason and without contacting us.

Canceling stops the next charge. It does not end your Inner Circle immediately: your member price and your other benefits continue to the end of the period you have already paid for, and your member reference stays yours. We do not refund the remainder of a period that has begun, except where applicable law requires it.

6. If a Payment Fails

If a renewal charge is declined we will email you and try the same card again over the following days on a fixed schedule. Your Inner Circle stays active while we do, so you keep your member price during that period.

If none of those attempts succeeds, we stop trying, your Inner Circle ends, and we write to tell you. We will not charge a card other than the one you have on file, and we will not continue attempting a card after you have told us to stop.

7. Changing Your Term

You may switch between the monthly and annual terms from your account. A change takes effect at the end of the period you have already paid for, never before, and the price of the new term is the price shown to you when you make the change.

8. Price Changes

We may change the price of the Inner Circle. If your price increases, we will email you at least 30 days before the increase takes effect, and it will not take effect before your next renewal after that notice. You will continue to pay your existing price until then, and you may cancel at any point before it applies.

If the price decreases, the lower price applies to you without notice.

9. What the Inner Circle Does Not Combine With

Member pricing replaces general promotional codes rather than adding to them. Your rewards points are an exception and can still be used on an order at your member price.

The Inner Circle fee itself is not discounted by the member discount and earns no rewards points.

10. Eligibility

The Inner Circle is attached to an account and is for the use of that account holder only. It is not transferable. We may decline or end an Inner Circle where an account is being used to evade purchase limits, eligibility rules, or these Terms.

11. Questions and Disputes About a Charge

If you do not recognize a charge, believe you were charged the wrong amount, or believe you were charged after canceling, contact us first at [email protected] and quote your member reference and the date of the charge. We will look at the record of that charge and reply.

Every Inner Circle charge is recorded against your account with the date, the amount, the term it paid for, and the terms you were shown when you agreed to it. We can tell you exactly what was charged and why, and we would rather correct a mistake ourselves than have you spend time on a dispute.

Where we agree a charge was taken in error, we will refund it to the original payment method.

You retain any rights you have to dispute a charge with your card issuer. Raising a dispute with your issuer before contacting us usually takes longer to resolve and may result in your Inner Circle being canceled while the dispute is open, so we would ask you to contact us first.

12. Research Use Only

The Inner Circle changes price only. Every product remains offered strictly for research use only, and nothing about the Inner Circle alters the representations, testing, or documentation described in our RUO Disclaimer and Terms and Conditions.

13. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms. Where a change materially affects what you pay or how you cancel, we will tell you before it applies to you.

14. Contact

For anything about your Inner Circle, contact us at [email protected] and quote your member reference.