Clarus Marketing Group – Subscription Savings
Clarus Marketing Group offers a subscription rewards service with free shipping benefits through its flagship website, FreeShipping.com. They are available in most states (currently unavailable in Iowa) and included are other consumer rewards and advocacy programs, in several states across the country. Customers gain access to the savings I mention above when they sign up for a membership with FreeShipping.com. You may have heard about services like these in the past, but to me freeshipping.com represents something distinct from a lot of the similar buying club offers I see. That is because, in fact, FreeShipping.com is not a buying club, but is rather a subscription service offered by Clarus Marketing to garner the benefits of being a member associated with thousands of online companies. Subscription services offer different products and benefits than buying clubs, and often with different customers or demographics in mind. So, it is important to know which one best suits you.
What is the difference between a traditional buying club and a subscription service like FreeShipping.com? I’m glad you asked. A buying club refers specifically to rewards programs that offer merchandise at regular intervals, perhaps at discounted prices or for other benefits. Think cheese-of-the-month-club. A subscription service on the other hand is a package of rewards made available through your association with a members-only program, like freeshipping.com, and only when you choose to utilize those benefits. So nothing is automatic here. You get free shipping, discounts, and other consumer benefits only when you make purchases through partner vendors. And most of the time, these are the online vendors you would have been shopping at anyway, so the relatively small annual fee of being a member is worth it in all the shipping rebates you will receive.