How Discounts Are Not Discounts in the Great Indian Online Sales

As India’s shopping sites up the ante on their Diwali bumber bonanza, some major trolling seems to be happening.

Shopping at home. (Photo: iStock)

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Because One Rupee Saved is Shagun Earned

“Ek rupya kya hota hai?”, you may say. But one rupee saved is one rupee earned. How’s that for Shagun?

Updated at:14th Oct, 2015 at 6:45 PM

Flipkart, Jacking Up Prices Are You?

It appears that an 8 GB MP3 player, originally priced at Rs. 1,775 on Amazon, is being sold for Rs. 1,890 on Flipkart, showing a discount of 14%. Will Flipkart please care to clarify?

Updated at:14th Oct, 2015 at 6:45 PM

Size Matters?

So a size 11 shoe gets just a 5% discount, and the same shoe in size 6 gets 49% off on Flipkart? This shopper, it seems, is really regretting his shoe size.

Updated at:14th Oct, 2015 at 5:44 PM

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The Other Fish in the Pond

Look what we found. A relatively less-known website’s hashtag has been a top trend on Twitter for the past three hours. Shopclues is apparently selling a TV at Rs. 3,999 as part of its EkZeroKum sale. That’s one super neat offer, we say.

Updated at:14th Oct, 2015 at 5:02 PM

Disgruntled Customers Everywhere

While the three shopping websites are busy fighting over how awesome each one’s sale is, customers are seen posting about some not-so-happy shopping experiences.

Meanwhile, a Snapdeal user went on to say that the website has been “ cheating customers” in the name of discounts. He claimed on Facebook that the Samsung estore Tab 3 is available for Rs 9,490 on the Samsung website, while Snapdeal has been selling it at Rs 10,999/– with 25% discount.

Updated at:14th Oct, 2015 at 5:03 PM

By now you already know that the biggest online retailers in India – Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal are hosting their pre-Diwali bumper bonanzas.

Flipkart took over the front and back pages of The Times of India and Hindustan Times, and loudly announced its ‘Big Billion Days’ – terming it India’s biggest sale.

Amazon, meanwhile, termed its sale, India’s greatest.

The wittiest amongst the shopping giants though, seems to have been Snapdeal, which released a clever ad by taking a dig at both its rivals. The full-page ad, executed by ad agency FCB-Ulka, read “You don’t need a BILLION offers to amaze you. You just need to snap the best ones. For the best offers this Diwali, shop only on Snapdeal.”

The war, meanwhile continues.

(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)

Updated at:14th Oct, 2015 at 4:13 PM