The Big Billion day disappointment is still fresh for many, the promises made by Flipkart’s founders of not repeating anything like this again don’t seem like are gonna get fulfilled and this was quite evident from Flipkart’s “The Big App Sale day” which took place from 23rd to 25th March. Hoping for some real deals and good offers, people were all set to shop and so were we. But to our disappointment it was just another trick pulled off by Flipkart with no great discounts or real offers. It was just another disappointing day for Flipkart fans.
It’s high time the online shoppers come out from the oblivion of the discount mirage that all the online shopping sites offer these days. We at Inc42 used some tools to see whether the discounts really stack up.
Last time around we did a post on Snapdeal’s App Fest using Buyhatke. The Buyhatke extension for desktop and their app for mobile helps consumers see visually of the price fluctuations that occurred over a period of time. We saw that the promised discounts are never met by major retailers and we are just under the false impression of great discounts. With handy tools such as price graph and compare prices in the Buyhatke extension you not only find the lowest price of a product available but also have complete information about the price of a product historically.
Lets see some examples to help you know better, following are the products available at the Flipkart Big App Sale day showing “major” discounts:
- The Georgette Sari available on Flipkart is claiming a whooping 81% discount, where the marked price of the saree is INR 8999 and is available now at INR 1699 only.
If you take a look at the price graph of a product, you can clearly see that the maximum price of the product as listed was INR 4499 and never INR 8999.From 9th to 19th march the same product was available at an even lower price of INR 1140 and just before the Sale the price was conveniently hiked to INR 3499 and then lowered just today to INR 1699, thus creating a discount mirage, I have been talking about.
Click on the link to go to the product page and see for yourself.
- The Puma Atom shoes is another example from the Big app Sale day fiasco.Featuring a 27% discount on the MRP, It is available for INR 1605.
Taking a look at the price graph you will notice that the same shoe was available at INR 1319 from 6th to 13th march and then the price gradually increased, it was maximum just a day before the sale and the price dropped just at the day of the sale to INR 1605, which is not even the lowest price at which it was available.
There is more to it, the price at Flipkart is nowhere closer to the lowest price at which the product is available.By using the compare tool of Buyhatke, you can figure the lowest price at which the product is available.As you can see the same shoe is available on Jabong for INR 1100 which will even be clubbed with coupons at checkout.
Click here to go the product page.
- The JBL wired headphones available at Flipkart app Sale for INR 1432 offering a 42% off.
By checking out the Buyhatke price graph, you can clearly see that the price was INR 1190 for a long time and was spiked just on the day of the sale.
Even if you compare prices, you will notice that the same product is available for INR 1099 on Snapdeal and amazon which is way below the offer price at Flipkart.
Click here to visit the product page for more details.
To be true, we had all expected this but it just saddens us that the Online shopping portals have not learnt anything from their past experiences, and are still relying on not giving real discounts and unnecessarily hyping offers. We want the retailers to focus and spend more on giving actual discounts then on spending all those dollars on marketing and then leaving the customers disappointed.
