Independence Day e-commerce sales: Are you really getting 'attractive offers'?

Most major e-commerce websites are in the middle of their Independence Day sales with huge discounts, some even going up to 80% off, or more on several products.

Take Tata CLiQ for example, on the occasion of the 70th year of India's independence, Tata Group's e-commerce portal is promoting its offers like '70 deals in 7 days.' Tata CLiQ's 'Dependence sale' has several attractive discounts for products like fashion & retail among others.

Amazon's 'The Great Indian sale' lasted three days which ended on August 12.

Flipkart's 'Freedom Sale' promised the 'Freedom of choice' to its customers this Independence Day, with a wide array of discounts on home appliances, fashion & retail among others.

While these discounts may look very attractive at first, thanks to the flashy catch phrases, a closer look reveals that the original prices of the products on discount have been inflated. 

Zee Business went through certain deals on these websites which promise up to 70% off or more only to find a catch behind these deals. 

For example, a Toshiba Canvio Basic hard drive is listed on Snapdeal at Rs 16,000. The sale price is Rs 6,164. That is approximately Rs 10,000 off. Today, a good hard drive is rarely over Rs 5,000 in the market. Toshiba’s official website says that the price of the hard drive is Rs 3,890 only.

Image Source: Toshiba official website

On Amazon, the Nova NGS 2455 sandwich grill after discount is listed at Rs 1,550 with the original price at Rs 6,995.

Zee Business looked up prices of some well-known sandwich grills in the market, like Panini Press and Prestige. Most of them were in the range of Rs 2,000 - 3000. The Prestige Electric Grill on Amazon’s website which was not on sale was listed at Rs 2,849 inclusive of all taxes.

Flipkart has up to Rs 16,000 off on smartphones in its Independence Day sale. 

The price of the Moto X Force has been slashed from Rs 53,999 and is now on offer at Rs 37,999, a 29% discount. 

Amazon which doesn't have any offers on this phone, has listed the original price at Rs 37,998 including free and same day delivery.