The cheapest price is not the best deal: pack size, bank offers and the maths nobody does

A 60 per cent discount on a price nobody has charged in two years is not a discount. It is a number chosen to look like one. Indian e-commerce runs on that gap between MRP and street price, and every sale event widens it.

There is exactly one way out, and it is boring: convert everything to price per unit, then subtract only the offers you can actually use. Five minutes of arithmetic beats any amount of deal-hunting.

Rule 1: per unit, always

Price per 100 g, per 100 ml, per capsule, per wash, per wear. Pack sizes exist partly to make this hard - 385 g and 420 g packs of the same category are not an accident.

Bulk is only cheaper if it gets used. For anything with a shelf life you will not finish - oils, ground spices, opened sauces, cosmetics with a 6 M or 12 M symbol - the large pack is often the more expensive option per gram actually consumed.

Rule 2: count only the offers you can use

Bank offers are stacked into listing pages because they make the headline price look lower to everyone, including people who do not hold that card. Before you count one, check three things.

• Do you hold the card, and is it the right variant - credit versus debit changes the offer more often than not.
• Is there a minimum order value, and does your basket clear it without adding filler?
• Is the discount capped? Ten per cent off up to Rs 500 on a Rs 8,000 basket is 6.25 per cent, not 10.
• Is it instant, or cashback credited in 90 days into a wallet you do not use?
• Is it once per card per month, and have you already used it this month?

On Filtizy, bank and payment offers sit on the specific retailer listing they apply to rather than floating on the product, because an offer that belongs to one retailer is not information about the product at all.

Rule 3: price the delivery, not the product

Delivery charges, platform fees, handling fees and the cost of the thing you added only to cross the free-delivery threshold are all part of the price. A Rs 40 delivery fee on a Rs 300 order is a 13 per cent surcharge, which wipes out most bank offers on the market.

Rule 4: check the seller, not just the price

For anything with a shelf life or a warranty, the cheapest seller is sometimes cheapest because of what you are not being told - short expiry, grey-market stock with no Indian warranty, or a pack meant for institutional supply. Two checks cost nothing: is the seller the brand or an authorised retailer, and does the listing state a manufacturing or best-before date rather than dispatched date.

Rule 4b: sale events are inventory events

Big sale weeks are genuinely cheaper for some categories and theatre for others. The pattern is predictable once you know what a discount is paying for.

• Electronics and appliances: real reductions, usually on the outgoing model. Check the model number against the current one.
• Apparel: real, but the deepest cuts are end-of-season sizes and colours that did not sell.
• Groceries and staples: mostly pack-size games and combos. The per-100-g price often barely moves.
• Supplements and cosmetics: watch the expiry date. Steep discounts frequently mean short remaining shelf life.

Tracking one product for a fortnight before a sale tells you more than any deal list. Save it, and let the price history answer the question for you.

Rule 5: know what your time is worth

Twenty minutes hunting a Rs 30 saving on a grocery order is a poor hourly rate. The savings that are worth real effort are the recurring ones - the staple you buy monthly, the supplement you take daily, the detergent you finish every six weeks. Get those right once and the benefit repeats without any further work.

The 60-second checklist

• Convert every option to price per 100 g, per ml or per unit.
• Subtract only offers you personally qualify for, after caps.
• Add delivery and fees.
• Confirm you will finish the pack before it expires.
• Check the seller and the date on the listing.
• Then buy - and save the product so the next decision is already made.