How Our Prices and Savings Are Calculated

Why this page exists

A discount is a claim about a price, and a claim about a price is only worth what stands behind it. This page says exactly what ours is measured against, so you can check it rather than take it.

What a saving is measured against

Every saving is measured against a verified maximum retail price for the specific edition — the printed MRP, or the publisher's catalogue price where the item is not a printed book.

That price is recorded as evidence before a deal opens: what it is, where it came from, who captured it, who verified it, and when it expires. Two different people are required — the person who records a price cannot be the person who confirms it. Evidence that has lapsed cannot support a claim, and a deal relying on it will not open.

We do not measure savings against a competitor's listing, a marketplace price, or a figure somebody quoted us.

What a group deal has to clear

A group deal is not simply an offer whose price we happen to like. Before it can open, its opening tier has to clear a minimum saving against the verified MRP — a floor we set internally and enforce in the system rather than leave to judgement. A group deal below that floor cannot be created, cannot be published, and is refused by the database itself. The override that exists for internal margin decisions cannot take a group deal beneath it.

We do not advertise the floor as a headline, because the number that matters to you is the one on the deal in front of you — and that number, with every tier below it, is published before you pay.

An offer that is not a group deal is labelled as what it is, whatever its discount.

How the price ladder works

Each deal publishes its tiers before it opens: the quantity that unlocks each one and the price at that tier. Prices only ever go down as the ladder is climbed — a later tier is never worse than an earlier one.

Only paid reservations count toward a threshold. Free interest, however much of it there is, never moves a price.

Delivery and the headline number

Where delivery is charged, we will tell you what the saving is after delivery as well as before it. A discount that a delivery charge substantially erodes is not the saving it appears to be, and we would rather say so.

Taxes

Prices are shown inclusive of tax where tax applies. Printed books are exempt from GST in India; other goods are not, and the applicable rate is shown on the invoice.