Croma vs Reliance Digital vs Vijay Sales: Washing Machine, AC Prices

Model codes are the only way to be certain two appliance listings are the same machine, and appliance retailers print them inconsistently. On August 17 we found one that two of these three sites both print: LG's T80VBMB1Z, an 8 kg fully automatic top-load washing machine. Croma lists it at Rs. 23,190. Reliance Digital lists it at Rs. 20,490. Same code, same capacity, same day - Rs. 2,700 apart, which is 12 per cent of the cheaper price.

Note what the badges do while that happens. Croma shows 25 per cent off a stated Rs. 30,990; Reliance Digital shows 29 per cent off a stated Rs. 28,990. The dearer listing carries the higher stated MRP, so the percentages are closer together than the prices are. Vijay Sales also lists an LG 8 kg top-load at Rs. 20,490 on the same day, but its listing does not print a model code, so we are not calling that a third price for the same machine.

Three spec matches turned up across all three sites in these pulls. Each row below reads price, then stated MRP, then badge. The prices spread by Rs. 2,010 on the washing machine, Rs. 4,559 on the Godrej and Rs. 5,500 on the Voltas - and on all three rows the site with the biggest badge is not the same as the site with the lowest price on every row, which is the whole reason to read prices instead of percentages.

The Samsung row is the clearest. Croma and Reliance Digital charge exactly the same money, Rs. 25,000, off exactly the same stated MRP of Rs. 31,990. Vijay Sales charges Rs. 22,990 - Rs. 2,010 less - and shows a 39 per cent badge rather than 22, because its stated MRP for the same 8 kg machine is Rs. 37,990, six thousand rupees higher than the other two. The badge difference is 17 points; the actual difference is Rs. 2,010.

Croma and Vijay Sales overlap far more than either does with Reliance Digital, and the pattern in the overlap is one-sided. Of the eleven spec-matched pairs we could build, Vijay Sales is cheaper on 10 - by Rs. 1,009 to Rs. 6,500 - and Croma is cheaper on one, a Carrier split AC, by Rs. 804. Sorted by how much money is actually at stake:

The LG front-load row at the top is the one worth pausing on: Rs. 6,500 on a Rs. 30,490 machine is 21 per cent of the purchase price, and both listings are 5 star, 7 kg, front-load LG machines with inverter direct-drive motors. They are not certainly the same SKU - LG sells several near-identical front-loaders - which is exactly why the next step for a buyer is to compare the model codes on the two product pages before paying either price.

Reliance Digital's feed returned only 60 listings across the five categories against Croma's 209 and Vijay Sales's 135, so it produced fewer matches - but it produced the single largest gap on this page, and in its own favour.

This is the structural difference a shopper should probably care about most, and it has nothing to do with price. Croma publishes a customer rating on 129 of its 209 listings. Reliance Digital publishes none on any of its 60. Vijay Sales publishes none on any of its 135. That is read from the same feeds the prices came from, on the same day.

So on Croma you can see that an appliance has been bought and scored; on the other two sites, at least through the listing data, you cannot. If you are buying an unfamiliar brand or a house label, that is worth more than a two-thousand-rupee price gap. If you are buying a Voltas or a Samsung you have already researched, it is worth less.

• Find the model code, then price that code. It is the only comparison that is certain. Croma and Reliance Digital both printed LG's T80VBMB1Z and were Rs. 2,700 apart; everything else on this page is matched on specification.
• Ignore the badge across sites. The same Samsung machine shows 22 per cent at two retailers and 39 per cent at the third - which is the cheapest of the three, but only by Rs. 2,010, not by 17 points.
• Check Vijay Sales first on white goods, then verify. On the eleven matched pairs here it was cheaper on ten. That is a pattern in one day's data on five categories, not a law - re-check, because the one exception went the other way by Rs. 804.
• Use Croma when you want the rating. It is the only one of the three that publishes customer scores in its listings, on 129 of 209 here. On an unfamiliar brand that is worth more than the gap.
• Price the cart, not the listing. Bank discounts, no-cost EMI, exchange and installation are not in any of these numbers and are routinely larger than the differences on this page.
• Re-check the day you buy. Every figure here was read on 17 August 2026 from each retailer's own listing, and appliance prices at all three move daily.