We read AJIO's potli, clutch and ethnic bag shelf on 2 October 2026 - 111 listings - and the discount badge turns out to describe the brand rather than the bag. Brand medians run from 1% to 80%: one label shows 1% off on all four of its listings, while another holds 16 listings and states the identical maximum retail price of Rs. 4,999 on every single one, priced Rs. 900 to Rs. 1,100 for badges of 78% to 82%. Six bags sit within Rs. 199 of each other with badges of 80%, 74%, 55%, 55%, 45% and 45% - and the cheapest of the six carries almost the shallowest badge. We publish the stated MRP as a multiple on every card, from 1.01x to 6.51x, because the percentage hides it. And not one of the 111 listings publishes a rating, so the badge is the only signal a shopper has. Twenty seated.

We read both men's wallet shelves on the same morning, 30 September 2026 - 32 listings on Myntra and 40 on AJIO. A listing named 'Puma Leather Stripe Bi-Fold Wallet' costs Rs. 1,374 on both sites, against the same Rs. 2,499 stated MRP and the same 45% badge. A second Puma model is Rs. 1,379 on Myntra and Rs. 1,264 on AJIO. Across the shelves as a whole Myntra is cheaper - a Rs. 519 median against Rs. 698 - but that is assortment, not pricing: AJIO stocks up to Rs. 4,500 where Myntra stops at Rs. 1,379. AJIO published no rating on any of its 40 listings; Myntra published one on 26 of 32, at a median of 1,595 ratings. On sweatshirts the same morning, the price result ran the other way.

We read Flipkart's school bag shelf on 28 September 2026 - 114 distinct listings from Rs. 121 to Rs. 1,291, with 23 seated here. The median listing states an MRP 4.34 times what it charges, and 73 of the 114 state at least four times. The widest gap is Rs. 283 against a stated Rs. 2,999, shown as 91% off. The four bags from luggage brands you can name all state less than the median - American Tourister asks Rs. 1,099 against Rs. 2,600, a smaller list price than an anonymous label charging a quarter as much. Four brands show one rating count across two or three listings, and two sellers list the same bag at the same Rs. 1,291. The biggest crowds sit at the cheapest prices: 77,600 ratings on a Rs. 239 plush bag.

We read both ethnic footwear shelves on 18 September 2026 — 78 listings from AJIO's own search response and 91 from Myntra's own listing pages. Myntra's median pair costs Rs. 701 against AJIO's Rs. 809, and 79 of its 91 listings sell under Rs. 1,000 against 53 of AJIO's 78. But on a shoe where the upper material is the entire purchase, neither shelf will say what it is: 66 of AJIO's listings and 77 of Myntra's name no material at all, and Myntra never once states a synthetic upper on any of its 91. Where it does name leather — 14 listings from Rs. 651 — the badges run to 79 per cent, against a median 54.5 per cent on AJIO's four. And 59 of Myntra's 91 publish a rating, up to 4,835, while none of AJIO's 78 publish any.

We read both sunglasses shelves on 18 September 2026 — 71 listings from Myntra's own listing pages and 103 from AJIO's own search response. Myntra's median frame costs Rs. 548 against AJIO's Rs. 961, but that gap is assortment rather than markup: AJIO carries 25 frames above Rs. 2,000, up to a Ray-Ban at Rs. 14,187, and Myntra's whole shelf stops at Rs. 1,999. The cleanest finding is the MRP. All 21 Voyage listings across both retailers state exactly Rs. 3,000, while FUNGLASSES and HASHTAG EYEWEAR each state Rs. 999 on one shelf and Rs. 1,999 on the other. And the evidence runs one way only: 46 of Myntra's 71 listings publish a rating, up to 6,881, while none of AJIO's 103 publish any.

We read AJIO's jutti, mojari and ethnic footwear listings on 18 September 2026. Seventy-eight came back with a selling price and a stated MRP; 24 are seated here, Rs. 252 to Rs. 2,720, with 53 of the 78 selling under Rs. 1,000. The finding that organises the page is what the listings do not say: only 12 of the 78 name the upper material at all. Four state leather, and their median discount claim is 54.5 per cent; eight state synthetic or faux leather, and theirs is 70. The cheapest stated-leather pair, a Catbird men's jutti at Rs. 764, undercuts three of the declared synthetics. The loudest single oddity is Nyrika, which lists the identical product name three times against the identical stated Rs. 1,499 at Rs. 270, Rs. 300 and Rs. 1,484. AJIO publishes no ratings on any of the 78.

We read AJIO's sports bra, gym wear and women's activewear listings on 18 September 2026. One hundred and seven came back with a selling price and a stated MRP; 26 are seated here, Rs. 188 to Rs. 1,399. The discount column sorts almost perfectly by whether the brand has shops. The 59 listings from Decathlon, Puma, Reebok, ADIDAS and Reliance Retail's own labels claim a median 34 per cent and not one of them exceeds 60. The 48 listings from labels with no store estate claim a median 66.5 per cent and run to 85. The inversion is sharpest on sports bras: the loudest badge here sits on a Rs. 188 bra that states no support level at all, while Decathlon's high-support bras, the only listings in the whole read that name what they support, sit at Rs. 1,399 with 13 and 18 per cent badges. AJIO publishes no ratings on any of the 107.

We read Myntra's co-ord set and jumpsuit listings on 18 September 2026. Ninety-three came back with a selling price and a stated MRP; 25 are seated here, Rs. 449 to Rs. 1,947. The finding that organises the page is the ratings: eighteen of those 93 listings share only eight rating counts between them. Khushal K publishes 3.8 from exactly 567 ratings on four listings priced Rs. 1,035 to Rs. 1,119, and KNYA publishes 4.4 from exactly 1,795 on two identically named scrub suits Rs. 79 apart. Twenty-six of the 93 publish no rating at all - including six identical Greatech Fashions jumpsuits at Rs. 849. The median discount claim across the pull is 66 per cent, and the single best-evidenced garment is an Anouk halter jumpsuit at Rs. 980 carrying 4.4 from 8,557 ratings of its own.

We read Myntra's sunglasses listings on 18 September 2026. Seventy-one came back with a selling price and a stated MRP; 24 are seated here, Rs. 301 to Rs. 1,501. The single most useful thing in the read is that 27 of those 71 listings state exactly the same MRP - Rs. 1,999 - across eleven unrelated brands, and the prices charged against that one number run from Rs. 301 to Rs. 1,999, a spread of 6.6 times. One Myntra in-house label, Mast & Harbour, sits at both ends of it. The median discount claim across the whole pull is 72 per cent. Twenty-five of the 71 listings publish no rating at all, and three of the four listings we seated above Rs. 1,300 are among them - so the cheap end of this shelf has the evidence and the loud badges, and the dear end has the credible prices and almost no feedback.

We read both bag shelves on the same afternoon: 55 sling and handbag listings on Myntra and 73 on AJIO, on 17 September 2026. The first difference is not a price. Not one of the 73 AJIO listings publishes a customer rating - the fields come back empty on every bag - while 43 of 55 Myntra listings publish one, the largest carrying 19,047 ratings. With no second source to check a claim against, AJIO's badges run harder: a median of 61 per cent against Myntra's 45, no listing at all priced at its stated MRP, and eight Steve Madden bags all claiming exactly 65 per cent off. Where both sell the same bag the prices are close - the Fastrack sling is Rs. 968 on Myntra and Rs. 1,070 on AJIO against an identical stated Rs. 1,699.

We read Myntra's sling bag and handbag listings on 17 September 2026. Fifty-five came back with a price and an MRP; 24 are seated here, Rs. 525 to Rs. 3,499. Sorted by the size of the discount badge rather than by price, the shelf splits cleanly. The eight brands that run their own stores in India - adidas, Converse, Puma, MANGO, Marks & Spencer, Fastrack, Lino Perros and uppercase - post a median badge of 38 per cent and never exceed 50, and three listings carry no discount at all. Myntra's own in-house labels post a median of 68 per cent, and the loudest claim in the read is 84 per cent off a stated Rs. 3,999 on a Rs. 640 PU satchel - Rs. 500 above what Marks & Spencer actually charges for leather. Twelve of the 55 listings publish no rating at all.

We read 63 luggage listings on myntra.com on 16 September 2026 — 32 trolley cases and 31 duffels, from Rs. 250 to Rs. 63,890 — and compared them with the 79 bags we read on Amazon the same day. Myntra's badges are deeper: a median of 73 per cent against 69, and a median MRP multiple of 3.64x against 3.26x. The clearest case is a Teakwood Leathers cabin trolley at Rs. 1,099 under a printed Rs. 8,199 — a 7.46x list price, one of six Teakwood listings between Rs. 1,099 and Rs. 1,499 sitting under Rs. 8,199 and Rs. 9,999 MRPs. Only three bags on the whole shelf sell at their stated MRP: a Nike duffel, an Under Armour duffel and a Hidesign one.

We read 85 luggage listings on amazon.in on 16 September 2026 — 79 of them actual bags, from Rs. 265 to Rs. 6,799 — and found the same suitcases coming back again and again. Thirty-eight of the 79 sit inside fifteen shared rating pools, which is Amazon's own tell that several listings are one product in different colours. The clearest case: the Safari Genius Alley 55cm cabin trolley appears four times at Rs. 1,399, Rs. 1,499, Rs. 1,499 and Rs. 1,599, all four on the same 9,094 ratings and the same Rs. 6,999 MRP. One Gear duffle even prints a 56 per cent badge on one listing and 2 per cent on another.

We read 123 backpack and laptop bag listings — 53 on Myntra and 70 on Amazon — on 16 September 2026, and the price comparison ends in a tie. The median backpack costs Rs. 999 on Myntra and Rs. 989.50 on Amazon, both shelves carry a median discount badge of 60 per cent, and both sit at a 2.5x MRP multiple. Two products are priced to the same rupee on both sites: the Skybags Vesper at Rs. 999 and the Genie Berry at Rs. 1,499, each under an identical MRP and badge. The genuine differences are elsewhere — Amazon stocks luggage brands and rates almost everything (69 of 70 listings), while 14 of Myntra's 53 carry no rating at all, and its laptop bags are fashion bags at a Rs. 1,649 median.

We read 78 luggage listings from Amazon.in's own search on 5 September 2026 — cabin trolleys, check-in bags and sets. The shelf runs Rs. 999 to Rs. 6,799 at a median of Rs. 2,399, with 27 listings under Rs. 2,000 and 60 under Rs. 3,000, at a median badge of 77% off. Two things are worth knowing before you buy. Safari and Aristocrat are 57 of the 78 listings and set that badge depth, while the labels you can price-check elsewhere sit at half of it — uppercase 40%, MOKOBARA 54%, American Tourister 59%. And the big review counts are pooled across variants: six different Safari Pentagon Pro listings each show the same 22,323 ratings.