Industry experts say e-commerce sales around Diwali can get you the most value. “Over the years we’ve seen rapid price changes towards the end of the festive sales launched by Amazon and Flipkart. These sales usually happen in three phases starting with Dussehra in October. It’s in the third phase, coinciding with Diwali, that the prices are most attractive,” said Rohan Bhargava, co-founder, CashKaro.
Sceptics who think sellers mark up prices during festive sales and then offer deep discounts can check the legitimacy of such offers through price tracking apps like Price Before and Price Tracker. Nonetheless, online shoppers can cut their Diwali shopping bills by following two strategies–optimizing discounts on debit and credit cards and clubbing deals offered by coupon websites with card offers.
Discounts on credit cards: Most major banks have tied up with e-commerce platforms to offer 5-12% instant discounts on their credit cards (see graphic) and debit cards, with higher discounts available on the former. These discounts are over and above those offered by e-commerce platforms.
However, these discounts are available on high order value of ₹3,500-5,000 and there are caps on the maximum cashback one can get. For instance, on Amazon, one can get a maximum discount of ₹1,000 on mobile phones bought with IDFC and BoB credit cards, but this is capped at ₹750 for ICICI cards. The ICICI Amazon Pay card, though, has an even lower cap of ₹375 and offers 5% discount. Myntra is offering relatively higher savings as the minimum spending requirement is ₹3,500, with discounts of up to ₹1,000.
Despite these caps, credit card holders can squeeze out sizable savings, says Ankush Setia, co-founder, Multiply. “Credit cards help earn rewards points along with discounts available on shopping platforms,” he said. For instance, by buying shoes worth ₹5,000 on Myntra using HDFC Diners Club Back credit card, you get a ₹500 instant discount and also earn about 3.3% reward on the card. At checkout, you will get an additional coupon discount of ₹100-400 offered by Myntra that will add to your savings.
With HDFC credit cards, one can earn accelerated rewards by buying shopping vouchers on SmartBuy platform and using them during checkout. However, Sethia said it would be better to take the instant discount by paying directly with the card during the ongoing sales. “Flat discounts are better than rewards as the saving is instant and in the form of hard cash, while reward points give returns mostly in the form of air miles.”
Such strategies to optimize net savings are available on most credit cards. Most banks have put a higher cap on cashback on credit card EMI orders. However, it would be unwise to opt for this just for the extra discount as interest is charged on such EMIs. Also, converting credit card purchases into EMIs usually involves payment of a processing fee. Taken together, they can easily nullify any extra cashback as well as the discounts.
Savings on debit cards will be lower as there are no additional rewards, and the discounts are capped at a lower value. In the above example, buying the same shoes with an HDFC debit card will earn you a maximum ₹350 discount.
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Shop through coupon sites: Third-party cashback websites, such as GoPaisa, Coupondunia and CashKaro, offer additional savings if you use their links to shop on an e-commerce website.
Instead of directly visiting the e-commerce platform, sign up on any of these third-party cashback platforms, sift through their offers on the e-commerce sites you want to shop from, click on the offer you like and get redirected to the online shopping website.
These cashback websites earn a commission from e-commerce platforms for driving sales and pass on a part of these commissions as cashback to the users. “We pass roughly 75% of the commission to our customers,” said Bhargava.
Currently, coupon websites are offering 3-7% cashback on some of the major online shopping sites like Flipkart, Nykaa, Amazon, Ajio, etc. On some other cosmetics brands websites, the cashback offers are as high as 50%.
Cashback sites, too, put caps on the maximum money that is given back and the minimum order value. One must research well to grab the offer yielding maximum discount. For instance, Cashkaro is offering flat 30% cashback on orders above ₹350 on Myntra, and the maximum cashback allowed is ₹100. Gopaisa is offering 6% cashback on order values above ₹899. In the above example of purchasing shoes worth ₹5,000 on Myntra, you can earn ₹100 cashback via Cashkaro and ₹300 via Gopaisa even though, in percentage terms, the former is offering a higher cashback.
These are over and above the rebates being given by the e-commerce websites, discounts by credit or debit cards and the offers given by payment gateways, said Bhargava. “A smart strategy is to club multiple offers to maximize the discounts,” he added.
The cashback on each transaction is deposited in the user’s wallet on the coupon site and shoppers can either transfer the collected cashback into their bank accounts or convert these into Amazon or Flipkart vouchers.